Hi pumpkin heads.
If you have giant pumpkin seeds you should have already started them off for the season, if you haven’t don’t panic just get onto it right now.
How to start seeds off
Seed starting is really easy and really does give your seeds the best start. To find out more about seed starting then check out Seed Starting in the How To section of the website.
How my seed starting has been going
I started off two seeds for my season, the 2008 Neptune whose family tree looks like this:
and the 1784 Glasier whose family tree looks like this:
I started these seeds off by:
- Making sure they were well labelled
- Filing the edges
- Placing between a wet paper towel that had been submerged in warm water and he excess squeezed out.
- Put into a plastic zip lock type bag that was labelled.
- Put on top of the hot water cylinder.
I didn’t pre soak my seeds like I have done in previous years.
Fastest germination I have ever had
Over the years I have had quite successful germination rates with only one or two never germinating, so I wasn’t too worried about these ones. But I wasn’t expecting such rapid germiantion, not only did they swell and pop open the root started coming and growing at a seemingly fast rate.
Time to get them into the pots
I used a Daltons seed mix this year for a change.
And struggled to find my pots I had from last year, so if you have seen them let me know.
After getting the pots filled, and looking a bit better than they did above, I place the seeds in the pots just below the surface and placed them into my grow container.
I talked about my grow container thing last year in THIS POST but basically it is a storage container with a heat pad in the bottom, and a light above the pots.
The seeds are doing well and I have seen a lot of movement in the one on the left from this morning to this evening and will need to keep a close eye on these fast growing seeds.
Hows your germination going? Are you trying anything new or different this year? Let me know in the comments below.
Growing giant pumpkins is a passion that I love sharing. 🎃 If you’ve found my content helpful or entertaining, why not say thanks with a coffee? ☕
It’ll fuel my next giant pumpkin adventure!
Hi Sam, Those are some pretty good genetics. Did you use myco’s or trichoderma in you seed starting pots? This year I used both of them and my seedlings are looking better than last year. A good tip is to plant your seeds in an ice cream container. Cut a hole in the bottom and tip it upside down, then when you transplant all you need to do is slip the lid out from underneath then mound up soil around the container and lift the container out. This is how I do it so that the roots are disturbed as little as possible.
Hi Aaron, I didn’t have any Myco in time for when I was starting them, but will have some this week for when I transplant. That is a great idea about the Icecream container. It might be too late for me this season, but I will definately use that next year and share that with people.