This year has been a great year for squashes and pumpkins. Another new vegetable for this year was a Butternut Squash as I’ve not ever grown one before.

We had no room in the raised beds so decided to experiment to see if two plants would grow in a large patio pot instead.

The plants have succeeded and given us 3 butternut squash’s variety: Hunter.

3. Things to Look for to tell whether your Butternut Squashes are ready to harvest

1. The outside of the butternut squash goes it’s distinct beige colour and not a green anymore. This is when the outer skin hardens up. The harder the skin, the longer you can store it for.

2. The vine the vegetable is growing on dies back and goes a grey or brown in colour. This includes the stem and stalk of the plant where the butternut squash is growing from.

3. The harvest month for a butternut squash is usually mid September to October.

Top Tip on Harvesting your Butternut Squash

If you want it to store for a longer period of time, cut the butternut squashes stalk so that it is a T shape when the stalk is cut from the vine.

Here are our butternut squashes that we harvested last weekend

There’s still one large butternut squash which hasn’t quite grown into it’s usual shape. The stem from the second plant has not died off yet so it remains in the pot until it does.