GardenWinter Squash variety
Uncle David's Dakota Dessert Buttercup Winter Squash
✓ In your garden
Uncle David's Dakota Dessert Buttercup is a buttercup winter squash, ready in about 95 days. Let it mature to a hard rind and cure it in the sun, and it stores for months — roast it, mash it, or make soup. It’s a long-season, space-hungry vine; plant after frost.
“A hard-shelled winter squash that cures and stores for months.”
Growing basics — shared by every winter squash
Uncle David's Dakota Dessert Buttercup grows like any other winter squash. The full picture — how deep to plant, spacing, feeding, pests, harvest — lives on the Winter Squash page so it's maintained in one place.
- Sun
- Full Sun
- Spacing (in row)
- 36–48 in
- Row spacing
- 72–96 in
- Planting depth
- 0.75–2 in
- Soil pH
- 6–6.5
- Water
- Moderate
What is Uncle David's Dakota Dessert Buttercup good for?
- Roasting & soupSweet, dense flesh. Great
- Winter storageCured, it keeps for months. Great
- Eaten rawHard-shelled — it needs cooking. Skip it
From how it grows — kitchens vary.
What Uncle David's Dakota Dessert Buttercup is known for
We hold one description of this variety and no record of who made it, so it is not printed here. An unattributed claim about a plant is a claim we would be making ourselves, and we would rather show you the gap than fill it.
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Want the full 10/50/90% odds + nearest stations? Open the frost tool →When to plant Uncle David's Dakota Dessert Buttercup in your zone
Zone 6bGreenhouse or cover on: your start slides ~4 weeks earlier and your harvest stretches ~3 weeks later (shown striped).
Planting seeds straight in the ground only works where the season's long and warm — most gardeners start seeds indoors or buy young plants, or you'd pick your first tomato right as frost hits.
Comfortable — first ripe fruit lands around early Aug, well before your typical frost (~late Oct).
- Plant seeds outside
- early May – early May
- Growing
- early May – early Aug
- Picking
- early Aug – mid Aug
Typical dates for zone 6b — set your zone or ZIP above for yours.
Growing Uncle David's Dakota Dessert Buttercup — the things that trip people up
- Let it ripen fully on the vine — a rind you can’t dent with a thumbnail — then cut with a bit of stem and cure in the sun a week or two before storing.
- These are long-season, space-hungry vines. Give them a long warm summer, rich soil, and room to run, and watch for squash bugs and vine borers.
Uncle David's Dakota Dessert Buttercup winter squash at a glance
| Type | Buttercup |
|---|---|
| Grows as | Bush (determinate) |
| Days to ripe | 95 days after you plant it outside |
| Color | Green |
Extra fields from seed-catalog listings and university growing guides. Days to ripe and disease resistance shift with your climate and seed source — double-check with your local extension office before you buy.
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Common questions about Uncle David's Dakota Dessert Buttercup
How long does Uncle David's Dakota Dessert Buttercup take to grow?
About 95 days to a fully mature fruit — a long-season crop, so start it early enough to beat your first fall frost.
How do I store Uncle David's Dakota Dessert Buttercup?
Cure it in the sun for a week or two after harvest, then keep it somewhere cool and dry (not the fridge). Well-cured winter squash keeps for months.