Hi shasta -

I'm no expert on the above - and I'm sure many others will give you their advise - but the main answer is "it's up to you".

How many holes you put in the bottom part of a gallon jug depends mainly on the size of them. I use an icepick, so the size isn't a large as many others. Instead I put more holes. And as Trudi (the originator of winter-sowing) says, if you have too many you can use tape to cover some.

Yes, leave the cap off and use as a vent hole.

And for the quantity of seeds, it can be decided by the size of the seeds and the method of planting the seedlings you choose. I generally plant mine in "chunks" - and many seeds are used as I'm not planning to dividing individually, but instead take a spoonful (or portion of the container) and plant them together. Some will take over the weaker ones, but if you want to take time to do each one individually, I'd suggest less seeds so they have room for easy division.

Have fun, whatever you decide.

Throw the cap away, its not needed. As for how many seeds in a container....that really is up to you. If the seeds are small, sprinkly them over the soil, if they are large seeds, yes you can make holes, not deep holes though. Tell us what seeds you will be sowing, and that will give us a better idea of how many per container.

Today I am planting green peppers, I will be planting tomatoes, zinnia & sweet basil. I like the chunk method that bulbs mentioned :)

I sow anywhere between 4 and 100 in a jug.....wow....that doesn't help much does it? lol

ohhhh!! this is a good thread! cuz i was kinda wondering the same thing, but didn't want to ask anyone, LOL :')) i figure i could go ahead and seperate them later, but didn't want to ruin the roots. but how much is too little of dirt??

Toss the cap. That opening is your ventilation, as well as the opening to let in rain/snow.

Drainage holes - in a milk jug, I'd say at least eight. I put about 16. As bulbs says, it depends on the size of the hole. I use a soldering iron which makes maybe 1/4" holes.

Seeds per jug - that's all you, baby! I'm a little anal when sowing and need order, so I sow in lines (also helps me identify seedlings versus weeds if I sow in little lines).

For annuals, I usually put about 12 to 16 seeds - usually four rows of 4 or four rows of 3. If say I only have 20 seeds of one thing, I'll squeeze in all 20. For perennials I usually do a smaller number, maybe 9, only because I feel I don't need 16 of one perennial, for the most part.

If the seeds are really tiny, I just sprinkle them and sort them out later, when they are seedlings.

For the most part, my plants stay in their original containers until planted out. Heck, I often don't find time to plant them in the garden at all, never mind pot them up in stages!

Good luck and have fun!!
:)
Dee

Example of "hunk o' seedling" .... These seeds sown to cover the whole container - then chunked out to make nice big mounds. (I also did HOS with Salvias as well)....

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Carrie

Carrie, what's sown in that big container of seedlings?

What kind/size container is it and what did you use for the top?

Sorry for all the questions but when I see germination like that I just gotta ask...LOL.

Hi newbie - Unfortunately, I don't remember - I think it is either coreopsis, maybe agastache, or possibly rose campion - just not sure. Here is a picture of my container with lid and holes:

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I sow as many seeds as I can fit in a container using the hunk method. I sprinkle them all over the top. I try to empty the packet they came in and get my seed box cleaned out. I found that sometimes I'll get a low germination rate in a container. So, the extra seeds makes for an assurance that I don't have a dud pot in the spring. Every year it seems I have a brand new full list of things I want to try. I like to plant all that I have so I don't have to resow it the next year because I skimped on planting some seeds and missed out on getting a plant. I held back some biennials I received in trade this year so I can plant another round of them in 2009.

Carrie's container looks like a big sheet cake container flipped upside down to me, with the bottom used as the lid (although around here the bottoms are black, so I could definitely be wrong)... just a guess. At any rate, it looks food service related. Very nice whatever it is!

I'm with shimla, I sow the whole packet of seeds in one container (no matter how many seeds there are), primarily to give my seed box breathing room (I collected too much *again*, and didn't sow enough last year). Most of my containers this year are milk/water jugs cut with the U-flap (love it for the container prep simplicity, will see how I like it when comes time to get the plants out).

Yes, probably there will be crowding in the jugs in late spring but oh well, I can share. Better that than not enough plants (been there already). Teasing the roots apart isn't usually a big deal.

Follow your gut instinct and do what feels right for you. :-)

Terri

I got my containers from the food store - they came into the store empty so I don't know what they use them for. I think they probably put baked goods in them.

The only problem with those containers is that they are heavy when wet. I have sown from the beginning on my covered porch, so I watered as needed.

Carrie (I dump all my seeds in one container too - guaranteed germination)

Whew! I am glad to hear that it is OK to sow the whole pack of seeds in a container (milk jug). I was starting to worry that I had overdone it.

Thanks for the info!

Rhonda

There's no such thing as overdoing it in Winter Sowing Land! LOL!

you talk about puting holes in the bottom of the containers...how many and why do you do that? I saw holes on the TOP of the containers in the pic, so do you do it in both top and bottom? Also, someone told me to put my containers in plastic bags once I put the soil and seeds in, is that right seeing you say to throw away the caps for ventilation? I am also a first timer from Minnesota and I want to do this right - any help would be SO appreciated! Thanks!

holes in the bottom of ANY container for water drainage - holes on the lid for ventilation - I never added more holes when I got germination, Ijust uncovered the container, let is stay in a morning sun area and then covered them at night. Also, if the seedlings got higher than the lid, I never worried, at that point, I was ready to plant out or just kept the lids off completely.

Remember, I am in Zone 7 - and obviously no snow on my covered porch (if and when we did get snow), so I handle my containers a bit different. Because they are on a covered porch - I really don't have trouble with slugs, but sometimes I worry about little birds coming onto the porch and pecking at the seedlings, but so far in four years, that has not happened.

Carrie

mngardener1, if you haven't already done it, it'll really help you to check out Wintersown for complete information, but in a nutshell the holes at the top are for air transpiration (so the heated air in the containers doesn't bake the seeds/seedlings), and the holes in the bottom are for drainage so any excess water has a place to drain and the seeds/seedlings don't drown.

Some people put their containers in bags; I think it depends on what containers you are using. Milk jugs and things with lids - like ice cream buckets that you can poke vent holes in the tops - you don't need to put in bags IMHO. But if you have spare nursery pots or something like that where the seeds are more exposed to the elements, the bag idea is a handy one... just remember to put drainage holes at the bottom of the bag, and vent holes at the top of the bag. It worked for me last year to put several open containers in a flat of some sort, and put a large bag (with holes) over the whole thing.

The whole idea is more or less copying mother nature with our little greenhouses, while simultaneously protecting the seeds from being blown away or letting "weed invader seeds" get into your soil.

Re how many holes: Enough and not too many. ;-) Just look at nursery pots... they vary. I mostly use water/milk jugs and burn holes with a soldering iron so the holes are smaller, and I make more holes to make up for it, maybe 7-13 (my lucky numbers). Last year I cut holes with a knife so they were bigger, so I made fewer holes, maybe 4-5.

Trudi's wintersowing page on fixing up containers will explain it in way better detail, how to tell if you made too many holes or not enough, and how to fix it if you did, but that's my take on it. Best wishes!
Terri

Here is a link that might be useful: Wintersown.org

Thanks Terri!
That really helped...in fact, I "favorited" it so I can go back to it when I need to!

Jodi