Mid-Atlantic Gardening: SEEDS Spring 2015 in the MAF, 0 by greenthumb99

greenthumb99 wrote:
As many of you know, I do a lot of winter sowing. At first I went the gallon milk carton route, but found it awkward, a bit hazardous in execution, and rather excessive in consumption of potting mix and number of seedlings produced. I switched to using lidded pint and quart deli containers which I purchased from a restaurant supply house. Found this more sensible in material usage and numbers of plants produced. (Photo #1)

Still, I'd get as many as 50 seedlings and have to tease them out and into individual pots, discarding the extras. This year I have been sowing mainly in 2 inch pots with an eye to eliminating potting up young seedlings and having better control on the number of plants I burden myself with. (Photo #2) Since most of what I winter sow are native species that require winter exposure to germinate, I find no need to have covered containers to emulate greenhouses. Some seeds I plant in deeper cell packs rescued from local monarch way station installations. (Photo #3). For species I want larger populations of I use carry-out containers (Photo #4) and wooden clementine boxes. (Photo #5)