I put my winter squash, Taybelle acorn and Hi Jinx pumpkin in on June 11th. My garlic harvest was about a month early for all varieties and I have already harvested the pumpkin and am waiting for the acorns as they took longer to put out female flowers and set fruit. I did find, however, that both the acorn and the pumpkin dropped polinated and un-developed female flowers when they had set as many fruit as they could carry. For the pumpkins that was three per vine, one of the acorns has three good sized ones and the others have 4 or 5 each which I expect won't be overly large. Some are very dark green with hard skin and others are still a lighter green and soft. I did break off two of the acorns accidentally and am glad that I can go ahead and eat them. One of the summer squashes I planted, Heirloom Yellow straight neck, did not taste good if harvested too early. Thanks for all the good information. I am anxious to get the squash harvested so I can begin to prepare the soil for the main event, garlic.

I wouldn't try growing Butternut so far north. They require more warmth than the Peops or Maximas. I can grown them down here in Western Oregon and have a fine tasty crop. But I cannot fully ripen them with a hard shell needed for long term storage. Freezing only. I would think it would be worse for your climate, but maybe you get more warmth and less clouds, I don't know. I would recommend growing Delicatas. They're a Pepo and ripen in a quite timely manner up north. I have found that they do store quite well too, just not quite as long as a well-finished Maxima.

Took a gamble and started seeds end of Feb. Put them in ground around March 15th. Got nipped a little by by light frost twice in mid April but they were so big they recovered easily. We were frost free from about Feb. 15th to Apr. 15th. I'm on the border or zone 7 and 8 in Charlotte, NC. I have ripe summer squash, tomatoes, pumpkins (starting to turn), and cucumbers too. Very unusual... I had backup seeds and expected to use them but never had to.

Hi Gardenerenthusiast, I am glad you asked this question because the same thing has been happening to me, on both my zucchinis and my spaghetti squashes. Along with rotting blossoms that don't open, I've been getting female blossoms where the squash has shrivelled up before the flower even opens. My plants are otherwise healthy, though I have just started to see some yellowing on the leaves. Unfortunately I have no idea what is causing this, though I've narrowed it down to blossom end rot (which would mean a lack of calcium in the soil) or under watering (it's been very dry here and I've been watering shallowly and regularly, instead of deeply), or some kind of virus/fungus etc. I can't see any trace of pests on my plants, save for a few black aphids, and there are no signs of squash vine borers. One of the strange things is that it suddenly affected my zucchini, spaghetti squashes, and now my delicata squashes all around the same time, even though they are in different garden beds. This makes me think it is either the weather or a virus. My current theory is that I haven't watered them deeply enough, and also that they might need more plant food since they are quite close together and fruiting heavily. Sorry I don't have an answer for you, but I would be curious to know if any of that sounds familiar to you. Good luck!