What to plant butternut and butternut squash with?

The best companion plants for butternut squash and butternuts are corn and beans. On the other hand, avoid planting butternut squash close to potatoes or other cucurbits (cucumbers, zucchinis), to limit competition and the spread of disease.

What's the difference between butternut squash and butternut?

Butternut is a variety of butternut squash(Cucurbita moschata), a term that covers several types of squash with similar characteristics.

When to harvest butternut squash?

Harvesting generally takes place between September and October, before the first frosts. Here are the signs of readiness:The skin is a uniform, hard color;The stem is dry and cracked;The squash sounds hollow when tapped.Cut the squash with pruning shears, leaving a few centimetres of stalk to improve preservation.

Butternut – Cucurbita moschata

Native to Central America, this variety of Butternut squash(Cucurbita moschata) is as rewarding to grow as it is to eat. Known as butternut or doubeurre, this cultivar is prized for its mild, sweet-tasting fruit.

How to recognize butternut?

Butternut is an annual vegetable. Although it doesn't grow taller than 45 cm, it can spread over several meters.

Indeed, the creeping stems can measure up to five meters. Green and hairy, they have aerial roots and tendrils. It can therefore be attached to a support and grown as a climber.

The 5-lobed leaves are green and thinly dissected. Some are marbled with white.

The yellow, funnel-shaped flowers can be male or female. The latter have a bulge at their base. This is the ovary that gives rise to the fruit.

Butternuts produce elongated, bottle- or club-shaped fruits. They weigh between 1.5 and 3 kg. Green, they turn beige or pale yellow when ripe, and are covered with a glaucous dust.

The rind encloses sweet, nutty orange flesh and flat, rounded seeds.

Which butternut varieties to grow?

Depending on the space you have available, the climate and your tastes, you can grow :

Waltham butternut: undoubtedly the best-known variety. Hardy, it produces fruit with sweet, fragrant flesh;
Early Butternut: an early variety, preferable if you live in a region with short summers or if you want to follow the harvest;
Havana F1: disease-resistant and productive;
Harrier F1: another early variety with fruit weighing less than 1 kg and a bushy habit, suitable for pot cultivation.

Is butternut toxic?

Butternut squash is grown for its edible fruit, which can be eaten raw or cooked. The flowers can be eaten as fritters, and the seeds roasted.

However, we recommend that you always taste a piece of raw butternut before cooking or serving your squash. Indeed, some fruits become unfit for consumption, particularly after wild hybridization. If your butternut is bitter, this means its cucurbitacin content is too high. You should not eat it.

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