Thursday, April 21, 2005

It's the final count down to germinating...

Remember that starting your seeds any earlier than April 25th has not shown any advantage - no matter where you live.

Most seedlings will need to be transplanted after 10 days from sprouting in a pot (1 or 2 gallon pots work great). Ideally we only transplant our seedlings once as they are quite sensitive and often go into shock. In a perfect world the garden soil will be nice and warm allowing the plant to start growing right away. The reality is that we need to do whatever we can to help pre-warm the ground. I choose to "solarize" the soil by covering it with plastic this early, and opening a hole for the seedling at planting time. Of course it is critical to protect the seedling, once it has been transplanted, using makeshift greenhouse/igloo/coldframe whatever it takes to ensure the young plant is protected from the cold spring weather.


Several Giant Pumpkin growers have found a great source of hard-to-find supplies at www.pumpkinsupply.com Check it out!

Germinating seeds is very difficult. Follow all the advice regarding filling, soaking, warming, and sprouting your seeds. You won't be sorry. We are still in need of volunteers to help out before and/or during our weigh off in September. Please contact me if you are able to contribute some time and energy - no task is too daunting, I promise. We especially need someone to take on the children's area - I have all the art supplies. Also, anyone who is willing to round up some prizes from our generous local sponsors would help immensely. Thanks.

Best of luck with your seeds -
Kim

P. S. If you would like to recieve monthly emails from me regarding our Big Sky Giant Pumpkin Growers weigh off as well as the latest issue of the Pumpkin Nook News send me a note, mtgiants@bigsky.net

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home