I've never found the clam shells that strawberries etc. come in work very well for wintersowing, not so much because of the their depth, but that they are too small to retain moisture with as many holes as they have and they dry out. I have had very good luck with the salad bar style clam shells that are about 8 by 10 inches, although I do have to melt or cut drainage and venting holes. I like these because they have lids that are easy to open and close during the last few weeks before I can leave the lids off competely. In Maryland, there always seem to a few weeks in the spring after the seeds germinate where we get some very warm sunny days that would cook the tiny seedliings. But then it always gets back to freezing again, so having easy open, reclose lids is nice. I use the deepest ones I can find because some of them are too shallow, and I know that anything with a long tap root isn't going to work in them. But lots of stuff does just fine. I eat a lot of salads for luunch and I just wash them out and keep them for wintersowing. I did buy 25 for $5 dollars from my cafetaria at work in February when I wanted to finish up sowing in a big blast. Once the weather stays worm, I just tear the top off completely to save space in my pot ghetto. DO NOT BE TEMPTED TO WRITE THE NAMES OF THE SEEDS ON THE LIDS IN MARKER. You will forget to write the sames of the seeds on markers in the spring before you start tearing lids off and end up with a lot of "does anyone recognize these seedlings" post

Thane - I also pot the bare-root ones for the first year so I can be in better control of watering and feeding while they are getting a new root system established. Sometimes they just need a little coddling at the beginning; this is especially important if you have very small divisions, and you note that you do have some. Once they are established in the pot and you then move them to the ground, lots of room and organic compost in the ground will see to them for decades. Azzz - A 5 gallon pot is too big for what sounds like a 3-5 eyed division (and very similar in some ways to putting a bare root peony directly into the ground, see note to Thane above). A three gallon is the largest you should need for that size, and it will most likely fit into a 2 gallon. Too large a soil volume that is not quickly occupied by a developing root system will retain excess water (never good) and hold too much unused fertilizer, which, if the soil does dry out, can damage the developing root system. I always put them into the smallest pot I can without breaking anything (and I have been known to do some creative bending rather than pot up a size if we're talking about just one wayward root). - Steve

If you think that's silly, go to the paint department and take a look at the ridiculous names given to colors. That marketing strategy works very well. There was a thread somewhere on these forums about people picking a certain color over another just because of its name. This post was edited by DreamingoftheUP on Fri, Jun 27, 14 at 7:44

DS calls DH by his first name and always has. When he talked about DH to people for the first few years, he called him "my mom's boyfriend", if he talked about him at all. After we started talking about marriage and moved in, he started talking about him as "my future stepdad". Now that we're married, he talks about him as "my stepdad". He says it's much easier now. He calls X's GF by her first name, too. Once, X tried to tell me that if DS felt comfortable calling her "mom" that he would let him. I found that ridiculous at the time (and still do) seeing as X has EOW visitation. That means X's GF sees DS like 4 days a month (throw in sports and school functions). Not really a mom-type figure. Now....SD....that's a whole 'nother story. DH and BM separated in 2000 and divorced in March of 2001, when SD was 5 (almost 6) years old. BM re-married in January 2002 and was pregnant by August 2002. They told SD she had to start calling the stepfather "Dad" so as not to confuse the new baby. That was it. She calls her SF "Dad" to this day. DH tried to stop it, but it didn't work. (That was just the beginning of the parental alienation, IMO). It wouldn't be so bad if BM wasn't poisioning SD against DH. SD has always called me by my first name; I like it that way.