With a month and a half before the last frost date, it’s time to think about those squash transplants.

I have taken to pre-sprouting my squash plants of all sorts and would highly recommend it to maximize your plants. Start by soaking a paper towel in warm water. Fold it into a size that will fit into a Ziploc bag. Put some of your seeds (as many as you require) onto one half of the moistened paper towel. Fold it over and place the whole thing in a Ziploc bag; if you have a heating pad, put the bag on the heating pad; if not, somewhere nice and warm. After a couple of days, the seeds should start sprouting. Carefully open it up to check.

If enough seeds are sprouted, get your pots ready. Make sure you have large enough pots for the plants to grow until transplant time. Indent the soil, spray some water in the hole and using tweezers, place the seed, sprout side down gently into the hole. The hole depth should not be greater than the width of the seed. Make sure not to break the sprouts off. Cover with soil and spray with some more water.

Put the newly potted plants somewhere out of the way and spray with water daily. They don’t require a lot of water but keep the soil moist. Once the plants have formed their first true leaves, you can start watering normally.