Beginner Gardening: Should I transplant squash??, 1 by fiddle

fiddle wrote:
I am fairly new at this, so my experience with squash may not be typical. I have done it both ways, transplanting and direct sowing. for what its worth, by far the best results for me was with direct sowing. for direct sowing, start early, a few days after your average last frost. and then start a second crop four or five weeks later.

early season squash seem to do better here in Zone 8a since we have 95+ temps as early as June (today for example). transplanting requires good timing, got to get them into the ground before they outgrow the transplant pot, for sure before they start blooming, but not before the ground warms up a bit. also important for them to get settled before the bugs attack. squash germinate and produce quickly, so there does not seem to be much advantage to starting indoors.

I would let the gallon pot go on its way and watch happens. Still plenty of time to start another pot in your zone. I would use at least a 5 gallon pot, they get really big when they are happy.

Photo: Zephyr squash - one lucky transplant in a raised bed. Not shown: several unlucky transplant soldiers that perished in their pots because I waited too long to do the right thing.