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This is my second year gardening and first year starting seeds. I started with the Jiffy 72 cell kit with the discs that puff up with warm water. It worked great, but it only took a week before pumpkin and watermelon roots popped out of the netting. Yesterday I moved the pumpkin (Dill's atlantic giant) to a 3 gallon bucket that I plan on keeping it in til planting time and the watermelons (Orange tendersweet) I kept them 2 per bucket.
My question is............... Will a few pellets of rabbit manure in these buckets help or hurt?

Yes, they say rabbit manure is the one type that can be used directly without burning plants. You wouldn't want to fertilize the baby seedlings in the cells, but once they are big enough to transplant, they can benefit from a little bit of added nutrients, but not too intense.

But what is in the buckets (what kind of growing medium)? If you are using commercial potting soil, remember that most of it comes with fertilizers in it. You don't want to double up on fertilizer.

I'm a little worried about your buckets. How do plan on removing the plants from them? The hollow stems are fragile.

Cucumbers, squash, pumpkins should be planted in the garden no later then 3 weeks from sowing. Roughly

Eric

I may have started a little too early, but I have more of the same seeds to start later. I transplanted sugar baby and cantaloupe last year without a problem. The buckets are very thin (come with cake icing in them in a bakery) so I just cuy them with a utility knife and it's worked. I won't buy mirace gro soil. I bought plainn garden soil, peat moss, and compost. Just mixed it all together. The pumpkin and watermelons are propped straight up and growing.
thanks for the info, we'll see what happens.