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kellyoc519

Pumpkin seeds not germinating

18 years ago

Hi all - I planted pumpkin seeds out doors in small hills about two weeks ago (around May 11) because the weather seemed warm enough, but we have had day after day of cold weather and the seeds have not germinated. What should I do now? Let the seeds stay in the ground, or dig them all up and start over with a fresh package of seeds.

I was hoping to plant the gigantic pumpkins but at this point, I don't think there will be time for them to mature, so I thought it would be better to switch to a 80-90 day maturity pumpkin.

What do the gardening mavens recommend ? ;-))

Kelly

Comments (5)

  • 18 years ago

    I would give them more time. It's only been 11 days.

    I planted a lot of squash and pumpkin this year. Most have been very slow to germinate. I haven't kept records but I believe some have taken more than two weeks to show themselves.

    Zeuspaul

  • 18 years ago

    I was just worried that they would rot in the soil and not germinate at all - so you think that they may still come up? If so, great, I'll leave them in. It is supposed to be warm in the next few days and then we should be over the hump ;-)

  • 18 years ago

    It's hard to say. Sometimes I get abut 85 percent germination rate and sometimes a lot less. I am starting to think the seed companies are stretching the limits and selling us old seed.

    Do you have room to put another hill next to the first one? Or do you know where you planted the seeds in the first hill and can just add more sees to the first hill without disturbing the others?

    Is the soil moist enough to sprout the seeds?

    Zeuspaul

  • 18 years ago

    I don't have a lot of room, so I probably won't be able to add another hill. I was considering scrapping the whole lot and starting new. My zucchini plants haven't sprouted either and my tomatoes seem to show zero growth

    It has rained a lot recently and the daytime temps have been in the 40s for a week (with nighttime temps just above 37-37 degrees - poor plants!)

  • 18 years ago

    We had some problems with our pumkins not germinating either. In fact we had some rot and we have already replanted. I am up here in northwest Iowa and the weather here had been up and down with a LOT of cold nights. It wasn't surprising to us that some of the pumpkin seeds did rot.
    What you can do is lightly dig down and see what activity is happening with your seeds.
    If the seeds are not growing pull one out and squeeze...see if it is rotten. Some of our seeds starting germinating but then it must have got too cold and the sprout stopped growing and the seed rotted.
    All of our treated pumpkin and squash seeds ending up coming up okay but untreated and heirloom variety seeds took a beating and we had to completely replant those. Some we won't because of time factor like the Atlantic Giant, birdhouse gourds and etc.
    I really would check...after 11 days you should have some kind of growth.

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