This is seriously not right

One by one my squash, Winter Festival, harvested in October, are rotting at the stem end.



I don't know what has gone wrong since I treated them the same as in previous years.
The 2 below are last year's fruits that we haven't got around to eating!! They've dried out a bit but no signs of decay otherwise.



The only things that I could think that differs from previous years are:

1. We had a rather wet September, maybe by the time I picked the squashes there was just too much moisture inside the fruits?
2. Since I picked them, there haven't been many sunny days for them to be baked (cured).

But if these are the reasons, do any of the squash growers here suffer the same problem?
Or maybe I've been doing something wrong all along?

This is what I always do: After I pick them, I wash them clean, dry them with a cloth, then put them in wooden boxes in single layer. When it is sunny I put them out in the sun, otherwise they stay in the shed or garage. When the weather gets cold I put them on a rack sitting near a window in an unheated spare bedroom. I do wonder sometimes, when I store them should I keep the stem pointing upward or down?

Any ideas?

 

We've had some silly temperature swings recently, i've noticed bad condensation on stuff because it got really cold and then really humid for a few days.

Pickle jar on the worktop got surrounded by mold where the condensation ran off it and all my Rizlas stuck together

Could be that they had the same problem with damp running down the stems.

 

Hi HsuH, It's not just yours! Last year I lost all my stored butternut and potimarron squashes within a month of storing them. The onions and garlic didn't keep well either. I'm sure you're right about the moisture content being a factor, and probably ambient humidity too.
It looks as though this year will be better here as we had two completely dry, sunny months in September and October and so far the squashes are storing well.

 

Think it's this mad weather my shed at allotment has got mole growing on a few of the surfaces and stuff like cups and stove

 

I'm sure I've read somewhere that they store best upside down. Can't find any such advice by googling though.

 

Thank for all your comments.

@noisette47, I'm having exactly the same problem you had last year, I think. My butternuts started to develop rot within 2-3 weeks of picking, followed by these Winter Festivals

I suppose this could be a possibility. If this is the case, storing the squashes upside down would be better.

Right, I now have the remaining squashes turned. Fingers crossed and hope for the best.

 

Looking at your slatted storage, it appeared to be ideal for trying upside down storage. I thought it might be interesting to try both orientations for comparison.