You can create a mini-hot house environment that usually speeds ground germination up as well, by placing a clear plastic container over the area where your squash seeds are in the ground. Make sure to situate your squash plants in an area that receives at least 8 hours of sun a day for optimum performance. Cut a hole in the plastic for each plant. To hasten squash seed germination outdoors, mulch your planting area with black plastic or weed cloth. If your outdoor sown squash seeds have germinated, let those keep growing and give your indoor potted, cold-hardened squash starts to a friend. Don’t wait too long to plant after this, or your plant will become root bound.

By placing the seedlings outside in a protected area for 5 days or more, you’ll help the plant adjust to outdoor conditions. In a couple of weeks your indoor-sown plants will be ready to bring outdoors and “cold harden” them off. Once they germinate, squash seedlings grow quickly. Summer squash can be planted later and still reach maturity. The soil heats up fast in this berm, so I usually direct sow my winter squash seeds there as early as I can. Since winter squash takes more days to mature harvest date, I grow these in a south facing berm covered in black weed-barrier cloth. delicata, butternut, acorn) and summer squash (e.g.zucchini, patty pan) indoors now in pots and plant some outdoors after the soil warms up to at least 60 degrees. If you really want to know if it is time to plant, get yourself a soil thermometer. You’ll have some success above 60 degrees, but any soil cooler than this, and squash seeds will most likely rot. Squash seeds germinate best when the soil temperature is at least 70 degrees F. Then, I plant some squash directly from seed outdoors. I start some seeds indoors in 4 to 6-inch pots in the last half of April, about 2 weeks before Salem’s average last frost, which is in early May.

Which works better?Īnswer: Planting squash seed directly and starting the plants indoors both work well for me. Question: I am wondering whether it is better to start squash seeds indoors then transplant outside or just wait and plant the seed outdoors.

Squash seedlings