Oh, what I would give to see a little steam from my pile here in the polar region of central Iowa. (sigh) It was a record -18F here last night and at noon today it's warmed up to a balmy -6F. Windchills are something like -20...brrrr! My pile has been an ice cube this winter. It froze solid the first week of December and has not thawed any the past 3 months. We have had a colder than normal winter here in Iowa this year and snow and ice have covered my lawn since 2 Dec 2007. Now the snow is about 14 inches deep.

Karen, yes they sprouted on April 2 last year and the black metal grill and black plastic container I think speeds it up. They sprouted before the ones on a glass patio table but I forget by how much. The secret I learned from Trudi was place them in full sun. The year before I had them in part sun. They sprouted later that way... Trudi these are KBX again since I had so many saved seeds and KBX is one of my fave's. I also have a couple other containers not shown in the pic. I also plan on WSing a 56 cell flat of cosmos, zinnia and dahlia seeds next week after the big storm we are expecting Saturday. This will be my first year WSing annual flowers...:) If anyone is interested, here is the thread on the GW Tomato board where I compared WSing tomatoes vs. Traditional indoor starts: http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/tomato/msg0415370714513.html

No, this year I sowed straight into 1 gallon drinking water jugs. I did something a little untraditional with my jugs with the tomatoes tho. Normally the cap is tossed out, but I took the cap and made a cross cut into it. I pushed my finger thru to widen it up some and then punched in 2 smaller holes near the top of the jug on each side with a large screw. The rest is the same....the window as you see in the pic below and the ziplock over top. I guess it just makes me feel better cause I doubt it really matters LOL!! Either way if they sprout early again their coming in on those below 30 nights! Last year I sowed into 4 celled pony packs that were inserted into gal. size zip-lock freezer bags. I used a hole punch to add vents and drainage holes :D A pic from last year....one of the Tom's is in this tray Oh yes! I forgot about the ones I had in this little homemade contraption LOL! Vera

3 more over the weekend... Ruellia has little rootlets now. Heavenly Blue MG and a Pink or White MG that I had forgotten about! *********** On the otherhand in my little 4-shelf greenhouse, with my indoor-sown plants that are being hardened-off, I had zipped the flaps shut on Saturday night when it was rather stormy out there. What were nice healthy green plants on Saturday were crispy dead and black looking on Sunday morning. I don't think it got cold enough overnight to have been because of frost or anything.... so it must be from too much heat build up in there on Sunday morning (yeah, I didn't get out there till around lunch time.....) I managed to revive a few things and left the flaps open ever since! Ang