You might try pre-sprouting some in a wet paper towel in a ziplock bag. I started some 18 year old neck pumpkin seeds this way earlier this year and had 100% germination.

Once the roots appeared I planted the seeds individually in Jiffy-7 peat pellets with part of the seed sticking up out of the pellet. Once the seeds grew up out of the pellets I carefully used some tweezers to remove the seed cover from the first leaves. After about a week I moved them to the garden where I gave them some part-time shade for a week.

Good luck.

Good luck.

Thanks for the help! You and another poster on the Heirloom forum have great ideas. Luckily, two of the seeds planted outside came up WAY after all my other squash. If I plant more, I will definitely pre-sprout them.

Thanks again,
Bellatrix