A different butternut question hopefully!

[Curvy Vixen]

Okay...I have a BS plant in the garden (in the ground). It gave me lots of flowers this year but no squash's.

It was quite small when I planted it but it's probably about 3 times the original size now.

I suppose the first question is, does the plant live/produce for more than one year? And if it does, can I leave it in situ to carry on next year or should I dig it up and put it somewhere sheltered?

[Headfry]

Butternut squash are very, very tender, and can be ravished by wind and FROST! They are also very prone to mildew at this time of the year....that said, If you have the space and can keep it warm, try it! see what happens....... you never know! the season are so odd these days and if we get the mild dry winter they say........
Good luck and keep us posted!

[Matt.]

Its very doubtful it will last the winter. If I were you I'd compost the remains and go for a new seed next year. I've realised I sowed mine too late this year putting the plants in early June. I sowed giant pumpkin seed in mid May and after talking to other growers I now realise this was one month too late. I think the ideal time for sowing indoors to be transplanted later is mid April to early May. This goes for all squash.

The ones I planted in June continued growing with lots of flowers but only started fruiting in September. Once set the fruits swell and ripen very quickly (6 weeks?). I got one to two fruit per plant growing Avalon squash and more were coming if the weather had been favourable.

[plantsbypost.com]

If you want to grow Butternut Squash next year, I suggest that you look out for a variety called 'F1 Hunter' as it is the only one that has been bred specificaly for growing in the UK conditions.

Neil.

[realfood]

I can think of two more bred by the same company, Tozzers's, that bred Hunter. They also bred Hawk and Harrier, which are suitable for the UK.

[plantsbypost.com]

Hi,

Yes you are right, they do breed these two as well, but the tozer rep mentioned during the spring that although they are highly suitable for the UK Climate, Hunter is the one they push as it is nearly 4 weeks earlier than traditional types whilst being able to crop heavier fruits than harrier and hawk. Was only passing on information from the 'horses mouth'!

If you have tried the other two have did you get on with them? Did you get more fruits per plant with them being smaller fruited?

Neil

[spuddy]

I would compost it - it's too late in the year. I grew Hunter this year but I think my problem was the lack of sunshine/heat. I planted them out at the end of April as large healthy plants, had lots of flowers and hand pollinated, but none took until the end of July/August. You could almost see them growing whenever we had some sun. By the time the frost came my six plants had produced probably two each and none are larger than my hand. I'm still ripening them on the windowsill. The pumpkins did better. I'm hoping for more sun in 2009. They germinate easily so good luck next year.

[realfood]

It just so happens that I agreed to carry out a trial of one of the Tozer butternuts for a seed company this year,(not for Tozer) and decided to extend the trial to cover the three varieties, Harrier, Hunter and Hawk.
Perhaps this has been a good year to do a trial as the weather in Glasgow this Summer has been cool, dull and wet, a worst case scenario. I know that we were not alone in Glasgow with this, as there has been much weeping and wailing on allotment forums about the problems of growing Butternuts from all over the UK.

I sowed the Butternut seeds at the beginning of April in a heated propagator, then grew them for 2 weeks on a windowsill, and then moved them to a cloche within an unheated greenhouse at the end of the month.
Unfortunately, there were some very cold days and nights and I thought that I was going to lose them, they looked so poorly. I was also growing some winter Squash, Red Kuri etc, in exactly the same conditions and they were hardly affected.

At the beginning of June, I divided them up into Three lots. One was planted in a grow bag in the greenhouse, another was planted out in a South facing raised bed under a Lidl cloche, and the third was planted out in the same raised bed under a Lidl cloche for the month of June only.

The ones in the greenhouse grew very large, 2m+, but only produced 2 hardened off Butternuts each. I think that they suffered from lack of light once the grape vine and tomatoes really got going. Also a nuisance doing the hand pollination.

The ones under the cloche all Summer, with the ends open for access for Bees, only produced 2 hardened off Butternuts for the varieties Hunter and Hawk, 4 for Harrier, before they died down naturally at the end of September.

The ones in the open for most of the Summer, only produced 1 unripe Butternut each before they had to be harvested because of the weather.

I appreciate that as I was only growing 3 plants of each variety, perhaps too much should not be read into my results. But my choice of Butternut variety to grow next year would be Harrier, as it seems to set its fruit the earliest, which is why it produced the most ripe fruits. If you check the Tozers seeds direct site, you will see that they state in their catalogue, that Harrier is the earliest maturing variety available.

My conclusion is that in the typical Summer in Glasgow, cloche protection is required to grow even the latest UK breeding of Butternuts.
As a control, the Red Kuri, Uchiki Kuri, Crown Prince, and Bonbon, that I grew on an adjoining bed, were fine growing without cloche protection after the first month. They all produced hardened off fruits.

[SarzWix]

That's some great info realfood, I'll certainly give Harrier and possibly Hunter a go next year. Even with cloche protection my Waltham didn't produce a single fruit this year, although we did get a couple of large pumpkins & several Disco squash.

[Alice]

I don't want to sound pessimistic Curvy Vixen, but I don't think there's any chance you'll get your squash through the winter. It's not worth the bother anyway as they come very easy from seed. Start them in time to go out at the end of May.
Squash need a long, hot summer and I think that's been your problem this year. Mine were pretty pathetic.
I've grown Butternut sqaush before - variety Sprinter - and they were good for me with about 6 squash from each plant. They were growing in a sunny, sheltered, south facing terrace just north of Glassgow, in pots.
You can see some below.
Better luck to us all for next year.

[realfood]

Sarah, as Waltham is a late variety, I am not surprised that you did not get any fruits. You will have a much better chance of useable fruit with Harrier, especially if you cover the plants with a cloche, especially for the first month.

[Lavenderblue]

I grew cobnut this year and didn't get a single squash to get bigger than a golf ball before they rotted and dropped off. They were really rubbish. Looking at Realfood's results, I too will be trying Harrier next year. Pumpkins on the other hand went mad and we have at least 20 of them storing in various locations around the house. I don't even like pumpkins that much, I only wanted to grow a couple to carve!

[jackie j]

I grew butternut squash but dont know which one as I bought them as plants from a stall at the farmers market, I did get quite a few squashes from two plants but most of them rotted at an early stage, however I have three that I am ripening on the windowsill but dont know when they will be ripe they are turning yellow so will give them a bit longer.

[Curvy Vixen]

Ah thanks everyone...I need to fully weed the veg patch and pull up my tomato plants and beans so I'll pull the squash as well.

I'll start from scratch early next year...