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  • From: EarthNSky <erthnsky AT bellsouth.net>
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] Butternut Squash
  • Date: Tue, 21 Jul 2009 13:22:57 -0400

Post compilation ahead....

Jeanne Driese wrote:
Personally I am not growing squash, but at the Greeneville farmers
market this past Saturday there was one vendor with acorn squash and
a couple of other vendors with Waltham butternut squash. the acorn
was a good size but the butternut was small.

Mine are about 10" long and 4" wide at the neck, which is supposedly the right size..


JPitts wrote:
well not knowing where you are at I'd just say use the 100 days as a guideline and certainly harvest before frost, the skin should be quite hard and, vines dying and a yellow/orange color to the spot where they touch the ground, store in a dry well circulated area and enjoy


My first frost day is right at Halloween....
The vines are still alive because they are still producing. I have multiple squashes per vine. The ripe squashes are that nice warm orangey tan color, and to bust one open for the chickens, I had to impale one on a t-post<g>.

Lynn Wigglesworth wrote:
Bev; it may be different in the South, but here in the north, we wait until frost kills the vine to pick any winter squash. They seem to keep better that way. But then they generally aren't completely ripe (i.e. the skin becomes hard) until then. If you pick them now, will they keep all winter?

I don't know. This is only the second time I've grown them. In 2007, I only had one vine, from which I got 5 butternuts from. I did harvest them late, right before frost that year. The last squash was eaten this past winter, over a year after it was picked, and it was wonderful. In fact, the seeds from that long keeping, great tasting squash are what I planted this year. I was not aware that planting time could make a difference in how long they would keep until right now. I've got probably more than 30 butternuts out there of which maybe a dozen look ripe, meaning that the stems are browning and the color is right. I can still make a line in them with a sharp fingernail, but I think that is a sign that they haven't cured yet. Or maybe not. I'm so confused!

--
"Never expect magic from no where" Baringo (Kenyan) working motto
http://erthnsky.blogspot.com/
EarthNSky Farm, NW Georgia, USA




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