Growing Butternut Squash for great harvests
Growing butternut squash can be very successful if they are done right and you could be harvesting between 10 and 15 squash per plant. Butternut squash is part of the winter squash family (like pumpkins) You need to wait until the rind has hardened before picking. Butternut squash grows into a great looking and colour squash. This is a popular squash to try growing in the garden or allotment. Will you be trying to grow butternut squash this year?
Allotment and Kitchen Garden Book
Are you starting an allotment or planning on growing your own fruit, vegetables, herbs, and flowers in a kitchen garden? If so we highly recommend the book Allotment Month By Month. This does exactly what it does on the cover to help you with what you should be doing in the allotment and kitchen garden each month. Below you can see the link for Amazon where you can purchase the book directly. This book is extremely popular with all allotment holders as you will read in the reviews:-
You can check out all the allotment and kitchen garden books we recommend here.
Purchase Butternut Squash Seeds
Are you looking at growing butternut squash. Below is a link to Amazon where you can buy the seeds directly through them where it is safe and secure.
When to sow, plant and harvest butternut squash
Knowing when to sow, plant and harvest butternut squash are important. You need to get the timings right when growing squash so you have the most time for these to start growing. Below you can find a table of all the butternut squash information:-
| Sow | April to June |
| Plant | May to June |
| Harvest | August to October |
How to sow butternut squash seeds
When sowing butternut squash seeds you need to think about how long it takes from sowing the seed to harvesting the squash off the plants. It takes around 120 days from planting the seed to harvesting butternut squash so the ideal place to start your seeds is indoors and not outdoors as this will reduce the time you can grow them. If you are growing outdoors you won’t be able to plant the seeds util the chance of frost has passed as this will kill the seedlings and plants off.
To sow your butternut squash seeds indoors the best plan is to plant one seed per small plant pot rather than in seed trays as you will only have to transplant them when they get bigger, this saves chance of upsetting the plants and damaging the roots.
Plant one seed per plant pot but make sure the seed is on it’s side when you sow the seed. Water the plant pot to kick off the germination then you can cover the plant pot with cling film this will keep the plant pot warm and moist. Put the plant pot somewhere warm in a greenhouse that has plenty of light.
How to transplant butternut squash plants
When planting out butternut squash you need to think about how much space you need. Butternut squash vines can reach at least 15ft in total.
You don’t want to plant outdoors till after the chance of frost has passed. This is usually the end of May beginning of June.
Choose a piece of ground that you have cleared, weeded and added some well rotted organic matter too.
You can now plant the butternut squash around 2 meters apart in total. This is so they are not too clustered and can breathe easy.
How to look after Butternut Squash Plants
To look after your butternut squash it is pretty easy all you need to do is keep them weed free, feed them well and keep them watered to help them swell.
How to Harvest Butternut Squash
When you are harvesting butternut squash make sure you harvest them before the first frost comes as this can cause the fruit to rot. Pick them when you are ready to use them but leave them on the vine as long as possible.
Do you fancy trying to grow Spaghetti Squash? Find out all our tips and advice here.
