butternuts

[veggiedan]

Several questions about butternut squash. Firstly, how do you know they're ripe? I have big ones with no green lines anymore, and the color of the largest one is sort of off-white to light beige. Do I wait until it gets fully tan in color? I see advice about waiting for frost (well, I'm in the far south, so that ain't gonna happen) about waiting until they get heavy (um, they've been heavy for ages), and when they sound hollow when thumped ( I can imagine the largest ones sound a bit that way).

Secondly, while I have a number of fruit, I'm now back to getting JUST male flowers. While a plant is working on big fruit, does it avoid producing female flowers? That is, should I start getting more female flowers once I harvest some fruit? If so, that's another good reason for wanting to know when I can first harvest them.

This is my first time growing butternut,and I'm very impressed.

[jal_ut]

Did the package give you the number of days until maturity? If so, they should be ripe in that many days. Waltham Butternut is 95 days. I can suggest you pick one, bake it and see how it tastes. If you open it look at the seeds. If they are nice plump filled out seeds it is ready. Even if it is a little premature it will still be good eating.

[veggiedan]

Thanks. Well, I never go by the published "days until maturity" on the packages, because I live in a hot summer climate that is nothing like most of the rest of the country. Everything goes faster here. Whatever the package says, it's usually less than that. But let's say that 95 days is an upper limit. I had seedlings coming about about 75 days ago, so it's getting close.

[DoubleDogFarm]

Maybe I shouldn't assume, but I would say the same as all winter squash. Use the finger nail test. Can you dent the stem at the fruit with your finger nail?

I've never actually grown butternut, but many other winter squashes. I wait for the vine to die back or a few frost. Most winter squashes taste better after curing. Stored for a period of time. Burgess buttercup for sure.

Eric

[veggiedan]

Yes, the "fingernail test" is one I've heard referred to, but I've never quite understood it. Why would I want to try to dent the fruit with my fingernail?

My understanding is that if it is ripe, you can't dent it. If it isn't ripe then you can. Will the unripe fruit survive such dent? Seems like it might be a place for rotting to start. I suppose when it ripens the dent could just harden over, but ... ?

Now, where I live, in central TX, the next frost may be in a year or two. So waiting for the vine to die back is probably not the best strategy.

[DoubleDogFarm]

Not the rind but the stem. The stem of the fruit shrinks and becomes some what woody or corky. Putting a small crease in the stem does no harm.

Eric

[veggiedan]

Ah, I get it! I think the stem on my most mature butternut squash is still pretty green. But I'll try it tomorrow.

[DoubleDogFarm]

I just googled, testing winter squash for ripeness. Most of the sites say finger nail to the rind. I've always waited until the stem is hard.

Hopefully someone more familiar with your climate chimes in.

Eric

[veggiedan]

OK, the stem is green, but hard. I can't mark it with my fingernail. I can, however, leave a small dent in the rind with my fingernail. So ... ?

[DoubleDogFarm]

Dan?

Please add a little more information to your profile. City, state and / or zones. You may get better local information.

Eric

[Gary350]

I got my FREE seeds from a grocery store butternut squash. I had 34 squash on 1 plant. The squash closest to the roots got ripe first. The squash are very hard at first then they get a tiny bit softer and the color gets a tiny bit lighter in color when they are ripe. I don't know the growing season of butternut squash but the last 8 squash on the far end of the vine never got rope before frost killed the plant the last week of Oct.

[veggiedan]

As I said, I live in central Texas. 8b. We have winters where it never freezes, and temps from June through September are 90-100. Nighttime temps during that time don't get much below 75F.

Actually, the longer I keep this thread going, the closer my largest squash looks to harvest. Getting light tan in color. No more green stripes. Sounding almost hollow when thumped. Stem is green but very hard. No question that I'm gonna harvest in June. Eat your heart out, northerners.

[veggiedan]

Well, now I tested the stems on the much smaller fruit for comparison. To my fingernail, those stems are just as hard as the fruit that looks close to harvest! So the fingernail test on the fruit stem doesn't seem to be worth much. Nope, I still don't have a good way of assessing ripeness.

So far, I'm reduced to looking at color (which I gather should be mostly tan when ripe), and that it shouldn't have any green stripes. But the green stripes went away weeks ago. I'm inclined to wonder if butternuts sold in stores are left on the vine to get tan not just because they're ripe then, but because they look good. Would people buy beige squash?

Now, I see some reports about waiting until the stem is brown, but I have to suspect that's after the first frost when the plant is dying. Sheesh.

[applestar]

I think as long as you are not intending to store them, you could harvest and eat like jal_ut said. If not ripe/cured, they may not be sweet and drier fleshed but be more like summer squash. Taste test the oldest one you have, then you may be able to judge a little better.

Beauty of growing in your own garden is that you sometimes DON'T have to harvest and store all at once, but keep them growing and pick them one by one as they -- or YOU -- are ready.

[veggiedan]

That could be, though I've read that if you pick them too early, the rind is very thick, and you have to dig way inside to get to the meat. If you have one that's nearly a foot long, as I do, and you pick it too early, that seems like a real waste. Even the little ones, I kinda doubt if they can be used as summer squash. Never heard that. Are you saying this from experience?

As it turns out, summer squash (zukes, etc.) are hard for me to grow because of borers. The nice thing about butternuts is that they're pretty resistant to borers.

[TheWaterbug]

Nope, I still don't have a good way of assessing ripeness.

If you think butternuts are bad, try watermelons.

You'll read all sorts of hand-wringing here about when to pick a watermelon. It's as tough or tougher than with butternuts, and the stakes are so much higher

[veggiedan]

Wow. Good point! Major waste if you do it wrong.

There's a FAQ on that here that is just as confusing as what I'm hearing about butternuts. I like the one that says "just try it, after all, you've got a lot of them!" Gee, thanks.

[applestar]

In fact I haven't tried eating esrly with butternut squash, but you can eat early other winter squashes like spaghetti sqash or gourds like luffah.

Butternut is a C. moschata This year, I'm trying a C. moschata squash that is supposed to be good eaten young like zukes called Tromboncino. It's starting to take off now and had a small fruit two days ago, but I didnt check yesterday.

[veggiedan]

OK, harvest time. June 23, and I got my self a BIG (almost a foot long) butternut squash. It's light tan, and maybe the stem was starting to dry out. Yes, it was off-white a few weeks ago, but in the last week or two has become noticeably beige.

It's beautiful. Perfectly uniform orange color inside, and pretty thin rind. The seeds are not very conspicuous, and only down at the bulge-end.

Making pesto-butternut pizza tonight, and tomorrow will have the rest plain, buttered and roasted.

Now I wait for the little 'uns to get bigger. Actually, the next one isn't going to be as big, as it's half the size of the first now, and already off-white in color with no green lines.

I think in 8b at least, the answer to my original question is that they're ripe [u]when the green lines are gone, and the color is uniform beige or light tan[/u]. Wait for the first frost, and the leaves to die back, as I've read in some forums? Don't fall for that, unless maybe you're where you were shoveling snow in April.