Sowing courgettes: pots indoors or direct sowing?
Check light, space and the local frost outlook before starting courgettes indoors. Choose between pots and direct sowing, then prepare a gradual move outdoors without treating UK dates as universal.
By Marmanda3 min read
Start by deciding when a courgette can safely go into your garden, then choose whether you have the light and space to raise it indoors until then. If you do not, direct sowing once conditions are suitable may be simpler. The RHS dates and temperatures below describe UK gardening; elsewhere, use the same sequence of decisions with your local frost and soil conditions.
When can courgettes go outdoors?
Write down the outdoor conditions you need first: the risk of frost has passed and the soil has warmed. The RHS guide to courgettes gives late May or early June for outdoor sowing in the UK. For plants raised indoors, it recommends planting out in early summer after hardening off. These are regional references, not dates for every UK garden or the wider Northern Hemisphere. Use your local conditions and avoid starting a plant so early that it has to wait in a cramped or dim spot.
This back-planning method is practical: identify a likely planting period from your own garden, check the forecast as that period approaches, then decide whether an indoor start fits the time and space available. The vegetable sowing and planting calendar can help place the task among other seasonal work, while the final decision remains local.
Is indoor raising workable in your home?
The RHS indoor method uses one seed per 7.5 cm pot, laid sideways about 13 mm deep, at 18–21°C. These are the RHS's instructions for its gardening context, not a guarantee that every seed will germinate. The practical question is whether you can provide a bright place, keep the compost moist without waterlogging it, and leave the pot undisturbed with room to handle it. Warmth without adequate light does not solve the growing problem.
If the seedling emerges, keep it in good light and check the compost and available space as it develops. There is no fixed raising duration to count from sowing: growth depends on conditions. Avoid sowing early simply because a calendar lists a month. If a bright, stable place is not available, wait for the outdoor route instead.
How should you prepare the move outside?
Plants raised indoors need gradual hardening off before planting. Move the pot outside in stages so it can adjust, and bring it back under cover if conditions turn cold, windy or harsh. Watch the plant's response, protect it from an abrupt change and plant only when the soil is warm and frost is no longer expected. Marmanda's guide to garden orientation and sunlight can help you choose a bright position; it does not replace acclimatisation.
Would direct sowing fit better?
For direct sowing, the RHS advises sowing 2–3 seeds about 2.5 cm deep; where more than one emerges, remove the smaller, weaker seedlings and leave the strongest. Direct sowing makes sense when the bed is ready, you can keep the seed area under observation and there is no need to save time with an indoor start. If soil is still cold or frost remains likely, wait.
Consider two hypothetical gardens. One has a bright indoor spot, room for a pot and a realistic post-frost planting window: an indoor start may be manageable. Another has no suitable raising space but can wait for warm soil and check the seedbed: direct sowing may fit better. In both, the decision turns on light, space and the local planting horizon, followed by a gradual transition where a plant was raised indoors.