What kind of temperatures will cook the seedlings? I was waiting for last nights freeze to open them today, but now it's gonna get up to sixties today but down to upper thirties tonight. I am thinking maybe wait until tomorrow and open them before all the upper seventies this week with lows in the fifties. Should I go ahead and open today or wait one more day to get through tonight's low?

KSims - Especially if your containers are in sun, chances are the day temps you say are coming your way could cause cause the containers to overheat and damage your seedlings. The idea is to keep an eye on them and do what seems best. If you have sprouts, you can just put some more (bigger) vent holes in the tops, without taking them off completely. If you do remove the tops completely, keep them close by in case of any projected night lows.

Where in zone 7B are you? My zone is colder than yours; if I had sprouts, I would just open up the vent holes a bit more - our temps this week are projected to be in the 60s, with lows in the 40s.

But ... I just put out my first two containers today. The heat should help them to germinate quickly and then I can start worryig about it.

Hi Karen!

PV

Hi, PV!

I keep my jugs in morning sun only. The sun isn't too warm yet and it's less like I'll overheat the seedlings.

Karen

I fried one container around a month ago. :(
It happens so fast.

Hi everyone, I started my WSing 2 weeks ago and just finished up yesterday. My pots are in gallon milk jugs and they are held together with a twist tie, so not completely closed up. It is supposed to be in mid 60s all week....do you think I need to worry about jugs getting too hot? They are in mostly sun, but nothing has sprouted yet. Thanks!

We are looking at temps in the high 70s to low 80s this week and I don't even have any sprouts yet. I have 338 jugs now and no way am I taking off all those lids for just a few days. Would throwing a tarp or something over the top to shade them help?

Hi all,

I sowed about 15 little ziploc baggies one week ago. No sprouts yet, and I have another milk jug or two to sow. Will leaving them with their little vent holes be okay? I just checked them this morning and I don't have any activity yet, so if there's no root nubbins or plant nubbins can they still fry?

~jr

Here is a link that might be useful: My baggies before they went outside

Every plant will have it's own tolerance level. This is why I always advise against placing containers in full all-day sun. Depending on where you live, dappled sun or morning sun only is probably ideal.

I think a plastic tarp might raise temp rather than lowering it. Shade cloth should help, a nice light colored, light weight fabric. And/or, add more vents, or open sprouted containers.

If you're using milk jugs, you can stick your finger in and feel intense heat when sun hits them in 70 degree weather.

Karen

Took the tops off containers today with seedlings. Supposed to be high 70's and low 80's all week and mine were in a southern exposure with full light. I'll have to watch them closely though as we have a weather forecast with rain all week.

My first time trying winter sowing and so far looking pretty good.

This weather sure makes things tricky. Went from a high of 39 on Friday to 79 today and it looks like it will stay this way for at least another week or two. I don't ever remember this prolonged of a very warm spell this early in the season. Suddenly everything is sprouting and all my containers are not in a good location for this heat and sunshine. I thought I had the perfect location based on past weather and sprouting times...argggh.

My containers are up against the west and north sides of my house and garage, so they don't get sun at all until mid or late afternoon. Except that's the hottest part of the day. I started bottom watering last night and discovered I have blanket flower, allysum, sweet william, lettuce (of course), and shasta daisy all sprouted. At lunch, I might try putting up a tarp to block afternoon sunlight from the jugs on the west side of the garage. Two wood posts and wire the tarp to it, oughtta do it.

No worries yet here in the Pacific North West. We had snow this past few days.

I'm here in zone 6b, and the only place for my jugs is on the south side of the house. It's been about 70 every day, 45-50 every night. I just decided to take all the tops off and leave them off day and night, and honestly, nearly everything has sprouted and is looking healthy. If we are projected to get a night below 40 (which we aren't for the foreseeable future), I'd probably throw a blanket over the tender annuals, but otherwise, they seem to be happy!

What would you say is the lowest temperature that most seedlings can tolerate now? Somebody mentioned that they had left them uncovered even at night..I did uncover some during the day when it was in the 70 and 80's and it is supposed to be in 70's all this week, so I'll probably do the same. I did bottom water my bee balm and black-eye susan..still no germination in them yet. I am amazed at how many leaves the rose bushes have put on in the past week. I will check on things again tomorrow. Lots of good things happening out there.

I don't worry if there are no sprouts. The seeds are kept moist in the soil. The sprouts haven't developed their circulatory systems well enough to tolerate high temps, so they get fried more easily. In general, though, a little shade is never a bad thing. It might slow germination a bit, but it will save heartache as well.

Martha

Ive got mine in absolute shade on north side of the house. Last March we had snow and cold and winter coats. This march, the patio door is open, we're wearing shorts and have no idea where any of our gloves are.

Its nuts. My spinach and peas are probably going to bolt.

:(

I ended up doing something similar to bookjunky4life. I didn't want to move all my containers because it really was the best location as far as being out of the way and off the grass, safe from wind, easy to water, etc. The location is normally in full sun until the weather warms up and then raspberries leaf out and shade the whole area. It seemed to work great until this year. A full week of 80+ degree highs, sunny days, and almost no rain has sent me scrambling. I ended up using an old roll of landscape fabric attached to the fence with slits cut in it to help with the wind. It seems to have helped a lot. My containers are not very tight though anyways, no tape just a twistie tie. I did prop open the sprouted ones a little. When I put my hand inside it is not hot and the soil is cool and moist.

{{gwi:362948}}

If only there was a way to cool off everything else. Some of my strawberries are flowering! The blueberries are starting up too, which is not good. Everything is over a month ahead of schedule and I fear a bad cold snap will cause a lot of damage. On the upside though several things that were only hardy to one or two zones warmer have actually overwintered and are growing again.

I've ended up opening most of the jugs that have sprouts, which is several dozen at this point. I may have to close them for tomorrow because we are slated to get some strong storms. The lows are for the low 50s but I figure most of the stuff should be okay at that temp. I have sprouts including blanket flower, purple coneflower, lettuce, cabbage, allysum, sweet william. Others are beginning to sprout like hollyhock.

Hi Karen-
70% of my seeds have sprouted. They are on an east facing porch. I've taken the tops off the ones that sprouted (we've had 60's this week and expected 70 degree through the weekend. Should I also take the tops off the ones that have NOT sprouted?

Still no worries here in the pacific northwest. Snow again this morning. Besides my jugs (300+) are in the deep shade. Spring, where art thou?

I've been opening up my bottles and jugs the past few days since it's been so warm (especially today -- high 70s/low 80s!) but I'm glad I kept the tops because we're also supposed to get storms this weekend. After that, it looks like our temps will cool and the nights will drop back to the 40s. Or so the forecast says. I'm not too worried about the herbs and greens but my first WSed container of tomatoes have been thriving in the warm temps and I'll feel better if I can cover them up at night.