Topic: Squash sowing yet ?

[Dadnlad]

Trying to gauge timing for sowing winter squash seeds

Our plot is in a frost pocket, so delicates have to wait to be planted out until early June ::)

Question is, how long between sowing and planting out the young squashlings ?

[Tulipa]

Hi Dadnlad,

I usually sow beginning of May for planting out early June, I am never one to risk the frost, not worth it after all that growing!  Last year I didn't sow until 16th May, must have been busy digging or something!  But usually it is the first week in May for me.

Hope that helps

T.

[antipodes]

They do get big fairly quickly, they are real Triffids! I sowed mine a few days ago, they are already up and I will plant them out in about 2 or 3 weeks time... But I am in France and they can go out early May...

[chriscross1966]

I'm sowing mine this weekend to plant out first week of June.... start them in modules that get 12 to a seed tray and then move them to 1 litre pots once they're showing

chrisc

[shirlton]

Ours are getting too big for the pots they are in so am goint to get them into 1 litre pots this weekend and get them nice and big before they go out so that they will crop earlier hopefully :)

[Squashfan]

Dadnlad, please wait until the end of May, no matter how good the weather is! I've managed to kill too many of my nice squash seedlings due to impatience. I :-[ n fact, I'd say, beginning of June is fine too. They are triffids and will spring out quickly once established. Make sure you plant them in plenty of compost.

[chriscross1966]

Correction, a week or so yet for me, just filled the kitchen up with bean and pea sowwings.... have 23 gravel trays in the kitchen, no more space......

chrisc

[Dadnlad]

Which  is quicker from sowing to planting out then -  squashes or beans ?

[chriscross1966]

Beans are a bit more manageable if they're hanging around in pots slightly longer than they should be and don't sulk quite as much as squash and sweetcorn (the other thing that has yet to be sown)....I'll be sowing about 60 squash seeds (Ihave the space for them it might as well grow them through the weed plastic as leaving it fallow)... last year I planted out early May and the plants just sat there for six weeks and did nothing... next door plot but one sowed after I'd planted out (indoors) planted out 1st week of June and her plants were way bigger than mine and cropped earlier too..... and that was a nice-ish spring compared to this years...... any squash out ATM are going to need heaters under their cloches tonight/tomorrow cos it'll get so cold,

The peas are already trying to germinate after only two days.... some of them have pushed themselves to the top of the pots and you can see the fuzzy halo of germination fungi .... one of the few fungi that survive the Cheshunt compound in my experience... hopefully the Giganda beans will germinate quickly, they're taking up half my roottrainers, not so fussed about the crimson broadies in the other half cos I care a bit less about them and I can buy seeds... the Giganda's came in a swap and I have 16 seeds and that's it..... They're the bean that will be babied this year and also my main experimental plant in a way...  last year it was squash... they grow well on my allotment, need little looking after once they're going and I find I like the end result too so this year there's a lot of squash, got the variety count up by swapping (I ran a swap earlier this year) but I learned my lesson about sowing too early......

chrisc

[grannyjanny]

Chris do you have a partner ;). My OH hates one windowsill with seedlings on it, miserable b....r.

[Robert_Brenchley]

I suffer serious restrictions on using windowsills so I know what you mean!

[chriscross1966]

Chris do you have a partner ;). My OH hates one windowsill with seedlings on it, miserable b....r.

No, I live in glorious isolation.... next to the kitchen table there is a Norfolk Greenhouses staging set ( minus a couple of layers cos they're too close together if fully populated).... that will hold 16 trays, the kitchen table has the propagators (an 8W Stewart single, a 14W single and a thermostatically controlled Jemp Botanic double) and I can just squeeze four trays onto the kitchen windowsill, three have seeds ATM and the other has a pair of largish pots of sandy compost with a clump of Basil in each....

That said the folks are coming round today so I'd better tidy the place up and mop the floor......

chrisc

[grannyjanny]

Can I move in with you Chris ;).

[shirlton]

At the beginning of the year every windowsill with a radiator under it has got something growing on it.I'm afraid Tonys and my houseproud days went out of the window when we started growing our own.
The house just wouldn't seem the same without the windowsill greenhouses.
When they go outside it looks quite bare.A bit like when you take the Christmas decorations down

[chriscross1966]

Can I move in with you Chris ;).

not if you're bringing plants with you... I don't have any room......

chrisc