Butternut squash · Oujda, Oriental, Morocco
When to plant butternut squash in Oujda
Main outdoor window
25 Mar - 15 Apr
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
11 March
In Oujda, 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 Oujda
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
11 Feb - 4 Mar
Four weeks before your last frost, under cover or on a windowsill.
Plant out
25 Mar - 15 Apr
Two weeks after your last frost.
Harvest
1 Sep - 31 Oct
Butternut squash through the year
Against the frost risk in Oujda
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 Oujda.
The median frost-free season here is 272 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 Oujda
Other vegetables to time
Growing butternut squash in Oujda
When should I plant butternut squash in Oujda?
Aim for 25 Mar - 15 Apr in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 12 Apr - 3 May - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will butternut squash be ready to harvest in Oujda?
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.