When to harvest butternut squash UK
Are you growing butternut squash in the garden or the allotment? Do you know when to harvest butternut squash UK? Here we will give you all the advice on when to harvest the butternut squash to get the best from you squash crops and the best harvests from the plants.
When you are growing your butternut squash you will have probably already looked at the packets that you used to plant them or in a book and it will say that harvesting time is usually in September to October.
When harvesting squash you don’t want to pick them until the butternut squash has fully matured or it can affect the taste from the squash. Ideally, you do want to pick them before the first frost though as this can cause the butternut squash to go to mush and split which is not what you want when you have been growing them all 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.
Here are our tips for knowing when to harvest your butternut squash:-
Butternut Squash colour and texture
One of the telltale signs to knowing if your squash is ready is checking the colour of the squash. When it is growing the butternut squash will be a light green in colour. You are waiting for it to go an orange/yellow in colour this will be the give away sign that it is ready. You can also feel the squash. If the butternut squash is hard and firm that will also tell you it is ready.
Plant dying
If the vine that the squash is dying that means the butternut squash will not grow any more. Hopefully, it will have changed colour before the vine fully dies.
Cold weather
Like we mentioned above if the weather is turning cold you need to pick the butternut squash before the frost comes. This can really damage the squash if not picked before. The plant will not survive the cold weather and it will most likely kill the plant off.
If the weather is getting wet put the squash on top of something like hay, straw or on a brick. You do not want it resting on the soil as the slugs will find it. Also, the wet soil will cause the butternut squash to rot.
How to harvest butternut squash
When it comes to harvesting the butternut squash you want to make sure it is fully matured and ready as per the points above. Make sure it is fully Yellow/ Orange.
When harvesting the squash do not twist it off you need to cut it off leaving as much as the stalk on as possible. Leaving the stalk on will let you be able to store it for longer as the stalk is the first bit to rot on the butternut squash.
We hope you have found these tips useful on when to harvest butternut squash UK. You can find our tips and advice on growing butternut squash here.