Violina Rugosa Butternut Squash

I planted this with high hopes, since I'd tasted the squash and knew how outstanding it could be. All six seeds germinated, but produced only male flowers until late August, when three female flowers appeared. Of those, one managed to grow a little before the first frost. That squash was immature when harvested, but still tasted pretty good. Maybe the problem was the unusually hot summer. Maybe the seed got hybridized with something else and ended up mostly sterile. I'm an experienced gardener, so the problem was probably not due to anything I did. I'll give it one more try.

I grew these during 2020 as an experiment-only. These squash exceeded my expectations and to date (now Sept 2022) in all my squash growing years, No butternut varieties have EVER done as well as these! I had two plants that I planted on the edge of my strawberry patch and they over took everything with a 15 sq ft range. I had well over 1 dozen squash with most being between 2-3 feet in length. The picture is of my smaller squash on an cable spool I use as a garden table. They lasted for months in my basement. One of the best selling points is that I am in Central Wi with cooler springs, rainy Julys, and burst of hot/humid followed by cool dry spells. These squash did NOT suffer after our first frost but remained green! I’m only sad that I misplaced the seeds I intended to save. These also did well with pest pressure. I bought the seeds originally to be planted when we lived in FL thinking they would be perfect there. They are amazing for northern growers, too! I’m growing these again in 2023!