[lucywil]

i would say that it didn't get pollinated but even if it had done chances  are it would not have ripened before the first frost.

i had quite a good crop this year

[mumofstig]

Deffo not poliinated ...it seems that the only ones I got were hand pollinated, although the acorn squash and the pumpkins seemed to manage it by themselves.
It makes me wonder if buternuts are worth all the trouble

[jolly jen]

And finally, a couple of days ago - not cute in any sense of the word!

Can anyone tell me what's going on?

i think its too cold for it now to grow into a full squash ,i had just harvest 20 yellow bns last weekend,but their was still new bns growing,but they looked like yours in photos,,too cold at night for them

[Kristen]

I took all the small fruit off my plants a few weeks ago so they could concentrate on the ones that looked like they would make maturity.

[8doubles]

I tend to take the flowers off the end  before the they start  to  rot and infect the squash , it does happen to the fertilised fruit as well.

[lucywil]

Deffo not poliinated ...it seems that the only ones I got were hand pollinated, although the acorn squash and the pumpkins seemed to manage it by themselves.
It makes me wonder if buternuts are worth all the trouble

they are definately worth it if you have the room, i dont do anything to mine, just plant them in a good heap of manure and water well to start with, then i leave them alone

[mumofstig]

I had 3 Harrier butternuts (the bushy ones) in an area 4ft x 7ft....dug holes filled with compost and chcken manure pellets and managed to grow 6 small (1kg ish) butternuts.Maybe Harrier are meant to be a lot smaller, but,  no. of fruit wise.... I did better from just one Thelma Sanders acorn squash. I fed them all regularly with tomato fertilizer once they started to fruit..........

So do you lot who have good butternuts do any more to get your good harvests.
Is it the variety...what do you think?

[Smudgeboy]

I'll give them one more try next year - do most people on here plant them outside or ion the greenhouse? I did mine in the greenhouse and maybe that's why they didn't pollinate?

Next season I'll try outdoors and also try and hand pollinate as well.

If that doesn't work, that's it for BNS, I'll buy it from Sainsburys! 

[chriscross1966]

I'd always hand pollinate squash, definitely from another plant and preferably from a different variety.... this is my harvest this year:



At least one of those pumpkins father was a gherkin  :blink: Most of the butternuts are Hunter (free BBC seed) pollinated with Festivals for the most part (the yellow/green acorn type). The green/black buttercups are Bon-Bon... fine on my allotment but way too invasive for all but the biggest garden... the orange hubbard is uchiki kuri, dunno tth pumpkin variety... there's a pumpkin and three festivals missing as already harvested a few weeks before the main harvest... there's another two Hunters that only set a couple of weeks ago on a plant that had ripened its other fruit... it's fleeced against the weather ATM but I'm hoping we get a couple of decent weeks yet before it gets too grim....

chrisc

[lucywil]

I'll give them one more try next year - do most people on here plant them outside or ion the greenhouse? I did mine in the greenhouse and maybe that's why they didn't pollinate?

Next season I'll try outdoors and also try and hand pollinate as well.

If that doesn't work, that's it for BNS, I'll buy it from Sainsburys! 

i always plant outside and like i said before i never hand polinate, i just let then get on with it.

[tallulah]

i would say that it didn't get pollinated but even if it had done chances  are it would not have ripened before the first frost.

Ok - now I'm puzzled, and hope this question doesn't sound too dim!  If it wasn't pollinated, how come it came to form fruit at all, as seen in the pics?  :blink:

[mumofstig]

All the female flowers start with a small fruit behind them, and sometimes they do seem as if they are going to grow bigger, but if they haven't been fully pollinated they just rot of
Courgettes, cucumbers, marrows, squash and pumpkin all have the baby fruits behind the female flowers and behave in the same way.

[lucywil]

i would say that it didn't get pollinated but even if it had done chances  are it would not have ripened before the first frost.

Ok - now I'm puzzled, and hope this question doesn't sound too dim!  If it wasn't pollinated, how come it came to form fruit at all, as seen in the pics?  :blink:

all the female flowers have a fruit behind them but they have to be pollinated for them to continue growing and mature

[mumofstig]

Errm...I thought that i'd already said that

[lucywil]

Errm...I thought that i'd already said that

you did, sorry, was only half reading the replies, trying to do too many things at one!!