Butternut squash problem

Last year my butternut squash fruits all had a thick pith like layer underneath the skin. (Please see attached photos below.) Once this layer peeled off the squash tasted fine.

Any ideas of why did they have this thick unusable layer and how to avoid them this year?? The squash variety is Hunter. I haven't seen any information describing this defect.

 

Hello and welcome to GC. Sorry I have no idea what's happened to your squash, but I'm sure someone will be along to tell us shortly.

 

Your B/nut squash has been in storage a smidge too long. Perfectly edible if you remove the 'white stuff' that's what I do anyway. For storage I should try Oochi Koochi squash. Cheers, Tony.

 

Probably something to do with the 'sugars'?

 

IMHO I would say it is another thing you can put down to the 2012 weather!

Speed of ripening can effect the hardness/ thickness of the skin, this is certainly true of peppers & tomatoes!

If the ripening is a slow process through lack of sunshine and cool weather, or a combination of both, the skin just seems to stop developing! and goes leathery (as in tomatoes & peppers) possibly due to lack of photosynthesis caused by the lack of light!

So I guess this process could affect other types of fruit!

 

Tony, even the ones we ate soon after harvesting had similar problems so I don't think too long in storage is the cause. Also our other squashes eg Potimarron, honey bear, golden hubbard, are still doing ok in storage.

Tee Gee, We suspected the weather might have been a cause. All our squashes were late to get started and the butternut were later than most. Let's hope for a better summer this year and see what the results are.

Thanks to everyone for your replies.

 

I think you did well to get any type of squash harvested last summer! Mine bombed out totally.

 

I "sunbathe" mine after harvest. I cut them off with a generous T-handle (of stalk adjacent to fruit, on both sides of the plant's stem) and lay them in the conservatory for a couple of weeks to "cure" the skins. Dunno if that is related to your problem though, it was a rubbish year.

Critical to harvest before first frost I believe, but I leave mine until the last possible moment to increase ripening time - but I don't grow the super-quick croppers (which I think Hunter is one of?) and they may well be "done" and ready for picking a lot sooner than first-frost.

 

That's an interesting point. How would you know if they're ready?

 

Hmmm ... don't know. Fruits fully-formed and been like that on the vine for "some time", but you could do with some less subjective units of measurement I expect?!!

 

Morning Kristen

Like you I also cure my squashes in the sun. Because of the slow growing season last year, half of the fruits were not ripe enough when frost arrived, so, in addition to 'sun bathe' them outdoors when it was warm, they were sitting on a rack by a sunny window in the spare bedroom to catch any available light.

'Hunter' is an early mature variety. This year I bought some 'Waltham' seeds. I was told it is a heritage variety but i don't know how good they are?

 

Here's some of last years harvest sunbathing

 

That's more the type that I grow. Needs a long season, but I like the large, sweet, fruits. I also grow CobNut F1, a short-season variety like Hunter, but the fruits are small and I don't think as good as the big sprawlers. But I have not tried Hunter

 

Wow I'm really impressed with them, I haven't grown anything before, I have some peppers & peas & beans which were sown about a week ago and the peas and beans a couple of days ago, I have potatoes planted in the garden, and to be honest I'm really quite excited to start seeing shoots and at some point in the year be picking the veg from them. So seeing your pictures I'm very impressed well done.

 

Hi All

I grew butternut squash last year and struggled to them to ripen and consequently suffered the same loss with white mould in my garage. I threw them on the compost heap last week so I may well be retrieving them soon to see if they are edible.

I read an article in a magazine testing different types of butternut squash and hunter came out top so I greww them. I managed to get a good crop and have bought the same seeds for this year.

Last year is the first year I have had this problem though.