Franchi seeds Butternut Rugosa

[Sue]

Anyone grown these before? I've got 6 plants on the allotment producing a variety of fruits. They are butternut shape but huge. Some are yellow, some light green and some dark green and they are all quite nobbly i.e. not reeeeaaally looking like the picture on the front of the seed packet. Will they all come right in the end?


Thanks

Sue

[sprout]

I hope so sue, am growing these for the first time this year too and planted late. Mine are at the same stage as yours sound to be. As long as we get a few weeks with some sunshine, I still have hope so I'm leaving them to get on with it until the vines die back!

[Sue]

Thanks Sprout - at least it's not just me. I started mine off inside and planted them out late May as fairly large plants.

All the rain is swelling the flipping things to mammoth proprtions. I'm going to be feeding the whole street at this rate

Sue

[Vivien]

Hi Sue,
Sorry for the late reply, but I grew these last year. They are quite knobbly compared with the usual butternuts, but bigger & equally delicious. They will take longer to ripen, so you might want to think about chopping off the ends of any stems that are running away so the plant puts its energy into what's there. They tasted great, too. Excellent roasted butternut risotto.
Best wishes,
Vivien

[Sue]

Thank you Vivien - it's getting a bit scary on the lottie. Every time I visit, the fruits have got bigger and the plants are still flowering and making more

Will curb their enthusiasm as you suggest and try and ripen the most developed fruits.

Sue

[Sue]

How you getting on with these Sprout I've started harvesting but still got a variety of colours and shapes

This one is the normal colour but awful big - do excuse the grubby mits, but was trying to show scale



Got some rounder green ones as well - ripe now but they have been the same colour right through and are not going any more yellow than this



This is the full harvest so far - note have also got steely blue coloured one and some striped green and yellow



I guess if they all taste OK then it will be fine, but I can't help wondering if they are all the same variety

Sue

[peter]

Looking at photo two, where the steel grey have yellowish stripes I would say that yellow is ripe?

[Sue]

Trouble is Peter that the yellow ones have been that colour from the start, so have not ripened from green. I've left the green & striped ones for weeks to see if they were going to change but no joy. Skins are rock hard and stalks dried out on them all

Sue

[peter]

Aaarrrrr, that be oii stumped then.

Hopefully someone else has grown them and will come forward.

[Sue]

Me un all mate but thanks for the thought

Sue

[Garlic_Guy]

Gosh, what an unusual variety of Butternut.

Sue, these look magnificent (they should last you a while!). Did you do anything clever to get them this size, or is it just the variety that leads to that?

Can you also say how many plants you had to get the crop your photo shows?

Finally, in my limited experience of BNS (just tried 2 strains so far) the fruit on mine has always started a pale colour, then goes a golden/light brown colour as the sun hardens the skin in the Autumn. I've never seen Butternuts like your darker ones. When you get round to tasting these ones, can you let us know what they're like?

[Johnboy]

Dear Sue,
I give you great credit for producing some good specimens and if they taste as good as they look I should't worry too much. I do see the problem with harvesting because you are really stumped as to what is mature or not.
I would be inclined to send your photo's to Franchi and ask them just what they supplied.
Knowing how promiscuous the whole cucurbit family are they have crossed with something I am not surprised.
However I do envy you and hope you enjoy the eating.
JB.

[Primrose]

Sue, I'm very impressed with your crop and the photos. But what surprises me about growing squashes is their uncanny ability to deviate from the colour and shape you expect them to be. Every time I've grown them something unexpected has happened to at least one plant. Is the seed genetically modified or something or do these plants just like to be perverse and keep us all guessing?

[Johnboy]

Hi Primrose,
The whole Cucubit Family are promiscuous and they so very easily hybridize by cross pollination. I takes simply one bee to be covered in the pollen of another variety and the chances are that the fruit will not breed true.
Normally bought seed comes true to form as the seed source is generally close pollinated although they are open pollinated plants.
I feel that I am not putting this as well as I might so if you don't understand this let me know and I'll rephrase it.
JB.

[Sue]

Thanks for all your replies and reassuring words I have 6 triffids (sorry squash plants) and there are at least as many fruits again still maturing in the jungle. I did nothing special except plant them and chuck some water over them as often as I could over the dry spell.

My neighbour on the lottie has also grown squashes so maybe they have crossed - dirty little devils

As soon as I pluck up courage to try and cut one - they have skins like iron & I have already ended up in A&E in a previous year - I'll let you know if they are delizioso or dire

Sue