A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The Food Garden Forum Its too soon.....

I have buds on some of my seedlings (mainly squash) and its too soon to plant them outside. Should I leave them alone or pinch off the buds?

I live on an island where the weather is very unpredictable and the soonest I could plant my seedlings outside would be the end of April.

If you don't have very many, you could put them in bigger pots and leave the buds on them. I think you should be able to make it to the end of April with them then. But unless you can find large enough peat pots to move them to, you will have to transplant very carefully since squash doesn't like to be disturbed.

Thanks MLN. A couple of other people told me to go ahead and pinch the buds off. They are very tiny anyway. (But they are so cute I don't want too.) They are in 20 oz. styrofoam cups so I think they will be ok for another couple of weeks.

I don't seem to have a problem with transplanting. I used styrofoam last year and after I had prepared the area for my seedlings, I took an exacto knife and cut open one side of the cup and cut almost halfway down on the other side. Then I cut around the bottom. I popped the bottom off and put the seedling in the hole, I pulled the sleeve of the cup open and it slid right off.

I have had a couple of bad experiences with peat pots and pellets too, and I have read posts on other forums from people complaining about it. Its weird, some people swear by it and others hate it. Me, I'm scared of it. lol