Mini butternut - Honeynut, Butterbaby, Butterscotch etc

[Cranraspberry]

Does anyone have experience growing more than one variety of mini butternut? We grew Honeynut last year, and while it did quite well, the long DTM (110 days) meant that a good chunk of harvest was ripening once it got fairly cool and those fruit were significantly less sweet than the first fruit we harvested off the plant. I’m considering trying something else, and also planting them out earlier this year.

[AKgardener]

On my list for this year

[pepperhead212]

I grew the Butterbush twice, and the Honeynut, as well, but really didn't get much out of either of them - just two small squash per plant, and no more to follow. The Butterbush was much earlier, in mid-summer, if that's what you are looking for, and the plants were ready to pull in mid-August, so greens could go in that section.

[Cranraspberry]

@pepperhead212 thank you! The Honeynut did pretty well for us yield wise (probably around a dozen fruit from two plants), but some of them didn’t get to ripen before the frost and the last couple of ripe/cured ones we saved for Thanksgiving were surprisingly bland. I planted them out as transplants on 6/1 and we have a fairly long season, so I was a little disappointed. I haven’t heard of Butterbush, I’ll check that out as well.

[Setec Astronomy]

I planted them out as transplants on 6/1 and we have a fairly long season, {but some of them didn’t get to ripen before the frost} so I was a little disappointed.

Why did you plant them out so late? I would have planted them out a couple weeks earlier than that and I'm 200+ miles (ok, maybe 100+ longitude-wise) north of you.

[Cranraspberry]

@Setec Astronomy couldn’t plant them out till I harvested the cabbages that were in that spot. But our last frost is technically 5/15, and two weeks after that doesn’t seem too late for sensitive plants like squash and cukes no?

[Setec Astronomy]

Our last frost is about the same, thought it would be earlier down there. The latest I've ever seen it here is 5/7, but I haven't been doing this that long. I used to plant out about 4/30-5/1. I think our 20% (chance of frost) is about 4/30. After that 5/7 scare a few years ago, I usually plant around then...except most years I get so behind it winds up being later.

That's really the killer with this climate change, is that the frost dates aren't moving much, but the warmer (average) is. A few years ago when they had that frost in California that killed the olive crop, it was because it was really warm in Feb. so the trees flowered, but there was a frost in March. Of course that kind of thing doesn't effect us with our seasonal plantings.

[Cranraspberry]

@Setec Astronomy I’m a little scarred by our first year - we planted everything out April 30 since the weather was gorgeous and the long term forecast looked safe. And then of course a rare May frost (maybe the same 5/7 you’re mentioning) happened and we lost a bunch of plants. Since we were new it took us waaay too long to realize that the stunted eggplants and tomatoes weren’t going to bounce back. So now I err on the side of setting things out later! The old timers at our garden suggest on or after Mother’s Day and I’ve been using that as a guide. Works well for most things but clearly not 110 day Honeynut.

[Cranraspberry]

IMG_3589.jpeg

I remember sending this photo to my husband at the end of May and saying something along the lines of yeahhhh, I really don’t know about this one..,

[pepperhead212]

In my area, I start the squash in pellets about a week before the beginning of May, and by the middle of May, they usually have a second set of true leaves started, and I put them in the garden - about when peppers get put out, which are the last of the early plants to go out. I never have any problems after this.

[Cranraspberry]

@pepperhead212 yes, I’m planning to get them planted out at least 2 weeks earlier this year. Then again a couple of years ago I bought some incredible Honeynuts at a farmers market in Vermont - I wonder what their trick is given the much shorter growing season.

[Setec Astronomy]

@Setec Astronomy I’m a little scarred by our first year - we planted everything out April 30 since the weather was gorgeous and the long term forecast looked safe. And then of course a rare May frost (maybe the same 5/7 you’re mentioning) happened and we lost a bunch of plants.

It was May 9, 2020: viewtopic.php?p=19464&hilit=frost#p19464

I think I only lost one plant, but I also am very wary now about planting out as early as I used to.

[Setec Astronomy]

@pepperhead212 yes, I’m planning to get them planted out at least 2 weeks earlier this year. Then again a couple of years ago I bought some incredible Honeynuts at a farmers market in Vermont - I wonder what their trick is given the much shorter growing season.

I'm sure hoop greenhouses is their "trick". The corn farm I frequent here in the summer put up some high tunnels a few years ago that they grow Sungolds in, it took me a while to figure out what they were doing with the white "tents", they've got at least 7 of them, of various heights. I think some of them are heated.

[Cranraspberry]

@pepperhead212 I’ve been reading up on Polaris butternut and had a few questions if you don’t mind. How is the flavor? Are they smaller than Waltham if you’ve ever grown those? How do they hold up to powdery mildew? And do the vines get enormous (if comparing to Honeynut especially)?

[pepperhead212]

@Cranraspberry Polaris is my favorite variety, but if you are looking for smaller vines, these are definitely not it! This one sends out side runners, as well as the main vine, which can be 16-20 ft long. I've grown a number of varieties, but none have done as well as this one, either as fruits/plant, or storage time, and the flavor is as good as any. It's not quite as large as Waltham, with the fruits of various sizes, which is a good thing, since I don't always want the larger ones. And I usually get one early fruit per vine, before the vine grows a lot more, with just male flowers (something I sometimes harvest a bunch of), before setting fruits - usually 6 or 7/vine. The vines are very resistant to diseases - I've had some varieties I've been growing next to them come down with things, while the Polaris stayed clean. I spray the vines with Surround, and add some potassium bicarbonate to the mix, and do this every week or 10 days.

[Cranraspberry]

@pepperhead212 thank you! My husband wants to try it out, and the Waltham fruit was a little too large for our needs when we grew it in our first year. The vine size isn’t optimal, but then again given how crammed everything is in our plot I’m guessing it won’t get as big as it normally would… Decisions decisions!

[bower]

I'm not a squash grower, but my farmer friend grows quite a few - I really like this Red Kuri, which is relatively small and very tasty, according to Territorial it's dtm 92 days.
https://territorialseed.com/products/sq ... r-red-kuri
In our climate, you would never plant out squash before July 1 (very late spring here). But the answer to frost or just cool weather is row cover. Farmer here uses row cover every year at squash planting time. She uses some loose hoops from irrigation tube to make a tunnel over the transplants - I assume they don't like having the cloth right on them. The row cover comes off when they start to bloom, so pollination can happen. But until then, it provides a few degrees of extra warmth and keeps the ground moist as well so they don't dry out in the wind. There's no need for heaters, the cover is warm enough to protect from a late light frost.

[Cranraspberry]

@bower thank you! I’ve heard about the Kuri and it looks delicious. Unfortunately we have very high SVB pressure, so I stick with C. Moschatas for our winter squash. Currently also reading about Black Futsu and Autumn Frost. We only have room for 2 winter squash plants, so not a lot of room for error!

[bower]

I checked out the Butterbush that pepperhead mentioned and they say 75 dtm - that's wow early for squash.
I'm not a big fan of squash generally, and really hate pumpkin, won't touch it, but the Kuri is super sweet and more like sweet potato to taste than it is like pumpkin... or so I thought. I also really liked the small manageable size, and the fact you can cook them shell and all. Too bad they are SVB susceptible!

[karstopography]

IMG_3628.jpeg

The Honeynut squash is starting to pick up some steam.