It's a little early for squash if you're in Massachusetts. Once the weather warms up, they'll grow fine, and they stay on the ground,so you don't have to worry about them being leggy like tomatoes that have to stand up.

>NilaJones, thanks for your input for our specific area. Do you really think it's ok to put seedlings outside this early? Last year, I sowed seeds direct into the ground outdoors around Mid-May, and the poor things had to suffer through 2 hail storms and some cold spells. Portland has some weird weather. You're very welcome :). Outside, yes. And it's especially important if you don't have adequate artificial light for them indoors. In the ground is different story. If we get a cold snap, you can bring seedling trays of tropical plants like eggplant and tomatoes indoors for a night. Other babies like kale, lettuce, peas, etc. are happiest with cool weather anyway, so you can go ahead and plant them in the ground if the snails won't eat them.. They can stay out even when it's below freezing, this time of year. And all winter, most years. Hail is not a problem unless your seedlings are so tiny that a hailstone hits one and kills it. When we get hail, air and ground temperatures are still pretty warm. You notice the hail melts in 5 minutes :). I planted out my pole beans a week ago. I worried about them a little last night, with the wind and heavy rain, but they looked so happy this morning! They like this kind of weather :). Their root systems are not big enough for hot sun yet. Cool and moist is just what they want.

Yes you can plant them deeper but no they will not sprout roots along the seedling stem (specifically the hypocotyl). Where pumpkins grow additional roots is at the base of each leaf axil. Here is a picture from last year of one of those secondary roots. This one was actually well off the ground on a trellis but it was after a long period of rain. But back to the original point think about how the seedlings grow. We try to plant seeds at the same depth but do we always, of course not. The roots of the plant come out just about at the depth the seed was planted then from that point to the surface is a buried section of the hypocotyl. And as I am sure many people have noticed the cotyledons are never the same height above the ground sometimes they are hugging the soil and sometimes they are several inches off the ground. There is always variation as to how much of the seedling stem is buried. At that early stage there isn't a point on the stem that says this section needs to be below ground and the rest needs to be above ground. And honestly if the depth mattered there wouldn't be commercial production from transplants in plasticulture. Those guys are fast at planting seedlings, they do not sit there and make sure the plants are at the exact same depth as they were in the pots. They know it doesn't matter.

Day 22 Update! Peppers and lettuce: The same peppers and lettuce from the previous shot. They're in the second-worst part of the UFO grow chamber -- far from the UFO in the center. Nonetheless, the peppers are doing beautifully. I've got a whole tray of them looking just like that. The lettuce, only so-so. They're putting out leaves at a good rate, but two of them never did stand up like I was hoping they would. Next up, the monsters: Okay, these pumpkins are getting a bit scary: The larger of the two now has three tendrils on it, and leaves the size of my outstretched hand. I don't know how much longer I'm going to be able to keep them in here before they decide to crush everything else in their path, but I'll keep them in as long as I can ;) I realized that last time I forgot to photograph my eggplants. They're doing just shiny: So, now for my crazy okra: If you'll recall, one germinated tall like a freak, but with a strong stem, and dark green leaves; one germinated short with dark green leaves; and two germinated short with pale, chlorotic yellow leaves. I credit this to using old seed. I'm pleased to report that all of them are doing great. The tall one is now working on its second true leaf, while the two chlorotic ones are starting to turn green. All three of the small ones have just started on their first true leaf; I expect they'll look like the tall one (minus the crazy height) next week. My Ronde de Nice squash that just germinated? I transplanted one, and surprisingly, the transplant is doing better than the non-transplant! Now for the one that was my biggest concern last time: my watermelon. If you'll recall, its first true leaves had turned crisp and stopped growing. Well, I'm glad to report that it has not one, but two sets of normal, healthy true leaves now! Here's a shot of some of my miscellaneous squash and melons. Not a complaint from me about a one of them; they're all growing very healthy. My cinnamon basil was looking healthy enough that I felt it time to thin it out into individual pots. The remaining plants in the original pot are below: So, what's my primary concern this time? I'm starting to suspect that I'm getting more growth in the UFO chamber (red, grow) than in the Christmas chamber (blue, veg). I'm not sure yet, though. Now, that is to be expected to some degree, since that chamber is higher wattage (~105W vs. ~85W), it may be more than that. It's really hard to tell, though, because I moved my most mature trays to the red chamber and kept the youngest trays in the veg chamber. However, I do have one good comparison point: basil. I have a basil pot in the veg chamber that's exactly the same as the basil pot in the grow chamber -- same soil, same size, same plants, and same planting time. So, next week I'm going to photograph and measure the two and see how they compare. But overall, another good week :) The plants pretty much take care of themselves (since the LEDs are pretty cool, the soil takes a long time to get dry, so I rarely even have to water). Hence, I've been busying myself readying my outdoors for the new plants, for once it gets warm enough. I'm going to be training my vining plants to strings suspended from guyed poles this year, via vine clips; should be neat to see how they do.