Content
Many gardeners grow pumpkins on their plots. This berry, and from a biological point of view, it is a berry, has unique nutritional and medicinal properties. Agricultural technology is not difficult; 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 do you need seedlings?
In the southern regions there are no problems with growing pumpkin; any vegetable, even the late-ripening one, will ripen here. In the middle zone and in other regions with short and cool summers, even early-ripening varieties of pumpkin may not ripen when sown in the ground. An unripe pumpkin will not be stored. It turns out that the gardener’s work has gone down the drain, and the long-awaited supply of vegetables for the winter will not appear. In all cool regions there is an excellent way out of the situation - growing pumpkin seedlings. All vegetables of the pumpkin family, when planted in an apartment, easily stretch. This article describes how to plant pumpkin seedlings at home to get strong and well-developed plants.
Sowing time
To understand when to plant pumpkin seedlings, you need to understand what it should be like at the time of planting.
Experienced gardeners believe that Pumpkin seedlings must have 3 true leaves before planting. As a rule, this happens if it has been growing indoors for a month. You can limit yourself to 3 weeks of pumpkin cultivation if the deadlines are running out. It is not recommended to keep pumpkin seedlings in an apartment for more than a month. A strong plant with a developed root system will feel 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 be the same.
Such weather conditions occur at different times in different regions. 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 timing of 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 Chernozem
The guaranteed frost-free period here begins on May 10. Pumpkin seedlings are sown in the first ten days of April.
Middle lane
Frosts will definitely not occur starting from June 10th. Therefore, the question of when to plant pumpkin seedlings in the Moscow region can be answered: at the end of the first ten days of May.
Ural and Siberia
To understand when to plant pumpkin seedlings in Siberia or the Urals, consider the climate features in this region. Summer is even shorter here. The frost-free period begins in mid-June. Therefore, you should not plant pumpkins in the Urals and Siberia before the second ten days of May.
Many gardeners are guided by the lunar calendar when sowing various crops.
We sow, checking with the Moon
If you analyze the lunar calendar, you can get the following answer to the question - when to plant pumpkin seedlings in 2023:
Sow pumpkin seeds for seedlings
In order for the seeds to germinate quickly and the sprouts to be healthy and strong, they need to be properly processed.
Seed preparation
- We select pumpkin seeds visually and by touch: they should be large and plump and not damaged.
- We heat the selected seeds for 2 to 3 hours in warm water, its temperature should not exceed 50 degrees.
- For all pumpkin crops, the seeds must be soaked before sowing; those that have already sprouted must be sown. The easiest way is to wrap them in a damp cloth and leave them in the room until they bite.
- If you want to increase the cold resistance of plants, which is especially important for nutmeg pumpkins, you can keep 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 seedlings. If the seed has good germination, the first hatching seeds can be observed after 4-5 days.
This may seem strange to you, but 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 often sown this way. A regular plastic bag is used as a diaper. The method of growing pumpkin seedlings in a snail is not much different. Let's look at it in detail.
- For sowing, you can use both dry and processed pumpkin seeds in a growth stimulant 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 the strip of film or bag should be the same as that of a roll of toilet paper; the length can be arbitrary.
Sowing technology:
- lay out a strip of film on the table;
- unwind 2 rolls of toilet paper on top so that you get layers, they should lie on top of the film;
- To wet toilet paper, you can use ordinary settled water, but the best result is obtained when using a solution of a growth stimulator;
- Place pumpkin seeds at one end of the toilet paper at a distance of 4 to 5 cm. The seeds should be oriented so that the spout is pointing down.
- cover everything with one or two layers of toilet paper, which needs to be moistened. The paper should be damp, but not wet, so pouring water on it is best done with a spray bottle.
- roll the film into a snail roll;
- We place the roll in any container of suitable height - the side where the seeds are should be at the bottom, pour a little more than a centimeter of water to the bottom of the container;
- cover the structure with a bag or cling film;
- place in a warm place.
Now we just have to wait for the shoots to appear; they may appear as early as the fourth or fifth day. We place 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 replanting when they have a second true leaf. With this method of growing, the roots do not become intertwined and are not damaged when placed in a cup of soil.
You can watch the video for more information about this interesting method of sowing seeds:
Soil and containers for sowing
Like all vegetables of this family, pumpkin has a negative attitude towards damage to the root system and does not tolerate transplantation very well. Therefore, the best way out is to sow the seeds directly into 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, transfer them to pots with a diameter of 14 cm;
- You can plant the pumpkin right away in a large pot, but fill it only halfway with soil, adding more as the plant grows.
If you are going to plant pumpkin seeds in store-bought soil, you should give preference to the one intended for cucumbers. It’s easy to prepare the soil mixture yourself using the following recipe:
- one part of humus and rotted, but by no means fresh, sawdust;
- two parts peat.
For every 3 kg of finished soil, add three teaspoons of complete mineral fertilizer.
Sowing seeds
You need to know how to properly plant pumpkin 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, the root of the hatched seeds should look down. The soil should be moist, but not waterlogged. If you cover the pots with film, shoots may appear as early as 4-5 days.
Further care
Pumpkin loves warmth and light, so a place for sprouts is allocated on the windowsill of a south-facing window. To prevent seedlings from rapidly stretching in the first days after germination, the temperature for them 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.
Pumpkin seedlings need moderate watering and only warm water. Plants need to be fertilized twice with full mineral fertilizer and must be hardened off before planting. To do this, the seedlings are taken outside, gradually increasing the time they spend in the fresh air.
Growing pumpkin seedlings indoors allows you to plant even late-ripening nutmeg varieties in the middle zone and get a good harvest. In the Urals and Siberia, when grown from seedlings, you can get a guaranteed harvest of early and mid-season varieties.
