At this point, remove covers but keep in the warmth. Young butternut squash plants are easy to handle thanks to large foliage and thick stems, but treat them delicately as you transfer them to the garden or allotment. Harden them off for a week or so, after all danger of frosts and plant out. Alternatively, sow outdoors in May in soil that has been pre-warmed with a cloche. Sow two seeds per station and thin to the strongest seedling if both seeds germinate.
Trailing varieties are best left for the vegetable patch. For success in pots, choose compact bush varieties such as Barbara. Use the largest pot you can, aiming for a minimum of 45cm 18in diameter and just as deep. Two plants should perform well in a grow bag. Set in a spot and water regularly to prevent compost from drying out. With 7 months coverage it will last the life of these long season plants. As plants begin to sprawl and grow into each other it can be hard to locate the centre of the plant for watering.
Set a cane by each plant when planting out to act as a marker later in the season. Double up on space by growing butternut squash around the base of sweetcorn plants. Protect young plants from slugs and snails. Water plants regularly and start feeding plants weekly when they begin to flower — butternut squashes are hungry plants.
Remove any leaves covering the young squashes so they ripen more fully, and consider lifting the fruits off the ground onto bricks or straw, to ripen. Butternut squash is easy to grow from seed. Start indoors in early April by sowing two seeds per pot. Thin to one seedling and harden off outdoors after the last frosts before planting out in late May into well prepared beds.
Butternut squash can also be sown outdoors directly into the soil where they are to grow in late May and early June. The soil should be well prepared, with plenty of well-rotted organic matter dug in. Keep your butternut squash plants weed free and feed through the growing season as they are hungry plants. Pelleted chicken manure is a good choice or use a liquid fertiliser.
Most butternut squash varieties will produce fruits around 15 weeks after sowing seeds. Butternut squash fruits will store longer if you leave them outdoors on the vine as long as possible. However, make sure they have all been harvested before the first frost. Young plants will need protection from slugs, snails and aphids after planting out. The butternut squash growing season is about days for fruit maturation, so if your season is short, it's best to start your seeds indoors to give them a head start.
To grow butternut squash indoors, you'll need to start about six weeks before the last frost in your area. Squash like warm soil and are very sensitive to frost. So don't be in a rush to plant early in spring. For extra early crops, start inside in 2- to 3-inch pots or cells 3 to 4 weeks before transplanting outside. Plant seeds 1 inch deep and about 2 to 3 feet apart in a row, depending on variety see seed packet for details.
For vines trained on a trellis, space plants 1 foot apart. Wash the seeds to remove any flesh and strings. Cure the seeds by laying them out in a single layer on a paper towel to dry. Store them this way in a place that is dry and out of direct sunlight. Once thoroughly dried, in 3 to 7 days, store them in an envelope in a cool dry place with the rest of your seed supply.
Like most things in gardening, there are always exceptions to this rule of seeds per hole. If you're planting large seeds like cucumbers, melons, or pumpkins, you should only use one seed per hole. However, you can still plant seeds close together and then thin them out once they've established themselves.
Squash plants need full sun to produce. Make sure you're planting your seeds or starts in an area with at least 6 hours of sunlight per day. You can use a sunlight calculator to find out. More is better, but if the weather gets too hot for too long, your squash plants may droop with stress.
Male squash flowers have a straight, narrow stem that's usually 2 or more inches long. Female blossoms have a swollen stem that resembles a miniature version of the mature fruit. This swollen area develops before the flower begins to open, so you can determine the flower gender as soon as the buds begin to form. Press your fingernail through the flesh. If you have to work at it, the squash is ripe; if it's very easy to pierce, the squash is immature.
The skin should be full non-glossy , firm, and rich in color without blemishes or cracks or soft spots. The stem should be dry and firm. Sow squash in hills or inverted hills, 4 to 5 seeds set 3 to 4 inches apart; thin to the two strongest seedlings. The best varieties for squash trellising are delicata, acorn, zucchini, and yellow summer.
The smaller squashes and gourds do well but winter squash, like turban and butternut, can become too heavy and large for a successful vertical garden without additional support.
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