When To Harvest Butternut Squash

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Did you have a great butternut squash harvest in your garden? Find out when to harvest butternut squash for the best storage life so you can enjoy your harvest this winter.

Butternut squash has always been my favorite type of winter squash. I’ve been growing it in my vegetable garden every year since I was a child. It’s one of the most popular types of winter squashes to grow and for good reason. Its sweet, delicate nutty flesh is the perfect side dish for any fall or winter recipe.

But knowing the best time to harvest will help your squash last a long time. If you harvest butternut squash at the right time you’ll be able to save seeds that you can grow in your garden next year and enjoy fresh squash for months as purees, soups, and side dishes.

When To Harvest Butternut Squash

If you’re wondering how do I know when to pick my butternut squash thankfully it’s very easy to tell when its mature fruit is ready to pick. Like most winter squash it has a long growing season taking 100 to 120 days to mature for most of the classic varieties. If you have a short growing season you can find early maturing hybrids that are ready in 80 to 90 days.

It is normally ready to pick in the early fall months of September or October. But if you started your young plants very early in your garden they could be ready to harvest as soon as late summer.

Looking at your squash skin is the easiest way to know if it’s ready to pick.

Color

When butternut squash is growing the immature squash fruits are green in color. As the fruits mature the skin color changes. They start to turn from green to light beige in color.

When fully mature most varieties are tan color without any green streaks.

Some varieties can have some striping of yellow and shades of tan when ripe, but never green.

Skin

After the squash color has changed you can start checking the skin for hardness. When butternut squash is mature the skin gets harder. Gently scratch the skin with your fingernail, if it leaves a mark or dents the skin the squash isn’t ready to harvest yet.

Let the butternut squashes keep growing until the skin is hard and can’t be punctured by your thumbnail.

Vines

As the squashes start to ripen the plant will start to die back. The leaves and vines will start to turn brown and dry up turning crunchy. You’ll also want to look at the stem of the squash. When they are mature the stem turns from green to brown. Just like the skin the stem will also become hard.

How To Harvest Butternut Squash

Using pruning shears or a sharp knife cut the ripe butternut squash from the vine leaving at least a 1 inch of stem on the fruit. If possible try to leave 2 to 3 inches of stem on the squash.

Leaving the stem on the squash helps to protect it from going bad. So remember not to lift or carry the squash by its stem because it can easily break off.

If the stems do break off your squash set those ones aside to cook first. Once the stems are off the fruit they are more likely to rot and won’t store over the winter.

After harvesting you’ll need to cure the squash. This helps to harden the skin and gives the fruit time to heal any small scratches before going into storage.

Place the butternut squash in an area that is 80 to 85 F with a relative humidity of 80 to 85 percent for 10 to 14 days with good air circulation. After curing store in a cool, dry, well-ventilated place the ideal temperature is 50 to 55 F. A cool basement works well for storing squash. With proper storage in a cool place butternut squash can last 2 to 3 months.

What If A Frost Is Coming?

If the weather is turning cold and you are expecting a hard frost it’s best to harvest your squash even if it’s still green. If the skin of the squash freezes it will start to rot quickly. Even unripe butternut squash is edible but it won’t have a long shelf life. Instead, cook it up in a week or so after picking.

Another option that will give your butternut squash plants more time to mature is to use a row cover. These help to protect plants from frost so if you are expecting a short cold spell early in the fall it may be worth doing.

Often in our zone 5 garden, we get the first frost early in September but the weather often warms up after that and the rest of September and October is nice weather. Taking a little time to cover the plants can give the squash an extra month and a half of growing time.

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