I picked my first ever butternut squash on Saturday. The vines have been doing well on all the winter squashes I grew from seed this year, and finally this week the largest of the Waltham butternut squashes turned close to the color of the one I bought recently at the grocery store, losing most of its green stripy look, and turning more of a tan color. I didn't realize till I brought it into the kitchen out of the bright sun, it does still have just a little bit of green on the end nearest the stem. I picked a tiny one too, that had mostly turned. I'm thinking I maybe should have left them longer. I'm hoping they will continue to ripen.
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| Store-bought is on the left. |
I'm growing spaghetti squash too. One is quite large and getting yellow (the color of the ones in the grocery store.) There are more coming along too.
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| I was tempted to harvest that yellow spaghetti squash on the left, but after I saw that the butternuts under regular kitchen lighting still had some green, I decided to leave it a while longer. |
I'm also growing Delicata (there's one in the photo above with the butternuts), Sweet Meat and Blue Hubbard, which all have fruits coming along.
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| I'm not sure if this is Hubbard or Sweet Meat. The vines are all intertwined. |
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| I think this is another Waltham butternut |
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| The green is just starting to fade on this one. I'm leaving it for a while longer. |
The vines are still producing, although the leaves nearest the roots are all turning brown and withering. But then they are also producing more branches in the leaf axils. For most of the summer, this spot against the south wall of the house,
on top of gravel, has been wonderfully sunny for the plants, growing in
large black pots. They wilt so easily, and have been watered lots! It's
hard to get in there with a gallon watering can, I'm afraid of stepping
on all those tangled vines. So I've been turning the sprinkler on them.
Not the most efficient way to water pots.
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| Here you can see new smaller leaves growing where the old ones have died. |
Do I sound excited? I love squash so much. It's probably sacrilege for a veggie gardener to say, but I love winter squash even better than tomatoes.
