Seedlings

I planted some squash seeds a couple weeks ago. I ordered a bunch of powdery mildew resistant varieties. I've had pretty good luck with my squash every year but because of our cold nights they always develop mildew halfway through the season. We'll see how these do. I got some yellow zucchini, a couple of hybrid acorns, a fancy weird pumpkin, and my favorite, butternut. They are all winter squash except for the zucchini but even the zucchinis I've grown have over wintered pretty well.


After two weeks the seedlings are just starting to push their way out.



And this is 3 days later. Yowza!

I planted a lot more than I need hoping that I can give some away. I have a lot more seeds stored in the fridge too. The minimum order for each kind was about 250 seeds and so far I've only used about 10 so if anyone is interested in trying these out let me know.


While I was in the seed planting mood I decided to give these Echium wildpretii seeds a try.




I put two or three seeds in each little container and then covered them with a little more dirt. I had about 60 seeds.


The instructions said to cover them with plastic until they germinate. I kind of want to hide them somewhere where I won't have to see them all the time. I'm dying of anticipation.


This is what they look like when they bloom in their second year:

!!
Wish me luck.

Update 5/03/11:

It's been a couple weeks and the squash are still doing well. They are getting their true leaves now. I have to figure out where I'm going to put them. I'm going to make some self-watering containers but I'd like to choose an out of the way place for them. Most of them are bush varieties and not viney but I don't really know what to expect. The first year I grew butternut the whole front yard was covered in it. The vines must have been 35 feet long. I can't image having ten times that amount.

After two weeks I also found this this morning:

It's one little Wildpretii seedling. See it there by the edge of the pot?

By the time I got home tonight there were 4 move just popping out:

They're still not much to look at but I'm encouraged that they're sprouting. I wasn't sure what to expect and was getting a little discouraged that nothing had popped out. I guess the squash took two weeks too. I'm really going to have to work on my patience if I'm going to wait two years for these to bloom.