Butternuts & Sweet Dumpling

[Dorothyrouse]

If these squash haven’t started to produce any actual’fruit’ yet are they likely to? There are flowers but nothing else.

[ameno]

Sweet dumpling: maybe, if you live in the South.
Butternut: no.

Are they only producing male flowers, or have they produced female flowers but none have set fruit?
If it's the latter, I would suggest hand pollination next year (the two varieties will not pollinate each other, mind, as they are different species).
If it's the former then the reason is likely either that you planted them too late, or that the place you planted them is too shady, or that the soil is too poor, or that they have too much competition from each other or other large plants. Squash need fertile soil, a good amount of sun, a good amount of water, and a decent amount of root space.

[Dorothyrouse]

I am in the south, the bed is very good quality, a lot of manure over the winter,and hundreds of courgettes and some Crown Prince squash, but no Butternuts, so i may as well remove them and give Crown Prince more space.

are Butternut very difficult to grow then? I had no success last year either.

Bed is in full sun

[Dorothyrouse]

Maybe too close together! I never thought they’d all grow tbh!

[Snoop Puss]

How close together are they?

[ameno]

I am in the south, the bed is very good quality, a lot of manure over the winter,and hundreds of courgettes and some Crown Prince squash, but no Butternuts, so i may as well remove them and give Crown Prince more space.

are Butternut very difficult to grow then? I had no success last year either.

Bed is in full sun

You should have some luck with the Sweet Dumpling then, hopefully. I find that non-butternut squashes will usually ripen in time from any fruit set before the end of August where I am in Somerset.
You may be disappointed by the taste of Sweet Dumpling, though, compared to butternut or Crown Prince. Sweet Dumpling are a Cucurbita pepo variety (same as marrows, courgettes and pumpkins), and it shows in the flavour. Kind of bland and watery.

As for butternuts, they are less reliable in this country than other squash varieties (butternut are a different species, Cucurbita moschata, and require more heat), but they shouldn't be that hard to grow.

If you've had no luck two years in a row but have no problem with Crown Prince, though, you may be better off just abandoning them. Personally I think butternuts are overrated, anyway. Varieties in the species Cucurbita maxima taste just as good, if not better in some cases, and keep a lot better, usually do better in our climate, and usually produce larger fruits.

Have they been producing female flowers?

[Dorothyrouse]

No, I don’t there are any female flowers on the butternut, think they will be coming out today!

thanks

[nickdub]

I don't know what weather you've had, but round here in the south-west the temperatures have made it marginal even for courgettes to produce this year. Some years warm weather plants like squashes do OK, others they don't. It's a bit of a gamble really, but if you like them and have the space then why not ?

[Plot70]

I germinated a small number of butternut seeds but they never came to anything.
It was a tough cold start but once my squashes got going. I got some interesting results from saved seed..
Last year I got four fruits from two plants.

[ameno]

I don't know what weather you've had, but round here in the south-west the temperatures have made it marginal even for courgettes to produce this year. Some years warm weather plants like squashes do OK, others they don't. It's a bit of a gamble really, but if you like them and have the space then why not ?

That's interesting, because I'm in the South West, too (south Somerset), and my squash are growing out of control, and other squashes and courgettes, etc. in neighbouring plots, including butternut squashes are doing very well, too.

If you find yours growing poorly I really think it might be lack of sun, but not due to the weather, per se, but where you grow them.
Before I had an allotment I grew squashes in my garden. It's south-east facing and gets a reasonable amount of sun. But the difference between the plants I grow in my garden and the ones I now grow at the allotment are like night and day, and it's not the soil which is causing that difference (if anything, the soil at the allotment is worse), so I can only conclude it's the increase in sunlight (my allotment is south-facing and gets full sun for 90%+ of the day).

[Dorothyrouse]

Thankyou all for your comments, interesting. I did go up to plot yesterday to try and sort them out a bit! Loads more courgettes, have given loads away, and made more chutney, still have fridge full.

Managed to pull out a couple of not very good Butternut plants, not sure which are Sweet Dumpling! But quite a few more Crown Prince, which are the nicest. Also discovered one little Butternut! It may not make to full size though.

gave all a feed, cut off the dead leaves, so we’ll see!