When to plant pumpkin seedlings

Many gardeners grow pumpkins on their plots. This berry, and from the point of view of biology, it is a berry, has unique nutritional and medicinal properties. Agrotechnics does not represent its complexity; even novice gardeners can grow a pumpkin. In addition, it has the most valuable property – many varieties can be stored without loss of quality until spring.

Why seedlings are needed

In the southern regions, there are no problems with growing pumpkins; any, even the most late-ripening vegetable, will ripen here. In the middle lane and in other regions with a short and cool summer, when sown in the ground, even early-ripening pumpkin varieties may not ripen. An unripe pumpkin will not be stored. It turns out that the work of the gardener went down the drain, the long-awaited supply of vegetables for the winter will not appear. In all cool regions, there is an excellent way out – growing pumpkin seedlings. All vegetables of the pumpkin family, when planted in an apartment, are easily pulled out. How to plant a pumpkin for seedlings at home in order to get strong and well-developed plants is described in this article.

Terms of sowing

To understand when to plant a pumpkin for seedlings, you need to figure out what it should be like at the time of planting.

Experienced gardeners believe that pumpkin seedlings should have 3 true leaves before planting. As a rule, this happens if she grew up in room conditions for a month. You can limit yourself to 3 weeks of growing pumpkins if the deadlines are running out. It is not recommended to keep pumpkin seedlings in the apartment for more than a month. A strong plant with a developed root system will become cramped in any pot.

By the time the grown pumpkin seedlings are planted, the soil and air must meet the following requirements:

• at a depth of 10 cm, the soil must have at least 15 degrees of heat;
• the average daily air temperature should have the same value.

Such weather conditions in different regions occur at different times. But it is from the moment the soil is ready for planting pumpkins that you need to calculate the planting time. Each region has its own terms for the onset of return frosts and the arrival of stable heat. Let us consider them in more detail for each region based on long-term observations.

Central Black Earth

The guaranteed frost-free period here starts from May 10th. Pumpkin seedlings are sown in the first decade of April.

Middle band

Frosts will definitely not come, starting from June 10. Therefore, the question of when to plant a pumpkin for seedlings in the Moscow region can be answered: at the end of the first decade of May.

Ural and Siberia

To understand when to plant pumpkin seedlings in Siberia or the Urals, consider the climate in this region. Summer is even shorter here. The frost-free period begins in mid-June. Therefore, earlier than in the second decade of May, sowing pumpkins in the Urals and Siberia is not worth doing.

Many gardeners, when sowing various crops, are guided by the lunar calendar.

We sow, consulting the moon

If you analyze the lunar calendar, you can get the following answer to the question – when to plant a pumpkin for seedlings in 2018:

• the best days in April: April 27-29, valid – April 17-18 and April 21-22, but in this case the fruits will not be suitable for seeds;
• in May it will be possible to do this on 1, 4-6, 9-11 and from 24 to 28. 

Sowing pumpkin seeds for seedlings

In order for the seeds to sprout quickly, and the sprouts to be healthy and strong, they must be properly processed.

Seed preparation

• Pumpkin seeds are selected visually and by touch: they should be large and plump, not damaged.
• We warm the selected seeds for 2 to 3 hours in warm water, its temperature should not exceed 50 degrees.
• For all pumpkin crops, seeds must be soaked before sowing, sowing those that have already hatched. The easiest way is to wrap them in a damp cloth and soak until pecking in the room.
• If there is a desire to increase the cold resistance of plants, which is especially important for nutmeg pumpkins, you can hold them on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator without removing them from a damp cloth for 3 to 5 days.

To correctly calculate the timing of sowing, you should know when to germinate pumpkin for seedlings. If the seed has good germination, the first hatched seeds can be observed after 4-5 days.

It may seem strange to you, but the pumpkin seedlings can spend the first time in diapers.

Pumpkin seedlings in a snail

The method of planting seeds in diapers has already been tried by many gardeners, tomatoes are sown so often. As a diaper, a regular plastic bag is used. The method of growing pumpkin seedlings in a snail is slightly different from it. Let’s consider it in all details.

• For sowing, you can use both dry and pumpkin seeds treated in a growth stimulator solution.
• We will need plastic bags or just strips of old garden film.
• You also need toilet paper, which can be folded into 2, but preferably 4 layers.
• The height of a strip of film or a bag should be the same as that of a toilet paper roll, the length can be arbitrary.

Sowing technology:

• lay out a strip of film on the table;
• unwind 2 rolls of toilet paper from above so that layers are obtained, they should lie on top of the film;
• you can use ordinary settled water to wet toilet paper, but the best result is obtained when using a growth stimulator solution;
• we lay out pumpkin seeds from one end of the toilet paper at a distance of 4 to 5 cm. The seeds must be oriented so that the spout is pointing down.
• cover everything with one or two layers of toilet paper, which must be moistened. The paper should be damp, but not wet, so pouring water on it should not be best moistened with a spray bottle.
• we twist the film with a snail roll;
• we put the roll in any container that is suitable in height – the side where the seeds should be at the bottom, pour a little more than a centimeter of water into the bottom of the container;
• cover the structure with a bag or cling film;
• put in heat.

Now it remains to wait for the shoots, they may appear already on the fourth or fifth day. We put our snail on a bright and warm windowsill. Do not forget to add water from time to time, keeping its level at 1 cm. Young plants will need to be transplanted when they have a second true leaf. With this method of growing, the roots do not intertwine and are not damaged when placed in a cup with the ground.

You can see more about this interesting way of sowing seeds in the video:

Soil and containers for sowing

Like all vegetables of this family, pumpkin has a negative attitude towards damage to the root system, and it does not tolerate transplanting very well. Therefore, the best way out is to sow the seeds immediately in individual containers.

The diameter of the pot depends on the chosen method of growing seedlings:

• you can first plant pumpkin seeds in pots with a diameter of about 6 cm, and a couple of weeks after germination, transship into pots with a diameter of 14 cm;

• you can plant a pumpkin immediately in a large pot, but fill the earth only up to half, adding it as the plant grows.

If pumpkin seeds are going to be planted in store soil, preference should be given to what is intended for cucumbers. It is easy to prepare the soil mixture yourself, guided by the following recipe:

• one part of humus and rotted, but by no means fresh, sawdust;
• two pieces of peat.

For every 3 kg of prepared soil, add three teaspoons of complete mineral fertilizer.

Seed sowing

You need to know how to properly plant a pumpkin for seedlings. The depth of sowing pumpkins in open ground is from 8 to 10 cm. In a pot, they are planted no deeper than 3 cm, while the root of the hatched seeds should look down. The soil should be moist, but not waterlogged. If you cover the pots with foil, seedlings may appear as early as 4-5 days.

Further Care

The pumpkin loves heat and light very much, so a place for seedlings is allotted on the windowsill of the south window. So that in the first days after germination, the seedlings do not rapidly stretch, the temperature for it should not exceed 18 degrees during the day and 13 degrees at night. In the future, the optimal daytime temperature is up to 25 degrees and up to 15 degrees at night.

Watering pumpkin seedlings need moderate and only warm water. Plants need double top dressing with full mineral fertilizer and mandatory hardening before planting. To do this, the seedlings are taken out into the street, gradually increasing the time it stays in the fresh air.

Growing pumpkin seedlings at room conditions allows you to plant even late-ripening nutmeg varieties in the middle lane and get a good harvest. In the Urals and Siberia, when growing from seedlings, you can get a guaranteed harvest of early and mid-ripening varieties.