Last edited by shiny on November 08, 2026. View history
Butternut Squash
A variety of pumpkin
How to sow butternut squash: Direct seed. If planting indoors, harden off before transplanting seedlings outside.
Sun requirement for butternut squash: Plant in Full Sun
Butternut squash is a winter squash cultivar that produces long squash with smooth, tan-yellow skin and a rounded compartment of seeds at the bottom. Flesh is deep orange and firm with a sweet, nutty taste. Butternut squash becomes deeper orange and sweeter and richer as it ripens. Like other squash, it grows on sprawling vines. If starting seeds indoors, use peat pots and directly transplant them into the soil to reduce root disturbance. Harvest squash before any hard frosts and cure. Winter squash can be stored for up to 3 months in a cool, dry, well-ventilated place.
A plant grows with warmth, not with days. A growing degree day is one day's worth of useful warmth: how many degrees the day's average temperature is above the lowest temperature the crop grows at. Add them up from planting and you know how far along the crop is, whatever the calendar says.
Say that lowest temperature is 10°C. A day averaging 17°C gives 7 growing degree days. A day averaging 8°C gives none, as it is too cold for the crop to grow. That is why the same lettuce takes about 50 days in a summer and 90 in an autumn: it needs the same total warmth either way.
For butternut squash, the FAO EcoCrop database gives a lowest growing temperature of 10°C and a shortest growing cycle of 80 days at its best temperature, about 1200 growing degree days to a first harvest.
Where you've told us where your garden is, we use this and the weather there to predict when your butternut squash will be ready to harvest. We don't use it for how long a plant lives or when it finishes: we go by what members have logged for that.
Only plantings by members who have set their locations are shown.
by maco,
Most of the seeds I started a couple weeks ago have sprouted and gotten going. It looks like I will need to pick up one black beauty eggplant, one butternut squash, and one basil plant. And maybe oregano …
black beauty eggplants
butternut squash
basils
oregano
lowbush blueberries
rabbiteye blueberries
by maco,
I've got seeds either on-hand or ordered for just about everything I'm starting from seed this year. I've been working out what I want to plant, and this is the plan I've come up with for the 72 square feet of my backyard raised beds:
arugula
basils
beets
cabbages
cauliflowers
cucumbers
eggplants
garlic
kale
lettuces
onions
oregano
parsley
Hungarian wax peppers
bell peppers
zucchini
yellow summer squash
butternut squash
sweet potatoes
tomatoes
super sweet 100 tomatoes
chamomiles
by Skud,
Like I said in my last post, everything has been late and disorganised this spring. However, I'm trying to get some stuff planted juuuusssssttttt under the wire for December, and hopefully they'll have time to grow before things cool down in the new year. Last year I was pretty amazed…
butternut squash
sunflowers
nasturtia
arugula
purslane
nettles
View all butternut squash harvests
Sign in or sign up to track your butternut squash harvests.If sown now, expect a first harvest in about 80 to 140 days.
From the growing cycle in the FAO EcoCrop database, which is the same wherever it is grown.
Data from the FAO EcoCrop database for Cucurbita moschata Duch ez Poir
| Family / Taxonomy | Magnoliopsida Dilleniidae Violales Cucurbitaceae |
|---|---|
| Life form | vine |
| Life span | annual |
| Habit | climber/scrambler/scadent |
| Optimal soil depth | deep (>>150 cm) |
| Optimal soil texture | medium, organic |
| Optimal soil fertility | high |
| Optimal soil drainage | well (dry spells) |
| Optimal soil salinity | low (<4 dS/m) |
| Photoperiod | short day (<12 hours), neutral day (12-14 hours) |
Resources outside Growstuff.
borage
carrot
chives
Photos
basils
bigblen harvested 4, weighing 6 kg.
View all butternut squash seeds