Will picked green butternut squash ripen?

[VT Chicklit]

We had a frost last week and my butternut squash plants were killed. The squashes were not dammaged by the frost. My husband and I picked them last weekend, even though they were still green or mottled orange/green. We were worried that they might rot or get dammaged if we got a hard frost. Will these squash turn orange like the ones that are found in the supermarket. Do they need to be orange to be ripe? How do I store them to get them to continue ripening?

 

[Sarah_Mom2Four]

I could be wrong but I think the difference between fruits and veggies is that fruits will ripen off the vine whereas veggies just start to rot. So I dont think they will ripen for you but I could be wrong, it will be interesting to hear what others have to say.

 

[silkiechicken]

If their skins are hard, I think you can just store inside and they will ripen. However, if they are soft, you could try to eat them like summer squash, or try to see if they will age/cure a bit like pumpins turning orange if picked green. Might not be as sweet. In prep for any molding, make sure nobody is touching and you check them often. Good luck.

 

[chickaD]

We had a frost last week and my butternut squash plants were killed. The squashes were not dammaged by the frost. My husband and I picked them last weekend, even though they were still green or mottled orange/green. We were worried that they might rot or get dammaged if we got a hard frost. Will these squash turn orange like the ones that are found in the supermarket. Do they need to be orange to be ripe? How do I store them to get them to continue ripening?

We're dealing with the exact same thing......in fact, it must have been a "stealth frost" since I never knew what hit those vines. :/ I'm wondering if the squash turn out to be a lost cause for us (refuse to ripen), maybe I can slice them in half and feed them to our chickens, just like our zuke whales.

 

[VT Chicklit]

I took my partially ripened, butternut squash and washed and treated it today with a bleach-water dip. I am keeping my fingers crossed and hopeing that they will keep until I want to eat them this winter. I got a late start on planting the squash, this year. Next year I will make more of an effort to get it planted earlier. Even though it was planted late, I still got one squash that is at least 15 pounds It is 24 inches long. What a monster! I have always had good luck with seeds from Gurneys.

 

[chickaD]

Could we be unknown twins? I did the exact same thing, getting the squash planted way too late (maybe I'll just blame it on the crazy rainy summer). Wowie, you had a 15 pounder? I didn't know they even got that big! (did it cross with a zuke? ) Yeah, Gurneys' seeds are very reliable.
Thanks for the storage suggestions...that sounds like our best bet; we have butternuts in various stages, so we'll see.
Boy oh boy, that's what I call a killing frost last night! Now to deal with all the limp contributions for the compost...

 

[VT Chicklit]

chickaD, the butternut squash seeds from Gurneys were some type of hybrid that was suppose to get big. Gurneys add said that there might be some that got up to 35 pounds! The squash that I got from those seeds were also almost all "neck" with very little seed area. Even the smaller squash were good size (5 - 7 lbs). Check out their next cataloge for the seeds. Since they are hybrids, I do not think i can use the seeds from my monster to grow big squash next year, so I will be visiting Gurneys web site to order more seeds this winter.

I just cleaned out the main garden this past weekend. Everything was pretty limp from frost. We haven't had a really hard frost (I live by Lake Champlain) but we have had several frosts that did kill the heat loving crops like tomatoes and squash. My "burn pile" is getting pretty big. I will have to light it on a calm day, soon.