Winter Sowing - 2010 - things rolling right a long

I can't believe I know something that'll be helpful here! I've started a LOT of dianthus indoors, including Rainbow Loveliness, but I haven't wintersown them before, but I am this year. They reseed well, so I'd think they would be a good candidate for WS. I have always started them indoors, no heat mat, jiffy mix, covered the seed about 1/4".

Looking at my plant list, I've done Rainbow Loveliness many times (it's a short-lived perennial), Siberian Blues, D. Plumarius, and others, all with good results.

Celene, I'll have to keep a look out for 'Jiffy Mix.' Last year I used Shop Rite brand potting soil. It is very heavy and full of mushroom spores and weed seeds. The bf just got some more for me on sale, 'thanks sweetie', at least i know to sterilize it first this time. I think it would be better mixed with peat and perlite to lighten it up a bit.

Did you do anything else for your seeds, mist them, keep them damp or on the dry side? What kind of containers do you start your seeds inside. Do you put a lot in a big pot, individual seeds in peat pots or egg cartons?

I think dianthus are so pretty. I saw so many varieties growing in gardens in Ireland and England, but I haven't seen any growing locally. I got a few varieties in recent swaps. I'll try some of each type wintersowing and keep some in reserve for another try if needed. Actually, that is what I am doing with everything.

I planted 8 more jugs and set them out. It is so cold. Tiffany checked to be certain that no voles were bothering the wintersown containers. My neighbor was joking, "what are you making, moonshine?" I said "no, planting seeds". He said, "I should have known it was some kind of flower." Then he said, careful they (the boozehag and her pothead bf) don't pee in them. I moved my containers away from the boozehags, just in case. Tiffany was sniffing and digging, so I suspect that some rodent was trying to burrow under my containers. I added "Tiffany safe rodent deterrent" to the shopping list.

Any suggestions for deterring/eliminating voles?

I did nothing special...I used regular old nursery flats, with 9-cell packets, filled with Jiffy Mix, covered with the clear plastic dome that comes with the flats when you buy them, I got mine at Lowe's. No misting, no baggies, no nothing.

Re: wintersowing seeds that need darkness to germinate: Trudi has an answer for that, too.: "For every day there is also a night". As long as they're outside they're not getting supplemental light. Nights are still around 14 hours, longer than hours of light in a 24 hour day.

Trudi's site, wintersown.org is there for anyone to use and can answer about any question you have. If you are new to this process and haven't reviewed her site you are missing a lot.

Karen

I have checked out Trudi's site, but missed that tidbit. I'll have to check again. My containers are on the north side of my place and receive extra shade from a tall fence. As they, hopefully, start sprouting in the spring, I will move containers in front for more light as needed.

This message was edited Jan 31, 2010 1:05 AM

Deebie, I dont know if potting soil is recommended or appropriate.... but thats what I did 6 or 7 months ago. Sitting here today, I cant tell you WHY I did it. LOL but it was there and I had plants that needed to be repotted and it's what I could find at the time. i potted herbs that I wanted to keep near the porch. I repotted some of my mother's houseplants that my dad had almost let die. What i wanted to keep and brought inside is doing well. thats all I can speak for. but for all my Wintersowing that I did in jugs last year, plus the failed experiment I read about on Winterown.org using freezer bags, which was BUST, I used the potting mix. thats what I was trying to add to the conversation.

Herbie, if someone answered, disregard this please, This time of year, I don't think its necessary to water. the rain and snow should do that as well as the natural condensation that builds up as it gets warmer. I only watered when could see seedlings emerge AND I could see that they were wilting.

grrrlgeek
here is an example of the containers with cups. I'm sure there are many pics posted on the threads of this. It snowed heavily here last night...( snow in Virginia?) and so I cant get to mine but this is last year

Yup the snow is gorgeous here too! I love how everyone initially stays in--makes it so peaceful without the regular traffic and people noise...at least for awhile:) Thankfully this occured on my regular days off (Sat. & Sun) or I'd have to face calling in to work and they don't approve of that.

I'll be finally getting started--I'm a lifelong procrastinator--so it will be a full day of hole pokin and potting mix fillin. I still haven't quite decided what to try yet...way too many choices.

I have decided that I may do two things per container--only if I intended to plant them together anyway. That way I won't be frustrated if I get one mixed in with the other.

dmac, I'm enjoying the peace and quiet too! A little snow shushes everything:-) It was the perfect day for it. Saturday is a slow down day anyway.

I have been readying containers and am about to sow seeds. A perfect time to get these outdoors into the cold they need.

Enjoy!

Reading your posts on the snow makes me feel all peaceful. : )
tcs, that is a very good idea for me to use on the seed that I have small amounts to sow. Thanks for that idea. I even have a container to use. Do you cover it?

valley... not sure what you mean by... Do you cover it?

I had to scroll back to find my post in question.

if you are asking, would i cover the container?

In my post, way up there on the 28th, i was thinking to do the 'test' as an inside sow... so no, i would not cover.
If the soil gets rock hard, I probably would not use it for WS"ing... and would end up using it in the flower beds, outside, in the summer.

if the soil gets hard, the seeds can't breath and probably would not germinate.

you could also try a test pot of said garden soil and perlite mixed it... compare the germination, or lack there of.

I'm sorry tcs, I must have been half asleep when I typed that last post. I am still running the experiment on the soil thing. : )
I meant to as Jada if she put a cover on her plastic container with the cups in it. Seems like such a good idea if I have just a few seeds of a variety.
Sorry about the confusion. : )

GardenQuilts: "A barren pot of potting soil isn't very interesting (unless you are a fungus gnat). " hee hee, I have a few pots of amaryllis (with just leaves now) that have been found quite interesting by said gnats.
Hope you're healing well.
I started the dianthus with a clear dome until germ, and potted them up 1 per cowpot. They were watered from the bottom until they were put outside in the cowpots, then got rain or hose.

Jada, the idea with the cups in the container is great, and I have the perfect container--snagged it on sale at the hardware store. Some of the petunias I have only 15 seeds, so I will do those like that. How big/many holes are in the top?

Lynn, yes put holes in the container lid and bottom of container and then put the lid on to cover . You will get humidity in it and mine fog up.

grrlgeek, Put holes all over. Close to the edges and thru the middle and in between those. My first year I only put a few holes and some dried out.This year that wont happen:-) Put holes in bottom of cups too.

This isnt my idea, I learned it here on DG. Wish I could find the thread....

Got it jada. I will definitly be giving this a try. : )

yeah i think I saw somewhere someone used some kind of cups but it was a while ago, I'm not sure where.

Thanks for all the great info, everyone.

Does anyone know how to get Eon nursery pen off a 2-liter bottle? i need to make some changes in my labeling ^_^

duct tape over it???

That may be the only way. They appear to be indestructible. I'll have to consult Mr, Wizard (my SO the chemist) and see if he has anything in his magic vials o'solvent he keeps.

You can paint or tape over the pen, grrlgeek, or cross it out and write below it. Or leave it as is since you are the only person who will notice it.

I put a number on the bottom half each bottle to correspond to the number on my written list. I also make a plant label with discarded, repurposed blinds and paint pens for each type of seed. I put the labels in the bottles as well. I don't bother to label the top parts of the bottles because I know they will get mixed up anyway. I am using paint pens because my labels made with "permanent" markers weren't permanent enough last year. This is my first experiment in winter sowing, so I am not sure if my system works.

Garden, i think part of the beauty of this is that it's whatever you have or can get.
recycling and replanting. and learn from your mistakes or sucesses.

this was a thorn in my side last year.
I was out of jugs. getting two or three a week wasn't fast enough. the wintersown site said to use gallon freezer bags, but I couldnt figure out a support system. the tops would fall down. i used chop sticks. then i got the idea to use paper towel thingies. it used too much space inside the bag. and once it got wet, it sagged. later I tried clothespins to clip the tops together, thinking they would support each other. not. they all sagged together.

and those that made it to seedlings got hotter quicker and fried them.
the moral of the story...dont give up. keep on trying =)

Here's what our yard looks like this morning. The shot through the wrought iron is my WS'd trays so far. Yep; they're really under all that snow!

maybe i should start a new thread and see if someone smarter than me (all of DG, lol) has figured out how to use freezer bags.

Homophobic...great shots. now you get to sit back and watch.

Nan: Got a lot more to sow yet!

nanniepb: I've never tried bags. Among other disadvantages I see is that eventually the container has to be moved. It seems the soil would crumble. I guess I'm wrong because people do use them with success. However, I feel that jugs just work so well and since it ain't broke I'm not going to try to fix it. As long as I can get jugs, I'll use them. If ever I find that I can't I'll try other things but I find that jugs are actually pretty easy to come by.

Karen

I've been saving all kinds of containers lately because I'm afraid I'm going to run out of milk jugs! Just yesterday we had an event at work and served cookies. I saved the plastic containers the cookies came in (deli containers)! People at work just looked at my pile and said, "More seeds to plant?" LOL LOL LOL

people think we are possessed, but thats ok. no one turned down free plants =)

Hemo, what jugs? : ) Good thing to have snow cover, keeps things safe. I saw on the news that your area got snow, parts of Texas also. Wow, so far this has been a really strange Winter. We are having the warmest Jan. on record. Not a single freeze day for Jan. What scares me is things coming out of dormancy and then Winter setting in come Feb. sometime.

has been an odd year.. we had a very cold Oct, a warmer Nov. snowy Dec, dark and gloomy, but no snow Jan.

wonder what Feb will bring... ah, who cares, i'll be in Fla.

hopefully March will be warmer than usual and April too.

Hello everyone,
This is my first post on the WS forum. I didn't want to start my own thread for a single question, so I was wondering if anyone here can help. I am in Sacramento, CA (Zone 9) and I was wondering if it's too late for me to wintersow? I just recently discovered it and I have a lot of seeds so I'm hoping it might still work. I don't know if we'll get another freeze here but it's still pretty cold. Thank you in advance for any input.
-Goldberry

I would think you can go ahead and begin!

Valley: So far what I have WS'd has been in deli trays and other recycled clear plastic containers that are deep enough to do the job. I will be turning now to 2-liter soda bottles for the rest of my WSing. I used them last year and they worked well.

Yes, according to everything I've read on the WSing forums you can sow away. Have fun. What are you going to sow Goldberry?

Hemo, what have you WSed so far?

So far it's been 4 different salvias, 2 gaillardias, gazania, corydalis lutea, crocosmia Emberglow and aconite. I still have tons to sow this week and next. I have some caryopteris seeds that I want to start and according to Horticulture magazine, they should be started in the freezer for about 60 days and then brought out. Need to refer back to that article and get the technique down pat, because I love, love, caryopteris! Since I found them several years ago, I wouldn't be without one for fall color. I was most impressed by my success in last year's WS efforts and it will remain part of my seed starting technique from now on. I need to try again with the meconopsis, because even though it germinated, it pooped out on me and I suspect that I waited too long to transplant it. Last year's winter sowing of rudbeckias, coreopsis, gaillardias, poppies, cynoglossum, dahlias, codonopsis, clarkia, dianthus and others was outstanding. I was amazed that this works, but it does! WooHoo!

Wow, Hemo, you are an old pro at it. This is my first year. You give me courage to plant even more. : ) Can't wait to see what grows from my WS efforts. Thanks for the encouraging info. : )
A sowing I will go.

I'm no pro at all. I just read through the sticky before starting last year and read the advice of Karen and others who have been doing it for a long time. With such excellent help, how could I go wrong? But trust me, it's hard to look out the window at frozen, snow-covered jugs of seeds and believe that they're ever going to do anything. But come spring and little green things start appearing from the soil and before you know it, you've got your first true leaves and can start setting out or moving into bigger pots to let them grow on. There's some wonderful mentors here who'll help you through the process.

Right now I look out my window and see jugs full of soggy potting soil. We are having a warm Jan with lots of rain. Hope things don't germinate to soon. This is unusual weather for us. Nothing green yet, hope they stay that way for awhile.

Hemophobic: It would probably take a lot of luck to get meconopsis to grow in your climate. They do well in the PNW.. They like acidic soil and cool conditions. I've never even tried; I know they wouldn't do well here.

Karen