I like butternut squash. Roasted with garlic and pepper is delicious. It’s versatile as well as an ingredient in soup, curries, tagine, pasta bakes etc. I’ve even got a recipe for pumpkin chutney that I am trying this year.
However, is it the best winter squash to grow? My success over the years has been patchy, I can remember one good year in about 20 years of trying to grow them. Quite often the result for me is misshapen, small and under-ripe squashes. For some reason I can’t grow butternut squashes. I can grow pumpkins and marrows no problem but butternut squash, no. The problem is I don’t really like pumpkin, I’d rather have butternut squash.
A few years ago, I read an article on other winter squashes which said that alternatives were available that were more suited to our climate, so grow better and ripen better. In addition, some also claimed to store better.
I gave it a go and chose a few from a company called Real Seeds. I got few varieties: Blue Banana, Anna Schwartz, Boston, Blue Hubbard, and Sunshine. I always struggle with planting too many seeds, and probably planted far too many.
If you have never grown squashes before I really recommend it. There are a few things to bear in mind though.
Firstly, they love heat and hate the cold. You need to time the planting of the seeds (indoors) to coincide with planting out the first or second week of June. It’s better to be later than early, as planting out too early risks a late frost which will kill your young squash plants. Even cold and windy weather stunts their growth, and they may not fully recover. Ideally you need to sow seeds in early to mid-May indoors, so you have relatively small plants when you plant out in June. Too big a plant and it will struggle when planted out to establish the roots to support the plant.
Photo - my squash plants 10th May 2021, probably a bit too large at this stage
Second is space. Every year I plant them too close together. Squashes are vigorous, hungry plants. They need room, sun and water. In early June it is tempting to plant them 30 cm apart when they need at least a metre, if not more. Some of the more vigorous squashes will easily fill 2 metres square (so 2m by 2m).
Photo - July 26th, large football squashes already grown. And yes, they needed more room!
So, what were the results? I first grew these squashes in 2019, and I has a lot of success with Boston, Anna Schwartz and Blue Banana. Boston and Blue Banana were massive, with football size squashes. They keep well, I still have a Blue Banana Squash from last summer which is still OK.
Photo - Boston Squash (the large orange ones) at the 2019 Wroughton Show. They dwarf the Butternut Squash.
Flavour-wise, I am not convinced they are better than Butternut Squash.But they are on a par.And given the yield I’ve not planted Butternut Squash since.
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