Another squash question

[Ilikepumpkins]

Apologies if this has been answered recently.

I have quite a good crop of fruits, but a good proportion of them are rotting where they are in contact with the ground.

How do people lift them off the ground while they are still developing? Will newspaper underneath them do? Any suggestions gratefully received.

[nick the grief]

No ILP, paer will just rot, Tiles or plates are OK or the blue baskets that Mushrooms come in. You could even make Duckboards out of roofing lathe to stand them on.

[pickledtink]

I can't keep the woodlice off mine.
They start in on the flowers and gnaw through to the fruit before they've had a chance to harden a bit before the flower drops. Tried gently tweaking the withered flower off as it goes soggy but the fruit's still too soft so they just eat into them. Gettimng too shady in my garden now sadly. I'm losing all the butternut.

[Protea]

I've used a good layer of straw (clean) under each fruit before, although it can get a bit soggy if we have a wet autumn!

[Daniel Robinson]

Rotting end

Hi every one, I'm finding the ends of my squash are going mouldy/rotting they are on straw, any ideas.
Thanks
Daniel

[realfood]

I use an old slate under each squash with good results.