I ask this not only cause of the pot having more extension to be more prone to being blown over. I ask this also cause it could save us a few more cents on the tape we use. Hey I love to save a penny. Though I did go out last night and purchase some duct tape, lol.

Just one of my many thoughts running through my head!!

The thing I'd be most concerned with would be critters getting into the pots and digging the seeds out. I have a lot of squirrels around my house, and skunks, that like to dig where I don't want them to. Also, the tops help keep the seeds and soil from washing out if a hard rain were to happen. Those are my two cents, maybe someone else will chime in.

Karen

I usually have seedlings in the uncovered pots on my deck, but they are not the ones I expect. Agastache foeniculum seems to find its way into almost every pot, and I even had one pot with a butterfly bush seedling. I blame the wind rather than the critters for these, but I also see evidence of digging. These are, for the most part, pots that didn't sprout the year before, so anything that comes up is a surprise.

Becky

Those are both very valid points!! See this is why I asked, lol.

I am sure someone else will have some input also. I am eager to see what other problems I may face.

This will be year #8 WS and from experience and the fact that I spent my summers on my grandparents veggie/flower farm.

The covers really do serve an important purpose.

1. They provide a mini greenhouse for the seeds that helps to germinate the seeds more quickly because the soil will be warmer with a cover.

2. It keeps those pesky critters from getting the seeds, especially the birds

3. It keeps the soil moist/wet, but usually not flooding. But even if the seeds end up in a pool of water because of too much rain, the seeds stay in the container instead of traveling to where ever the water will take them.

4. Same as above with a snow cover as it melts

5. Keeps the wind from being able to blow anything into the container, especially those weed seeds.

6. by attempting to keep everything out of the container except for the soil, seeds planted in it and moisture/rain/snow melt, you have better control of the growth in the container and it's easier to just take the container and HOS the seedlings.

One never knows what the weather will be from one year to the next, except that if mother nature can toss it at us, she will do it.

So far the only thing missing that I've experienced seems to be a tornado, a hurricane and the kitchen sink.

I've had containers floating in 2 -3 feet of water twice, both germinated seeds and containers with just seeds in them. The first time I figured that was the end of all of them, but low and behold, everything was fine and all those seeds germinated.

At the same time, I wouldn't want to even think about where my seeds would have been had they been in pots with no covers, or direct sown for that matter.

What I can tell you is that the pots that where left outside all winter had water pouring out of them as if they where a waterfall, and had their been any seeds in them, they wouldn't have been there after all the spring rains we had 2 different times.

The reseeds of things like cosmos and marigolds, found their way to the cracks between the slabs in the front walk and even out in the street. All the garden beds where under water.

Not one seed that was WS in their covered containers left in the back of my house found their way to any location other than their containers.

Oops, not quite true. hubby did take "NO SHOW CONTAINERS" and dumped them in a spot that was dug up by a critter, right in the middle of the lawn in the back yard.
Didn't know he did it until I got a surprise about a month later. Right in the middle of the back fenced in yard where blooming morning glories trailing along the ground, one lonely petunia, and a couple of marigolds.

BUT they didn't get their on their own.

Those covers really do serve a purpose and really work better than having the containers uncovered.

Fran

Wow, that puts it all into another perspective. We always have those hard rains then those huge crazy ice storms. Then the snow.

It was a thought maybe not a well thought about thought but it was an idea anyway.

We all get ideas all the time. Gardening is, as my grandpa always said, "nothing more than one huge experiment that will always have wrinkles in it. What works one year is bound to not work the next. But some things will work every time and some things won't. As long as 'mother nature' is in control of this whole experiment, all we can do is try every year, learn from what we can, remember the total disasters, because they are valuable to knowledge and you won't make that mistake a second time. Never expect perfection in your gardens, you are not in control.
Just always remember that the only thing 'mother nature' can't throw at us is the kitchen sink, and that's because tornadoes are not very common in MA, but give her time and she just might decide to change that fact too."

So, don't feel bad if an idea you had that sounded good, doesn't work out to be so good. In a perfect world of perfect weather conditions, it would work. We just don't have that.

Just keep tossing out your ideas, odds are someone that has been WS for several years can provide feedback about the idea.

The only reason I know that this your idea has potential problems with rain and flooding is because of experience in year 3 and then last spring, year 7.

It's amazing what you can learn when you get 14 inches of rainfall in less than weeks.

And if I did not WS seeds before those 2 years, or never had all that rainfall, I would have thought that your idea just might not be a bad one.

What works for one person with WS won't always work or be liked by someone else.

Trial and error is also part of WS too.

Also remember that people can live in the same weather zone in different parts of the country, yet their growing season and weather can be as different as day and night.

So keep the ideas and questions coming. Someone will pop on and answer them, maybe tweak the idea, give you pros and cons, or like I did, tell you about experience with snow, heavy rain, flooding and what may happen with seeds that are not covered.

Fran

Sounds like your granfather was a smart person!! It gives me something else to consider as I hadn't thought about the potential of the major rains.

Life in general is a trial and error, for me lol. Even upon good sound advice sometimes I just have to try something on my own and find out first hand. I am stubborn, and I admit it.

I won't lie I do have intentions of using my pot within a pot method for some Ratibida columnifera (mexican hat). I will still sow a container also, for that just in case factor. I have like way to many of those seeds and then I ended up buying some on top of what I already had. I do things like that sometimes but not on purpose.

I wouldn't of even thought about the idea seriously if it hadn't happen to me by accident. I seriously just gave up on those seeds. Then I went out to my little area that next spring and I had such an awesome surprise in that pot. Twice as many germinated over winter than what had that previous spring. So believe me I am a true believer on this winter sowing.

I am extremely excited about all of it. I have found out that I am in need of way more containers than what I had saved. I have my mom, dad, sister, nephew, husband and kids all saving me containers. LOL and I have already warned the neighbors on what to expect during the winter. They just laughed and said that is pretty neat that I knew how to do that. I was thinking in the back of my head I can only hope I am doing this right. LOL

Anywho thank you again for the ideas, I am sure as I journey down this road for the first time officially I may have more ideas or questions. Thank you!!

You know during spring sowing I always have those pots that I think are duds of seeds. I am starting to wonder if I just leave them alone like I did with that coneflower if they will eventually sprout. I may try that also if I have duds this spring. Just leave it outside during the summer months and let mother nature tend to it as it would in nature. Now that is for seeds I know that are actually viable and came from reliable sources. Though if it doesn't sprout the next year it may be tossed. Except for the hellebores. I heard it could take up to 3 years on those boogers.

Is that a feasible idea?? Or am I just wishful thinking again??

Another slant on the open containers, but I can't say that it would work in your temperatures and really am not suggesting you try it unless you had a few seeds to experiment with - this really may be climate specific.

When I started winters sowing those things that require cold treatment - many perennials, trees, shrubs - many, many years ago and before I even had a computer, I got the suggestion from an English gardening magazine article. My climate is just about a mirror image of England, winter temps will almost average (day/night) that of my refrigerator that I'd been using, and I started out sowing as done by English gardeners, pots topped with grit or even fine aquarium gravel, no covers. I still do it that way (but don't WS annuals or vegetables).

There is no possibility my pots will dry out over winter, I've never watered one yet....coastal Washington. The grit keeps gully washer rains from dislodging seed. Potting soil with adequate drainage prevents water logged pots...and I do sow in nursery pots. The only issue I've had are with sparrows sometimes disturbing the pots, and one year a chipmunk surprised me by planting sunflower seeds for me - a length of chicken wire across the top of groups of pots discourages both.

If you lived someplace along the I5 corridor between Seattle and Portland or west of there to the ocean, I might suggest you try the method for hardy plants - but clearly you do not :)

IMHO if you're going to go with open containers/pots, you might as well direct sow the seeds in the location you want them. The WS containers do protect the seeds and little seedlings from the weather until they can be planted out. Sometimes I think the seeds just take their own time germinating - maybe a mutation issue?

I've had seeds sprout in year #2 from seeds that I thought were duds and I emptied the container in a corner of my garden. Lo and behold plants grew there the next year. It was Centranthus ruber that did that except the plants bloomed white so they were centranthus alba! Now not every dumped container grew but that one did!
Joann

kmpsmom, a lot of the seeds I sow aren't for plants for my garden, I sow/grow because I love to. I sow for family, neighbors, friends, and sell a few things too. I can't fit 80 hellebores a year, or 15 melianthus, or 20 sarcococca etc in my beds. Also, my beds are clay based, only a few things I sow are planted out as tiniest seedlings, most are potted up a size to gain some root system for several weeks before being planted in the garden. I do direct sow annual poppies and nigella, the only annuals I grow year after year.

I was so doubtful the very first I sowed anything but I thought to myself if it doesn't work oh well not much money wasted.Since I USED to kill everything I started by seed. So I did the jugs as everyone said to I may of changed a few things to suit me and I think I did less 20 jugs just to see. Well out of those 20 I think I got 15 or so to germinate others were old seed. Well I was hooked when the seedlings made it past the turn back stage (flowering). hehe And I am have been collecting seeds one way or another since then and my yard is now more flowers than grass. Which in turns help my dh less mowing time but bad for our water bill. But it makes me happy to grow my own bouquet of flowers.

Paula

I think the most important function of the lid is to hold humidity. I can see why Morz wouldn't need that. But in my climate, that added humidity is often important. I think it helps a lot.

Sometimes our spring weather is really wet, but it tends to come as monsoon rain rather than constant drizzle as in Washington. Our wind up here on this hill is so drying, last year it blew my bins, each with 6 or more jugs, from my patio. Those bins were heavy!
{{gwi:350970}}

I had a brick in the bins with 16 oz cups of tomato seeds. That bin was blown over, brick and all
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Now we haven't had any real rain in months. I can't keep pots moist enough to prevent wilting.

I'll stick to lids.

Karen

You know that is an awesome point about the humidity/moisture. I was checking on some of my containers that I had sowed that were in need of the warm cold time frame. Well I will be honest I hadn't got around to putting lids on all of my containers well some I had. The ones that had a lid were still just nice and moist and you could see the humidity/moisture running down the sides of the container. The ones that I hadn't capped yet were starting to dry out. So I came in grabbed the duct tape and got busy. They are all capped now!!

Ghoghunter, you give me hope on my second thought. Some of my seeds have a long germination period so I will just have to wait and see what happens. Some I am for sure will be duds and I will probably just toss those.

This is a paragraph I copied out of "How to Winter Sow Seeds Outdoors"

Let me mention that I also used four kiddie pools. These were used the summer before as container gardens ~ lots of soil and lots of big slits for drainage. I simply direct sowed these and left them uncovered. They got snowed on, the snow melted, it rained while the base of the kiddie pools were still frozen and the rain didn't drain. They all were frozen with ice at least an inch thick.......aarrgghh, panic, Panic, PANIC....I couldn't do anything about it. When warmer weather finally came the pools thawed and drained and the seeds came up! YEAH!

You can do a WS open sow in a container as long as it is large enough and deep enough to hold a sufficient amount of soil that will retain its moisture for several months throughout winter and then into spring, and the wetted soil should be heavy enough that it holds the container in place when strong winds blow.

Kiddie pool containers are very large--they hold a lot of soil. They have a large surface area which you can divide into sections to sow several types of seed. I've marked the sections with pieces of bamboo stakes laid across the soil.

T

You know now I remember reading that!! Wow, ok so what kind of seeds did you sow?? Or is it the concept pretty much basically the same?? If it reseeds then it will work.