Allotments 4 All

Whilst I'm not new to fruit and veg growing, any success I have enjoyed has been by lucky chance rather than by design. I'm finding the germination of courgette and squash seeds to be a very hit and miss process. Any guidance is very welcome.

Always set squash and courgette seeds on their side in compost so they don't 'hold' the water on them..little gentle heat is helpful and they don't need to be set very deep..you can always add more compost later on.
I like to mix bit of grit or vermiculate into compost so it is quite free draining mixture.
And be careful with watering..biggest killer is too wet compost.

Welcome to A4a!
First thing I'd say is- not yet! It's easy to sow courgettes and squash too early and then find they are huge before you can safely plant them out. Depends where you are, but last year I started mine on 17th April.
Secondly, chitting helps- wrap the seeds in some damp kitchen roll and put the whole thing in a plastic bag to keep it damp. Within a few days to a week they should sprout, then you can pot them up.
The above are both things I've learned from this forum and they work for me, so good luck!

I now chit a lot of my seeds, I place them on a wet kitchen towel in a sealed plastic box.

I have 2 sets of squash seeds in boxes at the moment, they are from packets that I tried 2 years ago in pots but nothing came up.

So far I have 9/10 from one lot, but only 1/8 from the other lot so clearly this second lot is from a duff batch, but I have got 1 and did not have to use 8 pots + compost + space to find it.

Don't keep them too wet. I don't have any trouble germinating them on a windowsill, but they can rot if they're given too much water.

I had excellent squash last year by direct sowing! I will now do that all the time I think. I find they don't always transplant well. I prepared the bed full of organic material, and made a few holes, filled with rich compost and sowed 2 seeds in each, a stick and a plastic water bottle fitted firmly around it. In a week they had all come through and once they had their true leaves, off came the bottle. I did that early May.

I am trying cucumbers for the first time this year and I will do it like that too.

They transplant fine if you avoid checking, but they soon become rootbound if you're not careful.