2011 whatcha sowing this year ??

Wow, you guys have been busy! If you have extra seed to trade I would love to trade seed for a few iris, or dls. I have a list on the forum seed trades. Send me a dmail if interested.
I would love to try this. I bought Jet Star tomato seed yesterday at Walmart. Also some mixed gourmet greens. Does anyone start them in a jug. Maybe I should use a cold frame. Here is a link to my thread.
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1149150/

Thanks,
Teresa

Marlene,we are Winter sowing outside.Do you have a deck or patio ??/ Scroll back up this thread look at tcs posts with photo`s.I`m new at this too 1st time ,I also grow bedding plants under lights starting that in a few weeks.

Terese, I was reading your previous post, about when to plant annuals. Did you sow your annuals along with perenniels? I cannot find the site that indicates which annual seeds can winter sown.

I read somewhere... any plant that drops it's seeds to the ground, can be winter sown.

even look at some veggies... if i tomato or pepper falls to the ground, eventually it rots or decays and the seeds are eventually on the ground and you can get volunteers.

I dont necessarily sow my annuals and perennials at the same time. I wont do them until March. Some of them, if the temps are just right -- they can germinate in as little as 2-3 days.

I know that wintersown.org has all sorts of lists. I'm sure you can find a list there, and even for your zone.

here is what i did today: [this was container #'s 22-36]

Purple Poppies
mixed, Carol Eads Mix
Queens Poppy
Queens Poppy
Flat Top Asters
Aster Alipinus - Dark Beauty
Comm. African Daisy
Yellow Holly Hocks
Actaea matsumurae
White False Indigo
JPW Gateway [Joe Pye Weed]
JPW Little Joe
JPW Chocolate Joe

I wintersowed tomato seeds on March 1 last year. It worked out really well. I forget if they germinated towards the end of March or the beg of April, but by the end of April I had beautiful green stocky seedlings, which I transplanted once into 4" pots for sale at the table in my front yard in May. And no hardening off, because they already are!

Some of you are in a warmer zone than I am, so you would start earlier.

Does anyone know if the annual Peony Poppies can be wintersown?

All the annual poppies wintersow just fine.

Yahhhh! I was hoping they would! I was afraid to take a chance but I thought some of the others were annuals as well.

Diamonds:

Did you get the peony poppies from the robin? I did, and WS'd them on 2/11. Just took a chance and am glad Celene says they will be fine.

I ordered some and I cannot remember where I ordered. The blooms looked huge and vibrant so I couldn't resist.

Last year I WSed some poppies but the blooms were really tiny and low growing. This year will be the first year I get blooms from my hollyhocks and delphiniums. Everything else bloomed the first year.

I am going to start my seeds from Robin this weekend. My son tried to throw away one of my containers last night. I think I saw the roof raise....needless to say, that won't be happening again. LoL

Anyone try to sow climbing roses?

If you get those small blooms, they were resenting root disturbance or in a too-small container. Get them set out early.

Anita... last year i planted out my some of my poppies on April 11th.

Today I WSed:

Asclepias Curassavica
Ascepias Tuberosa
Alstroemeria (2 kinds)
Red Oriental Poppy
Peony Poppy Mix
Larkspur
Dames Rocket
Garden Phlox

Wish me well. I'm still a newbie at this.

Watch out Debbie it's addictive. I had to make more beds to accomodate all of my new plants

Is anyone WS in a cold frame? I don't have enough milk jugs since all the kids are grown! I am excited about trying this and have some seeds from a trade and Wally world.
Teresa

Is it to early now?

Teresa -

you dont have to have milk jugs.... any sort of container that will hold at least 3-4" of soil, with room to grow for the seedlings -- will work.

I use a lot of juice, qt sized, and half & half. I use gal of vinegar too. Qt sized yogurt containers with lids, those #2 deli contianers with lids ... really anything where you can add soil and a cover.

I guess you could use those large under the bed plastic containers too? Hmmm

I did try googling #2 deli containers, but the pictures varied--are these the ones that are like 4-5" tall, or the ones more like 8" tall?

Sorry, I'm a maroon!

I found some in this image... they are sort of in the center ... some times i stack the big one in the smaller #1 - then i can bottom water.

Thank you!

Welcome.... I've used those for many yrs with good success. and they do save well from yr to yr... i have two i saved from last year.

Diamond, I saw your pictures last year in another post and your plants were awesome. I'm sowing, but know I don't have enough beds to plant everything. So, I'll be making some new beds too. The others, I will share with friends and sell some to get funds to buy even more seeds to plant. LOL.

Today I planted:
Purple wave petunia
Purple and silver tidal wave peturnias
Agastache foeniculum
Agastache Apricot Sprite
Agastache Pink Pop
Nerine Bowdenii, light and dark pink

Does anyone have extra supertunias for trade? Aren't they better than the waves? How about seeds for the dark and limegreen potato vines. They look so cool mixed with other flowers. LMK

Teresa

I'm wanting to know if it's to late to WS? If not can you WS any kind of seeds? I have water one gallon containers.
Also where do you put these containers with the seeds in them?

This message was edited Mar 3, 2011 1:28 PM

roseycats... no, not too late. what is your zone? about a 6?
you can pretty much sow any seeds you wish.
once your containers are filled with potting mix, and seeds, place them outside and just wait for them to germinate.

Terese

Thanks Terese

I am a first time ws'er and just thought of something! I used as many milk jugs as I could get my hands on, but used more of the 2 ltr. pop bottles as had more of them. Now to the question: How do you get the new plants out of the containers to plant? lol I saw in tcs pic the milk jug with the top open, and full of tiny new seedlings. Some of mine are going to look like that.

Thanks

I just turned them out on my hand, flipped them right side up (I flipped them onto an old plastic saucer) and separate into clumps, and plant.

sometimes you may have to cut the container, down the side, to get the seedlings out.

some - when they do the Chai Pet thing... mass of solid seedlings, the whole thing usually pops out when turned up side down.

But say you did larger seeds, like 4-O'Clocks, sunflowers or morning glories... where it will be a single plant, you can go in with a small shovel or even a spoon and scoop out the seedling that way. But if they are wedged in there, get a knife of scissors and just slice the side of the container to get them out.

I do recall i had tough times with some containers but not all. can't recall which ones though.

THANKS!!!!!!

I only WS those plants that need stratification of flunctuating temps, like perennials.

Below are my plastic shoe boxes from last year. All have perennials. The one on the right is all iris from my crosses. The one in the center have small plastic containers of small seeds such as Prairie sunflower, Columbine, Butterfly plant, and Clematis.

I use Miracle-Gro potting soil topped with seeding mix, which is finer. I pre moisten, sow the seeds, then snap on the lids. I check to make sure no animals have disturbed the boxes. Other than that, I don't check since they won't dry out. The boxes are placed on the north side of my house. I brought the box of iris seeds in April and placed under lights. They began to sprout a week later. The others sprouted as the weather warmed in May.

Below are the WS seeds planted in a 6-pack after sprouting in the shoe box. They are currently overwintering in my coldframe, along with daylily crosses.

Oct 2009 was my first year of WS and hybridizing as explained. I did 4 more boxed in Oct 2010 with many iris crosses, along with tree seeds, and perennials.

I had wondered about using the plastic shoe boxes. Thanks for posting.

Crit, they sure beats trying to get seedling out of narrow bottles, etc. I did learn to place a brick or stone on the cover to prevent wind from loosing the cover. WY gets high winds.

They look nicer than a bunch of milk containers, plus they can be stacked to save space. Easier to store when not in use.

This message was edited Mar 8, 2011 7:37 AM

I also wondered about 'sterilizing' the containers, which I did not do. I just washed out the milk jugs and pop bottles good. I have some seedlings starting, but hope I didn't kill the others before they even got started!

I've never sterilized .... just rinse with water, if they are nasty, like old milk, then i'll use a bit of soap.

I have my first sprouts today... YAY, Agastache Honey Bee White.

Terese, you have sprouts already? I need to check my bottles. I'm still putting seeds out.

Just the 1 Anita. and we really had not been warm. so i was surprised. mine are western exposure.. so they do get the afternoon sun.