Butternut squash · Skardu, Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan
When to plant butternut squash in Skardu
Main outdoor window
28 Jun - 19 Jul
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
14 June
In Skardu, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
1 Sep - 31 Oct
If you plant at the start of the window.
The average last frost. Half of all years are later than this.
Step by step in Skardu
Each window is a range, not a single day. Earlier in the range buys you a longer season; later in it buys you a safer one.
Start indoors
17 May - 7 Jun
Four weeks before your last frost, under cover or on a windowsill.
Plant out
28 Jun - 19 Jul
Two weeks after your last frost.
Harvest
1 Sep - 31 Oct
Butternut squash through the year
Against the frost risk in Skardu
Why these dates
Start indoors four weeks before the last frost and plant out two weeks after it. Count back from the first autumn frost: it needs a clear hundred days of warmth after planting out.
Killed at 0C. Fruit still on the vine at the first frost will not store, so cut with a length of stem and cure in the sun for a fortnight beforehand.
Seed packets and extension guides express timing as weeks either side of the last spring frost, because that is the only reference point that travels. Butternut squash are timed from 4 weeks before that frost for an indoor start, with planting out 2 weeks after it, and this page simply resolves those offsets against the frost date computed for Skardu.
The median frost-free season here is 95 days, against 100 to 120 days to maturity for this crop counted from planting out. That margin is what decides whether a late sowing is worth attempting.
Also in Skardu
Other vegetables to time
Growing butternut squash in Skardu
When should I plant butternut squash in Skardu?
Aim for 28 Jun - 19 Jul in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 10-31 Jul - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will butternut squash be ready to harvest in Skardu?
Expect to start picking around 1 Sep - 31 Oct, based on 100 to 120 days to maturity from the planting date calculated for this location.
How much frost will butternut squash tolerate?
Killed at 0C. Fruit still on the vine at the first frost will not store, so cut with a length of stem and cure in the sun for a fortnight beforehand.