[Nicola_D]

My MIL gave me a butternut squash seedling, which I've planted into a largish pot on my patio. It's been doing really well, but this last week I've noticed the lower leaves have started going a paler yellowy green. It's affecting about half the leaves from the bottom up. Could I be over watering it, or is this just because it's putting it's engery into new growth and fruit.

There's a flower bud at every juncture along the main stem and the lower ones have opened and dropped off. I'm guessing, as they look very similar to courgette flowers, that they have male and female flowers and indeed last night I noticed the last two flower buds have little butternut squash shaped green lumps behind the bud, so I'm hoping the flowers will open at the same time as male ones are so they can pollinate.

I'm a novice to veg growing in general and so have a few questions....

Is it normal for there to be just one main stem with large leaves coming off it all along the length or should I have been pinching out the growing tip to make it bushier?

How much water do they like? I've been watering everyday in warm weather and every 2 to 3 days in the cooler weather and i've been feeding with tomato feed once a week

When the female flowers open should I force pollination? or leave nature to it, there's not been many bees about in my back garden this year

What's the best way to support it? Butternut squashes seem kinda heavy in the supermarket!

When will it be ready to harvest? I think it was probbly planted in late March/early April as I got the seedling at the start of May.