Which veggies/herbs can I WS in Zone 5b/6a and when?

17 years ago

Hi,

This is going to be my first year for winter sowing. And I wish to refrain from making the most avoidable mistakes.

To the best of my knowledge most flowers can be WS except for most tender annuals like Zinnias. When can marigolds be wintersown?

Incidently, I prefer vegetable and herb gardening over flowers. So, now I come to my main question. Which veggies and herbs can be safely wintersown in my zone and when? It would be nice to have a list.The more I read the more confused I get :( I don`t want to start too early and lose whatever little seeds I have. I don`t have an herb garden and intend to start one this year.

Also, kindly enlighten me as to which veggies and herbs should only be started indoors or directly sown rather than WS? I think cukes, corn, root veggies, cilantro don`t do well with winter sowing.Please correct me if I am wrong. Which others?

I would appreciate all the help I can get.

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Comments (2)

remy_gw
17 years ago
Hi,
I WS anything in the cabbage(brassica) family. They all will sprout in cool temps, so you will get an early start with them. Lettuce is the same way.
I WS herbs, dill, Amsterdam celery, fennel, hyssop, basil, borage, etc. I have Cilantro come back for me, so it winter sows naturally here. It should be able to be WSed.
Rhubarb does really well.
Peas are direct sowed early so WSing is not necessary.

The ones that I know that have a tendency to rot and not germinate are beans and corn.
Squash need to be direct sown or transplanted when there are just a few true leaves. If the plants get too big, they don't recover well from transplanting and can be stunted.
Eggplant like warm temps to germinate and grow. So even if it does get warm enough to get germination early, cold temps after germination can stunt growth, so it is best to grow them indoors and transplant when night temps stay above 50.
Many people here have success WSing tomatoes. I can't comment on that. I grow them indoors because I keep track of each variety and transplant them into single cells. It just wouldn't work for me to WS them.
Hope that helped some : )
Remy
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richdelmo
17 years ago
Agree with Remy with the cool weather crops they do real well winter sown. Lettuce are no brainers Tomatoes at least for me have been very easy to ws although they don't all germinate. the ones that do are great.

reginaaginar I ws zinnias last year and they did fine, not sure of the variety. Tried marigold but no luck there. I don't have a list of veggies and herbs as you asked but I can summarize a few

Lettuce: Feb/March- great
Spinach: March- good
Tomato: Feb/Mar/Apr- great 70% germination
Pepper: April- bell no germination, hot were fine
Basil: April - fantastic

Beans Cucs Mellon Onion sets and more lettuce direct sown
Egg Plant and all other herbs purchased as transplants.
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Which veggies/herbs can I WS in Zone 5b/6a and when?

Comments (2)

remy_gw

richdelmo

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