STARTING EXOTIC PUMPKIN SEEDS INDOORS GIVING THEM A LITTLE EXTRA TIME FOR GROWTH BEFORE THEY GET PLANTED IN MY RAISED GARDEN BEDS. I PICKED A PRETTY BLUE AND GREEN SHADE OF PUMPKIN, HOPING TO MAKE MY FALL DECORATING A LITTLE CHEAPER THIS YEAR!
First off I’ll start by telling you we had a 55 degree day on Sunday so I made the best of the warm temps, which felt like a summer’s day here in the mitten state. I had a list of things to get done and one of those was to start my pumpkin seeds indoors. I wanted bluish, greenish, grayish pumpkins to decorate for fall so while hubby and I were at Family Farm and Home I spotted the seed packets I was looking for. My goal is to save a few bucks or several this year when it comes to fall decorating. A decent sized exotic pumpkin can run $30 and with that cost I surely wouldn’t be doing much decorating. If I manage to keep a few plants from the deer I’ll be doing good. It’s worth a try anyway!
I happened to have a few peat pots left over from earlier years of gardening and also a bag of soil I’d purchased to transplant my lime tree so that’s what I used. I wasn’t going to go out and buy any fancy container to grow the seeds in. I was trying to keep the cost down so I grabbed my enamelware tub and started loading it up with all my goodies. I was quite surprised when I opened the pumpkin seed packets to only find 7 seeds of each pumpkin variety, but that’s what was in there so that’s what I planted. I decided to double up the seeds in each pot and either thin out the weaker of the two or just separate them when I put them into the ground. And to give it all that greenhouse effect I added press and seal to the top of the pan.
When it’s nice and sunny outside I take the tub onto the deck and put it in the sun to warm up the soil and start the seeds germinating. I used to do this all the time with everything I planted in our garden, but I haven’t started seeds in years, I tend to buy the already started plant now but the type of pumpkins I was looking for I’ve never found in plant form. So for $6 I’m going to give it ago again this year. Even if I only end up with a couple of pumpkins it will still be a big savings and I enjoyed the process.
Thank you all who gave me tips on what was wrong with my boxwood’s (see post prior to this one). After hearing you all say they had boxwood burn I googled it and you were right that’s exactly what was wrong with them. I did what was recommended and trimmed them back until fresh green was showing and they look really nice now. I’m going to give them through spring to recover and if they don’t I’ll take them all out and replant, knowing now I’ll have to water and cover them in the winter even though I thought the snow was giving them enough moisture. Lesson learned, and you’re all so smart with the advice.
Good luck with your pretty pumpkin seeds. I’ll watch you this time and if you’re successful, I may try it myself. I’ve always avoided the cost of “exotic” pumpkins also, but it might be fun to try to grow my own.
Pat, We’ll see how it goes. I don’t have much invested in it so it’s worth a try!
I hope you can grow the beautiful pumpkins without the deer Feasting on them. Happy Spring!
Kathleen in Az
Kathleen, I do too I may have to stay up all night long to scare them off, LOL
I’m hoping you get a lot of pumpkins, Dawn. I learned some good tips from you in this post about starting my own plants from seeds. Thanks!
Jen, I’m excited all the seeds germinated so I’m hoping for lot’s of pumpkins too.