Butternut squash · Mosul, Nineveh, Iraq
When to plant butternut squash in Mosul
Main outdoor window
9-30 Mar
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
23 February
In Mosul, 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 Mosul
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
26 Jan - 16 Feb
Four weeks before your last frost, under cover or on a windowsill.
Plant out
9-30 Mar
Two weeks after your last frost.
Harvest
1 Sep - 31 Oct
Butternut squash through the year
Against the frost risk in Mosul
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 Mosul.
The median frost-free season here is 294 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 Mosul
Other vegetables to time
Growing butternut squash in Mosul
When should I plant butternut squash in Mosul?
Aim for 9-30 Mar in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 4-25 Apr - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will butternut squash be ready to harvest in Mosul?
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.