Since I do not have much experience growing butternut squash, this is a new-ish problem for me. I have encountered this problem with some tomatoes, plums, and cherries, but I did not know it could happen with butternut squash too.
© Charly, all rights reserved. Click for full size.
Four fruits burst in the last week: two lengthwise, two across. The one in the picture broke almost all around; a centimeter more and it would essentially fall off.
I guess this is because the shell hardened prematurely in the heat, and then the fruit grew too quickly after the rain. I had to harvest this one prematurely, and I gave two others to my neighbor because they should be processed ASAP, and we cannot do that right now. The one that burst first has only a small crack that dried out, so I left it on the plant for now. But I will harvest and process it at the earliest possible time too.
I do not think there is anything I can do about this. Even if I watered the plants during the heatwave more than I did, it would not help; they could not take up the water during the day fast enough anyway.
Wow. I’ve never seen anything like that.
We get cracked tomatoes from excess water, but never had that for squash. Since we have summer drought in Seattle, the primary cause is humans who forget to turn off the sprinklers, rather than rain. Not sure what I’d do if it was a rain problem. Our bigger issue in tomatoes is blossom end rot, which signals potassium deficiency, so I bury a banana peel with each tomato seedling.
Yeah, I’ve never seen anything like that either, but it has been a troublesome year.
@rwiess: My understanding is that tomato blossom end rot is usually down to calcium deficiency, generally caused by poor watering (as most soils contain sufficient calcium, provided the plants can access it).
Our soils in Seattle are mostly quite poor in minerals. The underlying clay is good but impenetrable, Everything on top is flushed out in the winter rains. As a gardener, I’ve worked hard to break up clay and incorporate compost so that I get minerals without external sources. Still a problem, and banana peels help.
Charly that splitting is weird, obviously very frustrating too -- I am sure your neighbour appreciated the squash, but damn it one of the great things about most kinds of squash is that they keep well.