what a shame. I keep mine in a dark basement closet, just brought my last one up yesterday. They keep really well down there, cool and dark.

Heartbreaking, just heartbreaking. Thank you Jon! I just checked mine they are on there last leg's, now what? Bake and freeze or give to the rabbits for a treat. I am down to only three due to freezing some earlier this winter. I will bake and freeze them, it is a long way to spring. My bunnies and worms can have all the scraps.

Curt

Awww, so sorry Jon!!

What a shame. I grew a Pennsylvania Dutch variety from Baker Creek That have long necks and are supposed to keep well. They are sitting on a work bench in the basement so it's mostly dark and cool (next to the bulkhead). But I better check!

Dangit! Mine are still doing well, getting ready to cook them. You may want to consider a brief dunk in a bowl of water with a touch of bleach in it if this continues.

Dan

Did you lose your whole crop? It looks like you've tossed about 50 into a compost area.
I still have good Delicatas in my garage although some are beginning to turn a bit mealy. I figured Butternuts would last much longer, and in the past I have stored Butternuts for at least 5 months.

Did you let them freeze?
Were they in *dry* storage as they should be?

The only other thing I can imagine is that they were handled poorly and got nicks or cuts that got infected.
You didn't toss them onto that gravel driveway of yours, did you? (no offense just trying to get to the bottom of this)

Maybe they were picked unripe, but they don't appear to be.
What the heck happened?

You might put post this on the squash forum for some squash expertise.

Well, you could actually probably save some of them, IF you wanted to clean them off and process them right away for the freezer. The ones that only have small bad spots could be saved -- cut deeply around the bad spots until you hit clean tissue with no dark or discolored areas.

In the future, be sure to keep them dry, where they have good air circulation, and spread them out so that the don't touch each other. The best way I've found is to put them on some sort of wire rack so air can move all around them.

I pulled the last of mine this weekend, still firm. I do lose some early on that have small blemishes that go unnoticed, and their rot will spread if left unchecked -- which I suspect may have happened to you.

I check my storage about once a week and pull anything with soft spots or blemishes for immediate cooking.

I agree with Dennis that if you are willing to work hard you can salvage quite a bit of meat. And baked squash freezes very well. Now, they were not kept in a dry place, were they? In my experience, they keep well inside the house, warm and dry, though I am sure cool and dry will work also.

Let us remember that the OP is in Oregon. The prospect of dry storage there is dim (sez the guy who lived in WA for 5 years and saw lots of dim days). I was taught the bleach trick when I lived in WA.

Nonetheless, Nicole has a good point about her routine for checking. Mine are at the bottom of a wire rack in the basement pantry - when I get something I can check on them. But we are very, very dry here and the issues are not as severe as in OR.

Dan

They may have been stored where was either too cold or too warm. One year mine did the same ...too cold storage. Another year, late spring, mine looked the same..storage too warm.
When you have a lot of them to store it's a toss up at this time of year. So far mine are still good.

First, my sympathies, for losing such a great harvest. Been there myself.

Some degree of spoilage is to be expected in winter squash; but as previously stated, you need to inspect frequently, and remove squash at the first sign of spoilage, before it spreads to others.

Perhaps nothing can eliminate mold (haven't tried the bleach trick) but there are things that I've found will reduce the chances.

Soil contact can allow fungal infection, which might not show at the time, but can cause rot later. Placing the young squash on a pad of straw will help to reduce this, as well as reduce scarring from slugs & worms. If you can trellis squash, or support them above the ground, even better.

Any warts or scars are weak spots where disease can gain entry, so those squashes should be used first.

I don't use bleach, but I do wash off all soil immediately after harvest, then allow the squash to dry before storage. It's important when washing to avoid using anything which might scratch the skin. If I don't get all the soil (as has happened in years past) rings of fungi eventually appear where the soil touches the skin.

For storage, avoid placing squash on any non-breathable surface - especially plastic. I place mine on wire racks covered with cardboard, which has worked pretty well.

You live in western Oregon, mate. I used to live in Oregon City, & I know all about damp and dreary weather. Next time, age the ripe butternuts for two weeks, then bake them, remove the flesh, and freeze it for later use. Our cache lasted through February.

Jon, a micro-climate (nano-climate?) that is suitable for preserving winter squash is right next to your furnace in the basement. So long as the furnace kicks in regularly, the area is generally dry. A chest freezer will similarly decrease humidity, although less, because it produces much less waste heat.

I live up in the wetter half of the state, and in October I stored 72 Delicata squashes. The are not reputed to store as long as Butternuts. I put them on a plywood shelf in my attached-to-the-house garage and they have kept quite well. It doesn't freeze in there but gets quite close. I cooked two of them yesterday, very good quality still. I also found two that were molding at the stem end, so I may be getting towards the end of the line. The point being that I think dry storage of winter squash in this wet winter climate shouldn't be too hard.
I can't help but think Jon's problem is that his squashes were grown across a graveled area. The sharp edges on that gravel may be responsible for small cuts that got infected. Maybe when the squashes were harvested they were casually placed on the gravel without regard for nicks and scratches.

I have a lone but proud butternut in my lounge (yes, I'm very pleased with it) that I harvested this time last year. I'll be saving the seed, that's for sure.
But that's the sole cucurbit survivor: the rest rotted from the inside-out while I was on holiday. It took me a while to work out that the death-smell was my perfectly fine looking pumpkins.
The moral of the story is, if you go away somewhere nice, you might come back to a stack of rotten pumpkins!

{{gwi:20362}}

Howdy Everybody, (from Maui ;-)
The butternut dilemma was definitely exacerbated by freezing temps in my unheated 1974 (hence the ugly upholstery)camping trailer.

These butternuts had absolutely no scratches or bumps on them, they were the "pick of the litter", I gave over 1000 lbs of butternuts to the foodbank last year and kept the "perfect ones" for my wife (her insistence that she get something she likes,out of the garden) OY VEY

Next year...
1. I won't keep as many for us
2. I will keep them in a non freezing environment
3. The ones I do keep, I will start to eat before the end of February... OY

Keep some over there, I think that'll take care of the non-freezing part. ;-)

If Oregon had the same kind of growing year that Washington had, nothing in the squash line really got ripe enough to store as long as usual.

I keep my butternuts in the laundry room or the floor of the pantry in baskets. ALL other years did better than this one.

Sue

Dip the butternut in water with a little bleach to kill any mold living on there.

Dan