How to Harvest Winter Squash

Several days ago I posted in another thread an image of how to tell when a Butternut Squash was ripe, and received comments about adding that to a separate thread on how to harvest winter squash.  I will use a Butternut squash as an example, but the same principal applies to all winter squash. It is very important to maintain as much stem as possible on the squash when it is harvested. If the stem is cut too short, or if it is broken off, there is great chance that bacteria will enter the stem area and start to rot the squash from the inside out. The longer the stem the less chance of bacteria being able to enter it.  The images below not only show how to tell when the squash is ripe, but also how to cut the vine from the squash.

This image illustrates a simple way to tell when a Butternut Squash is ripe

The arrows show the proper places to cut the vine off of the squash stem

This shows the squash after it has been cut from the vine. Note that it is the vine that is cut away from the squash stem, the stem is not cut.

Thank you. I never thought about cutting the plant away and leaving the entire stem.

I had to harvest four spaghetti squash a month early.  At least they were all yellow and pretty hard.  DIL finally got around to hers and one had started turning green on the outside.  Some of the inside was mushy.  The other stayed yellow but had sprouting seeds when she cut it open.  

Yellow one.


Green skin one.

There is a very good article on growing and using Butternut Squash in this week's Dave's Garden newsletter.

https://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/butternut-squash-is-an-autumn-favorite?utm_medium=Email&utm_source=ExactTarget&utm_campaign=

Today's e-letter from Dave's Garden has a good article on How to Cure Winter Squash.
https://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/how-to-cure-squash-for-storage?utm_medium=Email&utm_source=ExactTarget&utm_campaign=