allenwrench, last year my butternuts lasted all winter, from the first part of October until I ate the last one on Easter. For some reason, though, this year they are all moldy by Christmas, and I chopped them up and fed them to the cattle.

I don't know what the difference is, except this summer was very wet and temperatures were never extremely hot, so I'm blaming it on the weather and growing conditions. Everything else was exactly the same, from the seed source to the soil and amendments to the storage area.

Annie

I always wash mine, with a little bleach solution. I have 2 left that are perfectly good, but some of my other winter squash have gone by the wayside. Lori

Like gardengal I wash mine with a mild bleach solution. Still in my climate I am happy if I get 4 months storage. We ate the last one this past week.

But then I don't harvest mine until quite a bit later than those further north - usually in early November.

Dave

Allenwrench, is your storage kind of humid? My guess is they don't like too much humidity.

I've done the bleach wash, too, but for some reason forgot about doing that. Mostly now I just keep them spaced out on shelves in my dim, 56 F in winter (don't remember summer temps) basement. No doubt quality of the squash at harvest makes a huge difference. Last year I decided to can them for the first time as they seemed immature and not having the best surface integrity.

Last week I threw in the compost, a squash harvested in late summer 2015. So that was a long keeper. I should have thought to save seeds from that one specifically.

I think I will go back to the bleach wash this year.

I also do the bleach wash, and try to wait to harvest until the butternuts are dark tan and the shells are hard. I was trying to outwit a couple of groundhogs this year, so some were picked before I would have liked, but we ate a couple and they were ripe, so we went ahead and picked and cured them.

My storage is an unheated room on the south side of the house, used for a root cellar and storage for my myriad cake pans. (grin) . It has no windows and stays about 45 or 50F all winter, so usually my vegetables store well there on shelves.

Annie