Honeybaby Hybrid Butternut Squash Seeds

Days to Maturity: 90 from direct sow

All-America Selections (AAS) Winner 2009

Yes, it's true—you can grow this super-compact winter squash in a patio container. Honeybaby hybrid received a national All-America Selections award for its delicious flavor, space-saving habit, and quick finish. You'll love just how easy it makes growing squash.

Honeybaby sets lightbulb-shaped fruit with a hard creamy beige shell and bright orange flesh. It reaches about 6 to 7 inches long and weighs 4 to 8 ounces, making it a good size for one to two servings. The flavor is really exceptional—it's meatier and more complex than others, with that nutty, sweet overlay that makes butternut such a great choice for baking with a little butter and sugar. The seed cavity is small, so you'll get an extra bite or two out of every Honeybaby, too.

And this compact fruit size matches a space-saving plant habit. Honeybaby sets about 9 fruits per plant, and if you want to grow it in a container, just get a big flowerpot, tub, or other decent-sized container and train it up a trellis, chain-ink fence, railing, or other vertical support. Tie the fruiting stems as the squash begins to emerge, and it will dangle like enormous lights from the branches. You'll like "air grown" squash better too—there's no bad side and less danger of rot from too much moisture, holes from nibbling crawlers, etc.

Honeybaby has been billed as a great choice for the southeast because of its powdery mildew resistance. In humid climates, some squash simply mildews out—very annoying to gardeners have been assured it's so easy to grow. Honeybaby withstands long, humid summers better than most others. Terrific mildew resistance improves the yields every time.

Give Honeybaby a try in any sunny spot, and enjoy homegrown butternuts all winter long . . . if you can bear to keep from eating them the minute you bring in the harvest, that is.

Grow Honeybaby the way you would other winter squash. In the garden, sow the seeds 1 inch deep after all danger of frost, spacing the seeds of this compact plant should be spaced 4 to 5 feet apart. (You don't have to trellis it in the garden, so it sprawls comfortably—yet still remains compact.) Harvest the fruit when the plants die back or just before frost. Cut and cure the fruit in a well-ventilated area, then store at 50 to 55 degrees Fahrenheit.