Planting out pumpkins (etc)?

[kathyd]

I check our weather forecast every day, several times a day usually, and it changes by the minutes.. they show sunshine and milder temps, and slightly warmer at night, and within an hour or two they've changed it to showers or rain, followed by min temps of 5 degrees at night - the 5 deg temps shown yesterday have now gone down to 3 degrees, and most of the sunshine's been pushed back until the middle of June! Most of my curcurbits didn't come up this year anyway, so I've had to re-plant, but the 4 that I do have are most definitely not going out until as late as possible!

[SarzWix]

I would usually go for potting up at least once before planting out, especially from a pot so small as that. The optimum planting out time is usually chosen to prevent a check in growth, rather than provide one, if that makes sense? Which is why hardening off should be progressive exposure to outside conditions, not just chucking them straight out. However, if you're going to be covering the plants totally with a cloche, they might be okay. They certainly won't thrive in such a tiny pot. Maybe plant some out, but pot some on so that you have insurance against disasters?

[Two_Sheds]

im planting out this week. Im right next to the sea so im frost free now

It's still pretty cold at night though (7c), and we're having fierce cold winds which will just shred a baby courgette to pieces.

Mine aren't going outside until end of May or first week of June.

edit: we've just had a hail shower

[horticultural_hobbit]

What Aunty two-sheds said. But I'm possibly going to throw them out this weekend.