[stompy]

HI all,

OK, my butternuts aren't going to come to anything by the looks of it this year.

There's plenty of foliar growth and plenty of male flowers but all the female flowers (3) have dropped off and there are no more at the moment to replace them.

Is there an alternative winter squash thats easier to grow (more productive)

[compostqueen]

Yes 

I grow as many as I can possibly fit in to my plot as I'm nuts about them.  I have refined my choice now after growing some culinary duds. They have to be worth it taste wise as they do take up an awful lot of space    Crown Prince is a really good one and I understand that there is now an improvement on this variety so I shall be interested to know if anyone can verify that and what their experience of it has been.  I love the Harlequins and Festivals, cheap seed, easy to grow, prolific and tasty! The bright orange onion squash such as Uchiki Kuri is a good variety too

Oh you set me off now 

[stompy]

Oh you set me off now 

Ha Ha,

I used to grow pumpkins like jack'o'lantern and another type whose name escapes me at the moment.

I found them very bland and the texture a little soggy, thats why i like butternuts, firm flesh and very tastey.
My favourite way of useing them is to peel and cut into wedges coat in olive oil and roast until very slight charing on the edges.

When i tried this with a pumpkin it was a big dissapointment.

So what im saying is, is Crown prince like a pumpkin in texture (etc)

[compostqueen]

A Crown Prince is a fabulous squash and you will love it. It's outer skin is like solid plastic so it keeps very well.  Inside it is bright orange. The flesh is firm and will stay that way on cooking so makes excellent wedges for roasting. It will stayed cubed in a curry, or pilaff etc, which is another reason I like it so much.  It can be used for dessert though and it's beautiful colour makes it good for this job as well

If I could only grow one variety this would be it

When you roast your wedges try sticking the flesh with garlic and chillies for even more flavour 

[stompy]

Well, you've sold me on Crown Prince for next year.

Just to be completely sure though, your saying the flesh/flavour is very similar to butternuts?

I also use crushed garlic (garlic crusher) sea salt, black pepper and paprica on the butternut wedges too.

One of my favourite veg ever  :happy:

[compostqueen]

I love a butternut too but I prefer Crown Prince    It is an F1 so you can't save seed unfortunately and the seed is quite expensive so shop around

Potimarron is another easy grower and it will keep well. Good one for soup as is the squash of choice for soup kitchens

[sunshineband]

I agree: potimarron has fantastic flavour and is both prolific and easy to grow. They are a brilliant colour too.  

Nice to have a few different ones I think.


Next year I am going to also try Thelma Sanders (which is white) on MumofStig's recommendation  

[Pompey Spud]

I love squashes and have grown a few.

Invincible is the new 'crown prince'. Grew it last year and had great results. Growing crown prince this year to compare. Had slightly more fruits with invincible which doesn't say much to be honest. Different conditions etc.

Turks turban always does well for me and stores really well.

But the squash i love and has gone nuts this year is spaghetti. Tastes great with loads of fruit produced. Doesn't store that well and is a more  summer type but if you have room for 2 than I'd suggest spaghetti as well to have an earlier season as i know you were looking for winter squash.

[Quetzal]

Invincible is the new 'crown prince'. Grew it last year and had great results. Growing crown prince this year to compare. Had slightly more fruits with invincible which doesn't say much to be honest. Different conditions etc.

We're doing the same thing. The Invincibles were pretty, well, unbeatable  , we've got the very tail end of the last one from last year in our fridge right now, so they definitely keep.

We're also massive fans of real seeds' Anna Schwartz (which i keep banging on about in squash threads...) and this is the third year we're growing it. It's comparably tasty to the invincible, faster growing, ever so slightly smaller, but really hard to get into.

In addition, this year we're growing Tennessee Sweet Potato, Festival or Harlequin (i forget which) and Turk's Turban. No idea about any of these yet.

EDIT: We've found this year that Squashes are a pretty good thing to look for in local plant sales, since you get to try a range of different types without buying a packet of seeds each (and getting someone else to germinate it for you too)

[sunshineband]

I grew some festivals last year and they stored all winter with no trouble.

Lovely roasted, and not too big either 

[stompy]

Well i've just ordered 25 crown prince seeds from Moles for next year.

Hope they do better than my 4 very poor butternut plants have done.

Here's hopeing

[LittleRedHen]

I don't have any suggestions for you but wanted to give my support, as my butternut squashes are pretty with a few blossoms, but alas, no fruit!     I've written down the suggested ones here and will have a go with them next year!

[realfood]

Crown Prince will start flowering about 4 weeks before butternuts. I thought that Crown Prince was more reliable than Invincible when I grew them side by side..

[compostqueen]

I love Thelma Sanders too. It looks simply stunning with its alabaster skin 
I don't rate Turks Turban as a culinary squash at all I'm afraid nor vegetable spagetti.  The Gem I found to be pants in the taste stakes too   

[mumofstig]

as has been said, I'm a big fan of Thelma Sanders. I also like Sunshine and Uchiki kuri (which are quite similar really) melon sized bright orange skin and flesh as for butternuts - Harrier f1
does very well in my garden, it is a small fruiting butternut that ripens early and doesn't grow enormous.

I try a few(!) new ones every year, (6 for 2011 ) most don't get grown again, though