topie, your using something to hold the paper pots apart is a terrific idea. That should work very well. May I suggest that you sow sweet peas no more than a week or two before planting time? Those seeds germinate fast, similar to dahlia, Morning Glory or cypress vines. I gave up growing sweet peas long ago. Our spring weather heats up too fast those beauties get sunburn ....same as spring flowering bulbs and Oriental Poppies...sigh... * ******* * ************ I usually fit 8 - 9 paper pots in a milk jug--- as tightly as I can. I actually don't mind when paper pots stick together. By the time the seedlings are big enough to transplant, the root ball is so robust that it holds the soil together. Breaking the pots apart won't do them that much harm. That's the beauty of WS. In fact, there are times when I even break apart the paper pots because the root ball is so dense I need to tease out the roots. Or I need to make a smaller chunk of seedlings. :-D

My first 60 containers were with Hyponex! Then I read where it isn't a good soil. However, I have sprouts in most of those containers. I am using the rest of the bags along with ProMix. If you have more seeds, try them in a different potting mix, but wait a bit to see if the first ones do indeed sprout. This is my first year and I am addicted and the folks on this forum are enablers! Joyce

Hi! My name is Karen and I've posted some questions on the geranium forum and got some good advice, but noone is terribly chatty over there so I was wondering if this is a good forum for me to join. Are you taking new members?? I'm in IL and we started over 700 (agh!)pelargoniums, or whatever they are called. We call them geraniums. Anyway, I was told to pinch and went to town and I hope I did it right because I have some sad plants. And it's about time to start hardening off...and I haven't a clue what I'm doing! We have two portable greenhouses outside with heaters in them and we put the impatiens and pansies, I think, in there. But the geraniums are inside under grow lights and in sunny windows (as sunny as it gets during the long awaited IL 'Spring' if that's what you call it!) Can anyone help me keep them alive?

Not trying to get into the wintersow vs. not wintersow debate here but....... The only time it makes sense to wintersow is when you are sowing seeds needing cold stratification and I know some of the ones you listed do not need it. I sowed the Asceplsis incarnata in early August and plan to put them in the ground under mulch all winter. I am winter sowing some native shrub seeds needing a couple months of cold strat. in pots outdoors and three others that are perennials that specifically need it. There are no hard fast rules to this. To each his own. I rather enjoy sowing indoors in winter and have had very good results and it gives me an uplift in winter to do that. I have had good head starts on healthy plants this way and have sowed many SW shrubs, perennials, ornamental grasses, cactus, etc. I always have something indoors in winter I am sowing. I usually start them in October or November in a large sunny S. exposure window and grow them very cool in the coldest dark months sort of in a wait pattern, then let them get warm again in late Feb when the sun comes stronger. I use lights sometimes if necessary but usually they just sit there in the cold. I am not a wintersower to the degree popularized to a hobby level of lots of containers with holes, lids etc craze with every seed I get being done that way. I just use regular pots in the shade under the carport for the seeds specifically needing a cold period. For penstemons its good, they come up when its still very cold. Some seeds needing cold I direct sow. Sometimes I experiment and try all different ways to see what does best with a backup supply to resow in spring. Look up your different varieties and see what they need and go from there. I have sowed seeds as early as October and had established plugs to put into the ground come spring. Other times I put the late summer sown seedlings in the ground in late fall and cover them with leaf mulch and had good well rooted starts that way in spring. Look at nature, she does that all the time with seeds that have fallen. Mostly, make it fun for yourself and do what you want. Save extra seeds for insurance, or try multiple ways and experiment. Do a test in a damp paper towel with a few seeds to see if they sprout in a few days. Often that will tell you want you need to know.