Not grown them before, the Butternut squash we are trying is growing well
and flowering but they all seem male flowers, is that a normal timing thing
or am I supposed to be doing something?
--
Charlie, gardening in Cornwall.
http://www.roselandhouse.co.uk
Holders of National Plant Collection of Clematis viticella (cvs)

In article ,
"Charlie Pridham" writes:
|
| Not grown them before, the Butternut squash we are trying is growing well
| and flowering but they all seem male flowers, is that a normal timing thing
| or am I supposed to be doing something?

It's waiting for the weather to warm up :-(

Most people have trouble with all C. moschata varieties in the
UK, and butternut is no exception. I am not keen on it, anyway,
and prefer the C. maxima ones (i.e. the hubbards etc.)


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

"Charlie Pridham" wrote
Not grown them before, the Butternut squash we are trying is growing well
and flowering but they all seem male flowers, is that a normal timing
thing
or am I supposed to be doing something?

No, it's normal for cucurbits to produce male flowers before the female
flowers start. Did you plant it late by any chance?
Should have growing squashs on it by now although the ones that self seeded
on our allotment years ago were late (came up from the compost I planted
another cucurbit in that died) and had a magnificant crop on them
eventually.
Are you feeding it well? :-)

--
Regards
Bob
In Runnymede, 17 miles West of London

In article , Charlie
Pridham writes
Not grown them before, the Butternut squash we are trying is growing well
and flowering but they all seem male flowers, is that a normal timing thing
or am I supposed to be doing something?

Normal. They produce lots and lots of male flowers first, then go over
to female flowers. It's the plant's way of trying to avoid self-
fertilisation.
--
Kay
"Do not insult the crocodile until you have crossed the river"

In article ,
Kay wrote:
In article , Charlie
Pridham writes
Not grown them before, the Butternut squash we are trying is growing well
and flowering but they all seem male flowers, is that a normal timing thing
or am I supposed to be doing something?

Normal. They produce lots and lots of male flowers first, then go over
to female flowers. It's the plant's way of trying to avoid self-
fertilisation.

However, in bad years (i.e. dark and/or cold), they don't always
change over. I had that on my hubbards one particularly wet summer.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

"Kay" wrote in message
...
In article , Charlie
Pridham writes
Not grown them before, the Butternut squash we are trying is growing well
and flowering but they all seem male flowers, is that a normal timing
thing
or am I supposed to be doing something?

Normal. They produce lots and lots of male flowers first, then go over
to female flowers. It's the plant's way of trying to avoid self-
fertilisation.
--
Kay
"Do not insult the crocodile until you have crossed the river"

I only have one plant so it had better fall in love with its self or I won't
be getting any, Bob seemed to think planting it late may have not helped but
I normally put all my beans and courgettes in in late May, we get frosts
until mid may so its never worth starting any earlier. As for the "Its
waiting for it to warm up" its been as hot this year as I ever remember in
Cornwall so may be its not a great thing to be growing here.
I wouldn't mind but its taking up an entire raised bed, and no Bob I am not
feeding it, it would take over the garden if we did!
--
Charlie, gardening in Cornwall.
http://www.roselandhouse.co.uk
Holders of National Plant Collection of Clematis viticella (cvs)

In article ,
Charlie Pridham wrote:


I only have one plant so it had better fall in love with its self or I won't
be getting any, Bob seemed to think planting it late may have not helped but
I normally put all my beans and courgettes in in late May, we get frosts
until mid may so its never worth starting any earlier. As for the "Its
waiting for it to warm up" its been as hot this year as I ever remember in
Cornwall so may be its not a great thing to be growing here.
I wouldn't mind but its taking up an entire raised bed, and no Bob I am not
feeding it, it would take over the garden if we did!

Yup. The cucurbita form a ranking of heat and sun demands, with
C. pepo needing the least and C. maxima and C. moschata next. The
UK is marginal for C. maxima (i.e. it will crop reasonably well
four years out of five in the south, in my experience). C. moschata
is something that 80% of people fail with ....


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

In article , (Nick
Maclaren) wrote:

Most people have trouble with all C. moschata varieties in the
UK, and butternut is no exception.

I'm growing "Cobnut" from Suttons and it has two good looking fruits and
a third one starting. It has the advantage of being next to a large
west-facing brick wall which often stays warm for several hours after
sunset.

Steve Harris - Cheltenham - Real address steve AT netservs DOT com
A useful bit of gardening software at http://www.netservs.com/garden/

The message
from (Nick Maclaren) contains these words:


In article ,
"Charlie Pridham" writes:
|
| Not grown them before, the Butternut squash we are trying is growing well
| and flowering but they all seem male flowers, is that a normal
timing thing
| or am I supposed to be doing something?

It's waiting for the weather to warm up :-(

Most people have trouble with all C. moschata varieties in the
UK, and butternut is no exception. I am not keen on it, anyway,
and prefer the C. maxima ones (i.e. the hubbards etc.)


Nick,

Please could you say a bit more about how the hubbard varieties compare
with butternut in terms of taste, time taken to mature and keeping
qualities. I'm just trying to get to grips with the range of different
types available.
This year I also have Delicata which isn't doing all that much yet but
which I gather should be quite prolific and be useful for immediate
eating as well as for medium term storage. It's offered by quite a lot
of seed companies so I'm hoping to be impressed soon!

Many thanks

Janet G

In article ,
Janet Galpin wrote:

Please could you say a bit more about how the hubbard varieties compare
with butternut in terms of taste, time taken to mature and keeping
qualities. I'm just trying to get to grips with the range of different
types available.

Here is the Nick summary, which is not entirely reliable, as the data
I have seen is contradictory. I should dearly appreciate corrections
from anyone who knows more, but I get the impression that even the
experts are confused and disagree on much of this.

C. pepo: usually with a thinnish, smooth skin, with flattish, smooth,
not-thick skinned seeds, often watery and low on flavour. Most
summer squashes are C. pepo, and the best keeping one I know of is
Little Gem.

C. maxima: usually with a wrinkled, thick skin, with rounded, rough,
thick skinned seeds, much higher in starch than C. pepo. They have a
similar flavour and texture to chestnuts or WHITE sweet potato. They
include hubbards, Queensland blue etc., and I have not found any worth
eating unripe.

C. moschata: physically much like C. pepo, but with somewhat higher
starch and much higher sugar content, and with a flavour and texture
rather like ORANGE sweet potato. Like that, I find them sickly and
slimy. All right, this analysis is based entirely on butternut being
the type species :-)

Marrows are sometimes called P. ovifera and sometimes lumped in with
C. pepo. Pumpkins have traditionally been called C. maxima, but I
believe that is erroneous, and they are C. pepo.

Some people say that C. pepo and C. maxima hybridise (which might
account for pumpkins), others that C. maxima and C. moschata do, and
others say that there is virtually no hybridisation.

This year I also have Delicata which isn't doing all that much yet but
which I gather should be quite prolific and be useful for immediate
eating as well as for medium term storage. It's offered by quite a lot
of seed companies so I'm hoping to be impressed soon!

Please tell us what it is like.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

The message
from (Nick Maclaren) contains these words:

In article ,
Janet Galpin wrote:

Please could you say a bit more about how the hubbard varieties compare
with butternut in terms of taste, time taken to mature and keeping
qualities. I'm just trying to get to grips with the range of different
types available.

Here is the Nick summary, which is not entirely reliable, as the data
I have seen is contradictory. I should dearly appreciate corrections
from anyone who knows more, but I get the impression that even the
experts are confused and disagree on much of this.

C. pepo: usually with a thinnish, smooth skin, with flattish, smooth,
not-thick skinned seeds, often watery and low on flavour. Most
summer squashes are C. pepo, and the best keeping one I know of is
Little Gem.

C. maxima: usually with a wrinkled, thick skin, with rounded, rough,
thick skinned seeds, much higher in starch than C. pepo. They have a
similar flavour and texture to chestnuts or WHITE sweet potato. They
include hubbards, Queensland blue etc., and I have not found any worth
eating unripe.

By unripe, do you mean before curing? I.e. would you be picking in
September/October time and eating from a couple of weeks later?

C. moschata: physically much like C. pepo, but with somewhat higher
starch and much higher sugar content, and with a flavour and texture
rather like ORANGE sweet potato. Like that, I find them sickly and
slimy. All right, this analysis is based entirely on butternut being
the type species :-)

Marrows are sometimes called P. ovifera and sometimes lumped in with
C. pepo. Pumpkins have traditionally been called C. maxima, but I
believe that is erroneous, and they are C. pepo.

Some people say that C. pepo and C. maxima hybridise (which might
account for pumpkins), others that C. maxima and C. moschata do, and
others say that there is virtually no hybridisation.


Thanks Nick. That's really helpful. I shall save for constant reference!

This year I also have Delicata which isn't doing all that much yet but
which I gather should be quite prolific and be useful for immediate
eating as well as for medium term storage. It's offered by quite a lot
of seed companies so I'm hoping to be impressed soon!

Please tell us what it is like.

I will. I was interested that you used sweet potatoes as a reference
point as Delicata are known as Sweet potato squashes apparently - but
whether they're like white or orange I don't know. Roger Phillips and
Martyn Rix classify them as distinct from other varieties, if I've
understood them right, so I'm not sure where they fit in - maxima
presumably.

Janet G.

In article ,
Janet Galpin wrote:

Please could you say a bit more about how the hubbard varieties compare
with butternut in terms of taste, time taken to mature and keeping
qualities. I'm just trying to get to grips with the range of different
types available.

I forgot to cover the time to mature and keeping qualities. The
former seems to be slightly longer for C. maxima than for C. pepo,
and fully ripe ones keep indefinitely - but that seems to be true
of the less watery C. pepo, too. The problem is getting them
fully ripe, but they can be ripened on a sunny windowsill if they
are at least mostly ripe when picked.

I find that ripe Little Gem will keep well into the new year, and
ripe hubbards towards Easter. I suspect that the reason it isn't
true of pumpkins is partly because they are bred for volume, and
a smaller, less watery variety would keep better. But C. maxima
probably will keep better than C. pepo, anyway.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

In article ,
Janet Galpin wrote:

C. maxima: usually with a wrinkled, thick skin, with rounded, rough,
thick skinned seeds, much higher in starch than C. pepo. They have a
similar flavour and texture to chestnuts or WHITE sweet potato. They
include hubbards, Queensland blue etc., and I have not found any worth
eating unripe.

By unripe, do you mean before curing? I.e. would you be picking in
September/October time and eating from a couple of weeks later?

More-or-less, yes. I have tried picking hubbards very young and
eating them as summer squashes, but they didn't taste very nice.
Not unpleasant, but not nice. And the same applies to even the
semi-ripe ones, only less so.

regards,
Nick.