These dark orange fruits will reach up to about 4kg in weight, a manageable size. I add lots of pumpkin recipes to the recipe blogs leading up to halloween, so you will have lots of ideas for eating your crop.
£1.75 per pack (6 seeds)
An early butternut, which has been developed in the U.K. to cope with our unreliable weather. Though the fruits are a little smaller, it is a good, reliable cropper and each plant should produce up to about seven fruits.
£1.45 per pack (6 seeds)
GROW PUMPKINS AND WINTER SQUASHES
Preparation
Choose a sunny, sheltered spot with fertile soil with good water retention. It is beneficial to dig a bucket sized hole and fill it with compost where the final growing spot is.
Sowing
Sow indoors: Apr-May. Sow seeds on their sides 1cm deep in 7.5cm pots of compost. Propogate until germination (at 18-21 C). Once the plants have grown two true leaves they can begin to be hardened off, as long as there is no risk of frost. Plant about 120cm apart. Keep well watered around the plants, but not on them.
Sow outdoors: Sow directly from May to June 2.5cm deep, covering with a cloche to protect as long as possible.
Growing and Harvesting
A good tip is to cover the ground around plants with black polythene; this inhibits weeds and keeps the fruit off the soil (you can add small drainage holes to prevent puddles). Raise fruits from the surface with wood, a piece of brick or something similar. Keep well watered at the roots. You can feed with a high-potash fertiliser every 2 weeks for extra benefit when the fruits start to swell. Fruits will be ready after 20-24 weeks. To keep over the winter, remove fruits before the first frosts and cure at 27-32 C and then store at about 10 C.
