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Question about fall sowing

15 years ago

So do you do it like WS with the containers and all?

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Comments (12)

lynnencfan
15 years ago
I do but because of our heat I will germinate either in the house or in the garage where it is cooler but as soon as they poke their little heads up they go right out to the shade. You do have to be more aware of watering needs.....

Lynne
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phyl345
15 years ago
i fall-sowed last year with great results ... HOWEVER ... i did it in oct. so they would not germinate right away

i suppose it was just a more convenient time to basically do my winter-sowing ... fall is so gorgeous ... & it was just so easy to get everything in their jugs & positioned out to spend the winter ... i never looked at them again until spring!

i took some pix this a.m. of things i sowed last fall ... i will post them later ...

phyl
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Comments (8)
Hi Fran...I was wondering where you were. [g] That is a nice tip about the glass. I usually water the container first, sprinkle the seeds and then mist them with a spray bottle and felt that was as good as pressing them into the soil. Anything that recommends just covering, I use sifted potting soil to put as thin a layer over them as I can. You had to ask which seeds are giving me trouble...lol. Now I have to go back and check my list...okay, from last year's winter sown list... Delphiniums of course, are the worst. Less than 50% the first year and last year I think I got 4 plants out of two packages of seed. I would love a nice patch of them. I did notice that I didn't get to collecting seed from them in time last year and I am pretty sure I saw some reseeding around the base of one of the plants. Then later in the fall, we spread compost and I forgot and I am pretty sure someone covered those little seedlings up with compost. So I am doubting they are going to show up next year. I do realize that the seed has to be really fresh and I have only used fresh seed, so I wondered if I was doing something wrong. Seeds that I had no germination with last year.... Aconitum, two containers. Traded seeds from two seperate people. Astilbe, Corydalis sempervirens Filipendula Stylophorum diphyllum Veronicastrum Shortia Daylily Phlox paniculata Helianthus maximillian Thalictrum Seeds that I had low germination with.... Nasturtiums which I spring sowed Hosta California Poppy Hibiscus Echinacea Penstemon Primula That's about it. Everything else had pretty good germination rates. This year, I managed to hit the T&M 50% off sale and I am trying to follow their directions on the packets. Seeds that I anticipate having difficulty are either new to me or repeats of seeds I have tried before... Ammi Brachycome Daylily Delphiniums California Poppies Hosta Lobelia Monkshood Nemesia Penstemon Primula Salvia coccinea Venidum Thanks Fran, It was a good exercise to go through the list and see what was giving me trouble. Have you had any experience with any of these seed? pm2
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Comments (4)
You'll probably get a little less reseeding, but most of your seeds are probably falling now, after you've already put the compost down, right? I had quite a few volunteers on top of a wood mulch that was put down last spring, and I'm sure that your compost would be a much more favorable material for growth. As long as the seeds are watered in either now or with winter rains and snow, I would think that you would get plenty. I find that my mulch has primarily slowed down the seeds that were in the soil underneath, so I have fewer weeds. Mulching has too many benefits not to do it, and you'll be able to fill in with wintersowing if you have any bare spots.Just collect the seeds of some reseeders as insurance.
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Comments (9)
How pretty, Karen! How do you keep a garden like that weeded without trampling on something? It looks like some winter sowers just don't have weeds. I get lots of tree seedlings, and if I don't see them when they're really small, I can't pull them up. They just break off and put out more growth although I did get rid of a walnut seedling by diligent cutting back to the ground to the point it finally gave up. That was easy to get at in my lilies of the valley. I guess my only 2 choices are a shovel or roundup. Any other ideas? I've got one right in the thorniest part of a large rose, and every time I prune it down it puts out more shoots. I thought the only way to get rid of it for good is to let it grow out, lay down some plastic, bend it down to the ground and weight it down with leaves exposed, then Roundup. No way can I dig all that out of there because the canes are too close together to lay out heavy enough mulch 'n stuff to smother it. Back on topic, I was thinking of direct sowing some seeds just before frost by clearing a spot, sowing some seeds and cover with a 2 liter bottle for the winter, shouldn't matter if cap is on or off. I think I could do poppies that way, oh lupine should work and maybe a couple more I can't think of offhand.
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Comments (4)
The main variable here is what kind of tree seeds your planting. 1 and 2. If you are sowing any kind of nut (acorns, hickory, chestnut, walnut, buckeye, etc.) you will definitely need to cover them somehow or the rodents will ravaged you container. You do want to be careful that the seeds wont bake. you can literally block the light from the sun so it will stay at the temp that is outside or just make it really really well ventilated. Also if you are sowing nuts or berry seed makes sure that the soil they are in is DEEP. if not the whole container will become an ice brick and that will kill many nut species. nuts that sprout in the fall (white oak species and chinkapins) will need to have that taproot protected from intense freezing. try to mimic nature in your area. if the acorns in the wild can survive mild freezing, etc. then if you can mimic that they ought to do well. Some really small seeds like Sourwood trees can be sown like any other winter sown seed. their seeds are like powder and can take on anything nature has to give it. and in the spring they begin sprouting. 3. I'd try to keep them covered all winter and after they sprout or squirrels WILL ravage them. The first chance you give them they will take advantage of it. Try to keep them covered but not baking. Good ventilation will probably be sufficient. 4. You can use HOS for some tree seeds. Sourwood for example does great with HOS and I'd think that some other very small seeded tree species would be the same. But with large seeds like nuts and some berry seeds you don't need to do HOS because the seeds are so large you don't need sow so closely because the seeds would be few and far between. You can upsize the containers every few years or you can plant the trees where you want them to be for better results because then the taproot wont get all twisted around the bottom of the container and all the roots will have a head start collecting nutrients, also the tree will be much more firmly planted in th soil and less likely to blow over. But even if you do this make sure you cage it off for a few years or protect it somehow from critters. And most of all USE PROTECTION!! Haha. Those deer will mow down your prized trees and even if the squirrels aren't after the nuts your trees came from after it has already sprouted, they will dig up the trees FOR NO REASON!!! bite the stem of your new trees right in half FOR NO REASON!!! Squirrels are the devil!!!!!!!!!!!! Hope this helps
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chrizty
15 years ago
well i have not WS..yet!:)but fall sowing im doing both, direct sowing and containers.
i have direct sowed my holly hocks for years, but i got new seeds/plants im growing in containers till they get good growth then ill plant them out, im only doing this so i wont end up weeding them out lol ive made that mistake to many times.
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phyl345
15 years ago
here are the pix i took this a.m. ... cardinal flowers won't reseed for me ... too wet in the spring & they rot out ... but i have great success sowing in jugs in oct.

{{gwi:424553}}

direct sowing of cleome works; but they never seem to come up in quite the right spots! ... the seeds for these were put in jugs last oct.
{{gwi:21426}}

the sunflowers were oct. sown ... also mexican sunflowers; but i guess i forgot to take a picture ... they are gorgeous! ... bright, bright deep orange with very dark green leaves ... stunning ...

{{gwi:424554}}
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proudgm_03
Original Author
15 years ago
phyl345 And they get enough start to be established before frost?
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phyl345
15 years ago
nope ... i do my jugs in oct. ... i suppose i consider *fall* sowing ADVANCE winter sowing ... the weather is so beautiful & i can do all the prep work outside ... see my post above earlier today (at 12:11) ... phyl
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sudzy
15 years ago
Hi, can I jump in on this thread? I too, am not sure what fall sowing is. Is it just an extention of summer sowing? If sowed in Aug. can they go in the ground before it freezes? Or is it too late for this year. Should I just wait it out 'till winter and sow? Thanks for helping. Sudzy
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kqcrna
15 years ago
Sudzy: It depends on what it is. As long as it is perennial in your zone, and doesn't need cold strat, many things would germinate and get a start for fall plantout. Since most perennials and biennials don't bloom until at least their second year, many things can get a head start now, be planted out in fall, and overwinter for next year.

I sowed a jug of geum yesterday. If they sprout and grow some they'll be planted out in cool fall weather. If they don't sprout, I'll leave the jug as is all winter.

Karen
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samfawzy10
15 years ago
This may be helpfull for you.

Here is a link that might be useful: The Easiest Flowering Seeds to Start Right Now
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stillwelljill
15 years ago
phyl345, I have to ask..........what is the hydrangea in the photo with the cleome? Gorgeous combination. Great photos.
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lblack61
15 years ago
That's a helpful article, Samfawzy! Thank you for sharing that.
I sowed several containers of seeds about two weeks ago, and many of them (I think all except for the different types of Primrose) have sprouted.
I planted out Hollyhocks "Antwerp", Aster "Crego", and Osteospurmum. HH's seem to germinate through the whole growing season in the soil from seeds it drops after the first bloom time or seeds it's dropped from last year. So I was pretty confident they can get good growth before the cold hits.
I have some other things, a hibiscus, delphinium, foxglove, a scabiosa, and a sulphureus Cosmos, that I need to get in soon as well. I figure if I can get all of them in before the end of August, they have time to do something (the cool annuals) or settle in (perennials and biennials).
I've never Summer Sown these types of things before, so we'll see how it works out.

Linda
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phyl345
15 years ago
jill, thanks for the compliment ... the hydrangea tree in my picture is a pink diamond ... my *forest* of cleome (literally!) is situated between two hydrangea trees ... the other one is a pee gee & i love them both ...

they look for all the world to be identical trees UNTIL bloom time ... the pee gee STILL isn't in bloom ... i wish they both were pink diamonds ... phyl
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