First time winter sowing!

5 years ago

So I’m getting antsy, with all this snow and 2 more months of winter to go. I decided to try winter sowing with echinaceas, rudbeckias and delphiniums. This is fun! I’m a little worried about drainage though, I’ll have to find something to put under the bottles, as the water just stays around them.

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Jenn

5 years ago

Jay's link is the one I saw with the tops off. We get some nasty wind, so I went with a method I saw for sowing native seeds where you don't use tops. It doesn't give you as much of a head start without the mini greenhouse effect, but you still get natural stratification and plants acclimated to their future environments. However, since the seedlings are less protected, I sowed seeds that are cold hardy to a few zones colder than I am - mostly things that could self sow in my area. I have achillea, butterfly weed, columbines, foxglove, echinacea, hollyhock, lupine, maiden pinks, sweet William, Icelandic poppies, and snow-in-summer in nursery pots secured with chicken wire, bricks, and stakes to deter squirrels and birds.

This photo is from earlier in the winter. Our snow cover is thicker now, but in our area, the snow comes and goes. The soil in the pots has stayed frozen most days since January, though. I may end up with 100 pots of nothing, or enough seedlings to massively expand my garden. I hedged my bets with another 47 seed packets that are waiting for spring! I promised myself that this would be a from seed year, and that I could be patient now that I have at least some perennials and bulbs blooming from late March to November. Of course, I will break that resolution with the first nursery I walk into this spring.

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Comments (12)

dbarron
5 years ago
Of course, you're zone 3. But to me, March is spring...so you're late trying this..but with your zone...how long have you got to chill them?
mazerolm_3a
Original Author
5 years ago
A full 2 months!
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mo_girl, it took a little fiddling at first, but once I got it down, it was addictive! I love that they turn out square so you can pack a bunch together neatly on a window sill in some kind of rectangular container. woodhawk, I thought mine ws containers would be staying wet in this rain, but they are slightly under an eave and the milk jugs only have that small top hole, so I have been wetting them a little. Not every day like I have to with my newspaper pots inside though, so that is nice. agirlsgirl, what great ideas! Somehow combining my newspaper pots with wsing, I gotta try that! Thanks! tansy_moon, they will last until I put them out, because of my mild climate, it won't be too much longer until I can put them out. I mean, I could probably start now and they'd be ok. Yes, I'm pretty spoiled. ;) Thanks guys, I'm excited too!
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Thanks for the replies everyone! I didn't sow into individual cups -- I just loaded the whole shebang up with dirt and sowed into the dirt. Some stuff I sowed HOS-style, some stuff (like sunflowers, larkspur, etc) I sowed in tiny rows that I made with a fingertip. Of course, as soon as I finished all my containers it started to rain here in Pittsburgh. I moved all of my containers onto a covered porch for the night because I didn't want to flood them so soon! I'm going to move them back out into the yard and the sun today. I had lots of condensation inside my containers so I know I did it right! I labeled my containers by duct taping a snack sized ziploc bag with the names written on a slice of paper. I don't know if that will hold up over the next few months so I will have to check frequently! I've read about the paint pens you guys use. BTW, making the soil was SO EASY! I'm so glad I didn't plunk down all that money for seed starting soil bags. Here they are about 4 dollars for 8 quarts, and with the amount of soil I used it would have been a small fortune. Just a big bale of peat, some compost, and the perlite and it looked almost the same as the MG stuff. I mixed it in a big bag and used the dishwashing liquid tip! Next time I think I would try the mushroom compost over the cow manure compost. Mine had a LOT of large chunks of wood and rocks and stuff. I wound up using only a very small amount. I guess I can use the leftovers out in the beds! Happy growing! Kara
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A while ago, some suggested using colored plastic toothpicks inside the containers as a code, besides using something that might fade in the sun. A red pick might be for Stokesia, a blue could be used for calendula, etc. When you run out of colors, just use two or three picks in the container. Keep notes on which color and how many picks you used for which seeds. I used this method very successfully last year. Also, instead of using tape, which can be sticky and difficult to open and close, someone suggested using a hole punch, or punching holes with a knife that has been heated, and threading twistums, (or the little twist ties that are used to close bread wrappers), through the holes to make a closure instead of using tape. I punched three spaced out openings in the top part and three matching holes in the bottom of each jug, secured them with the ties, and it too worked well for me. It is much easier to open and close the container than using tape. It doesn't seem to matter if the opening around the middle isn't tight.
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Actually, I am keen to prick out my seedlings before the true leaves emerge...for the simple reason that the root will still be unbranched and will painlessly slide out of the soil medium with just the merest nudge from a dibber or toothpick...and with tricky transplants such as legumes or many poppies and tap-rooted plants such as platycodon and callirhoe, this is crucial. The cotyledons are often tougher than the first true leaves and are more amenable to handling (I certainly never touch the stem). I never leave mine in the initial pot either - I want my seedlings to have space to develop a good root mass...and separating them at a later stage is traumatic for me and the plants both. I will prick out, pot on and pot up maybe 4 times over the course of a season, moving up a pot size every time. Unless they are annuals, I will not be planting in the ground until autumn as additional irrigation at my woods and my allotment is not available...so ALL planting (including many hardy annual seeds) must be done in the autumn...and in the meantime, I want each seedling to spend the summer in it's own 4inch pot...although this is where the main attrition occurs, maintaining even moisture by hand-watering hundreds of pots...for months. Probably only possible in the cool British summer - certainly challenging in the blistering heat of the US south.
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Jenn
5 years ago
Question- are the lids on your containers supposed to be off to collect moisture? I genuinely don't know, as this is also my first year winter sowing and I am using an open container method that uses a wire grate for protection, but I thought I had seen milk jugs without lids when I was researching (before I decided that I would never find enough milk jugs for that method). I hope you get lots of flowers! I put some seeds in the fridge for cold stratification today - I didn't winter sow them with my first batch back in January because milkweed doesn't like to be moved, and I already lost a bunch of seedlings trying to transplant them in a previous year, so I am going to direct sow them once it stops snowing. I know what you mean about antsy! I'm glad I moved south to a somewhat warmer 6b before I got into gardening. We have weeks, not months, before we start to see green.
mazerolm_3a
Original Author
5 years ago
Hi Jenn, I was told to put the lids on, but make cuts at the top for venting. What did you sow?

Milk jugs: I could not find milk jugs anywhere, so I used what was available (juice and soda containers).
Jay 6a Chicago
5 years ago
You're supposed to leave the tops off. The soil won't get drenched through those little holes. I would take care of the drainage issue asap. I also put more holes around the upper portion of the milkjugs. Slits won't let in enough moisture.
mazerolm_3a thanked Jay 6a Chicago
dbarron
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
I keep the lids on...just as long as you keep them out of direct sun (so they don't become ovens). I worry about moisture as needed, usually putting the pot/jug in a container with shallow water and letting it wick up from underneath.

But when lazy, I leave things a bit loose on the sides and allow water to directly enter. The bad thing with that is sometimes the drainage may clog and it may all float :(
mazerolm_3a thanked dbarron
Jay 6a Chicago
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
Leaving off the top eliminates the need to soak them from the bottom, which is very inconvenient, especially when wintersowing LARGE numbers of seeds! :)

https://www.agardenforthehouse.com/2012/11/winter-sowing-101-6/
dbarron
5 years ago
I like to pay personal attention to my plants. I inspect them frequently, so this isn't a problem for me.

I'm not a wholesale nursery.
Jay 6a Chicago
5 years ago
If I did open a wholesale nursery I wouldn't charge you a penny Barron.
ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
5 years ago
the water just stays around them

==>>> i dont understand this part ... around?? .. outside.. on the table????

i would probably get them off the table.. so the wind wont launch them ala dorothy and toto ...

just shove them in a snow bank for now ...

and i would probably keep them in full bright shade .... else i suspect they will get to HOT ... not warm.. hot.. being clear plastic and small top holes ...

uhm .... apparently you arent a milk freak like i am ... lol .. else.. you would know where to get milk jugs ...

all that aside.. just have fun ... whatever success you may have or not.. i am sure you got a good gardening buzz going.. with all that snow around.. so you win ...

ken
mazerolm_3a thanked ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
Skip1909
5 years ago
My milk jugs are directly on the deck against the north wall of the house. No caps on and the sides are only held shut by 1 piece of tape. I sealed the entire cut in the bottle with tape last year and it was really difficult to open the jugs. I have another container that was a tub of dog treats with a large round opening, I covered that with an old piece of aluminum screen held on with a bungy cord. That has holly berries in it and those will probably take 2 years to germinate, I figured I should just leave that in an out of the way place.

Then I have lots of seeded plug trays sitting on the ground in a low tunnel. I covered the hoops in cloth insect screen, then covered the top of that in .55oz row cover fabric. The ends of the tunnel are insect screen only to allow air circulation. I put down cardboard on the ground first to block any weeds from coming up from the soil underneath.

Next year after I open up the wholesale nursery Ill switch to a plastic cover and come up with a system for bottom watering (lol).
mazerolm_3a thanked Skip1909

First time winter sowing!

Jenn

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First time winter sowing!

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