How many seeds/containers are you planning?

I am getting excited about wintersowing, so I have been dropping by this forum more lately. I only grew a few plants from seed last year because I new that I would be moving in the spring. Now I am in my new house and I have lots of places that could use plants. The previous year I put out about 25 containers (mostly milk jugs) and I ended up with hundreds and hundreds of plants. I will probably aim for 20-30 milk jugs this year.

How about you? Are you one of those "crazy" people that are aiming for hundreds of containers? Also, how many seeds per container?

After my first year I said that I would limit the amount of seed per container. About 10 to 20 seedling in a milk jug would be ideal, but when I am adding seeds that little voice keeps saying "what if only 5% germinate?" and "you have all those seeds, you might as well use them" so I end up with 100's of seedlings per container. Somewhere I have a picture of a Verbena bonariensis container that must have had 2,000 seedlings.

- Brent

I'm planning to use mostly the 16 to 20 oz soda/water bottles. My aim is one plant per bottle. The problem I foresee, is how to keep them from blowing around. I need something to container them in. I seriously do not want to have a lot of excess plants next spring.

This will be my first WS experience. So I'm starting small, only about a half-dozen containers.

beaker,

This might be out of the question, but take a look at the bulb crates from
Brentand Beckysbulbs.com -- the soda bottles would fit in the short one perfectly and the handles would make it easier to move them around. I have a number of these and it makes moving multiple objects a lot easier.

Suzy

ooops, I meant to answer the question about number of containers.

This will be my first year wintersowing. I'm not sure how many containers yet, but I do want to only sow a dozen seeds per container.

I think I can easily collect how ever many conatiners I need, but I'm not too sure my hands can cut that many containers, at least with a scissors, which is how I expect I'd do it. I have a great deal of bare ground to cover from what has been in marigolds for the last 5 years. The marigolds have been really nice for keeping down the weeds and being very green and bushy -- through to the bitter end of the first frost - and carefree, but I am ready for some variety. These are those special marigolds from Holland used for nematodes, but they make a really great hedge in summer.

I am excited to try to get some variety. I just hope I can keep up with the weeds!

Regarding containers, I like the kind with a little side window (instead of cutting 3/4 of the way around the top in a decaptation) and expect to do those. I was hoping to go shopping for a woodburning tool, but I keep forgetting when I'm out and about.

Suzy

I don't know yet how many I'll try, but I tend to do things in excess, so if history is a guide, then Katie bar the door!

Here is that Verbena bonariensis seedling picture. Do you think I sowed this one a bit too heavily? ;-)

- Brent

roflol Brent!

That's about what I am afraid I will do! I definately think there is some good advice in the "Lessons Learned" sticky on this forum!

Last year was my first for WSing; I planned to do a dozen or 2 dozen containers. I ended up with over 80. So good luck to those of you who plan to do a few - I'll believe it when I see it! We'll have to have a container count next year in late spring.

To keep containers from blowing around consider using some large Sterilite containers or something similar. Someone on GW suggested that to me last year and it worked like a charm. You will need drainage holes in the bottom of these. I did not use the lids in the winter but did use them (with holes in lids, too) to limit water during spring monsoon rains and for late frosts.

Karen

Well Brent ,happy and I have a lot in common...LOL! This will be my first year wintersowing - I have about 80 containers already - but no idea yet what I can wintersow here. Still perusing wintersown.org for what works good in my area!

Suzy -Illoquin- I have been using a box cutter to cut my soda and other bottles. I finally figured out an easy way to do it without endangering my life 0_0

Put the container in the sink on it's side and use the edge of the sink to steady your cutting arm. Turn the container around while you cut, rather than moving your arm. It makes for more consistent cutting. If you are using soda containers (the small ones) you can sit the cut side down in the sink drain for leverage while poking your holes in the bottom for drainage. It keeps them from sliding around so much and risking a finger loss...(grin).

I am using some wooden craft crates I've been lugging around for 4 years during moving to store my short containers in. Also, when I buy flats of plants, they've been letting me keep the black small round pot containers which works well because I have a lot of those too. They hold 12 pots each. I'm also using baskets that I've been storing for months - bought them for really cheap when Goodwill was having a basket sale.

I'm also using the big yogurt containers and strawberry containers for sowing(not sure yet if the strawberry are actually deep enough, since I see 4" is the common rule- but they sure make good peat pot holders for germinating!)

Since it's my first attempt, I'll probably sow heavier than an experienced person would due to beginner's ill luck. If they all work, well, I'll be giving plants away to neighbors and filling in my 1/3 of a yard that has nothing but weeds in it right now!!!

It's so exciting :)

~Sunny


This message was edited Sep 16, 2006 10:32 PM

Last year was my first and I started late; an impluse during the last snow storm of the season. I still managed to put up a dozen containers and one ended up like Brent's, but not quite so bad. Even so, it was a real pain trying to separate all those little roots. I ended up cutting it like a sheet cake and planting little one inch squares of seedlings. All in all, it worked OK. Mother nature took care of the excess. So, I learned a few lessons with that one.

Do Brent and Becky sell bulb crates? I'll have to take a look. I have about a dozen bulb pots that will hold about six or seven bottles each that I might try using. I suppose I could cut down some of those styrofoam containers. I think it might be important to not block out a lot of light.

I also think the wood burning tool idea is good and would be a lot safer than a box cutter.

This is my first year to try W/S and I can't wait to get started! I have a ridiculous amount of seeds. I have seeds I have never heard of, being new to gardening. I know I will be over doing it this year and just plan to be very kind and giving to my neighbors and family in the spring.
Would it be possible for someone to post a picture of how to set up a milk and/or a soda bottle container for an example to us newbies?

missc go to this site http://www.wintersown.org/

Welcome to all the new people on the Wintersowing Forum! It's exciting to see that this trend in gardening is catching on!!

I sowed WAAAY to many last year! I was also very heavy handed in the number of seeds that I put in each plastic container. Sooo with that said, I am planning to cut my number of sown containers in half this year. That would be around 90 for the 2006/2007 growing season! Oh my gosh!! Maybe I need to cut that number in half again! Time will tell.....

I'm beginning to collect those empty & washed out milk jugs, plastic juice containers, large soda & water bottles, etc and storing them in our shed. I'm afraid to open the door because they'll all fall out on top of me!

This will be my second year of wintersowing. Last year I had about 30 half gallon milk jugs and had tons of plants. I wound up giving away plants to all my neighbors and friends.

In the spring, however, I built a hoop house so I'm looking forward to wintersowing in that this winter. I may still use my milk jugs, too.

JoAnn

Lol Brent! That V.bonariensis looks like a chia pet!
I did 20-something containers last year and had a blast with my winter sowing. I sowed more seeds in each container than I really needed to last year so this year, I'll limit it to 5-10seeds/container, depending on how much of one particular plant that I can accomodate or possibly share.
I'll probably do about the same number of containers again and found that milk containers worked the best for me.

Erynne

edited for typo

This message was edited Sep 17, 2006 11:42 PM

I have no idea how many containers. This will be my first year doing any kind of seed sowing. I didn't go hog-wild when purchasing seeds, but I also didn't really think about how many plants might come from them. :)

I'm collecting containers, though, and I'll have to come up with a guesstimate of what I'll need sometime in the next few months.

w

I did over 50 gallon milk/water containers last year. I have no idea how many I'll do this year, but I've been saving containers like crazy. I've also been saving the 1/2 gallon milk containers for when I'm sowing that many of one kind of seed - like veggies. I am planning on concentrating heavily on annuals that I liked from this year and that did well. I am just increasing the variety.

I am new to WSing too winging, I don't have a clue at how many I am going to do.

Antiabryk2, how many seeds do you recommend to a container???

Hopefully if all germinate I will be doing a rock garden type bed, columbine bed, a poppy bed, then a mixed bed out in the back yard (full sun). DH wants to redo our turn around and right in front of our house, so I have seeds for all of it, plus a friend and I are going to be doing a mixed bed next to our church, with 4 or 5 Large Pots & the ground area around them, The spot there is, from the building to the black top about 5 feet wide and about 50 to 60 feet long.... Everything goes ok, I am going to have a very busy and fun spring :o)

Connie

Hi Connie - I guess it would depend on the seed and the container. Last year I over seeded - some wound up sprouting real well and I could have cut the sowing to half. Others had real poor germination and I was glad that I did oversow. Sorry that I couldn't have a more straight forward answer for you.

Antiabry, In another thread you said you WS California Poppies, can all poppies be ws? I have seed for some but don't know what kind...
Connie

I haven't, but I believe they can. If you go to my website http://www.lakehousecreations.com/winter_sowing.htm I have a link to download an excel spreadsheet lovingly created by a person from another garden website of w/s success/failure. It should help immensely. If you are handly with excel, you can even limit what you view to just your zone. I hope that helps.

That spreadsheet is really a wonderful help -- thanks so much!

Great spreadsheet.

I use gallon milk jugs and three quart juice jugs. As to how many will I plant it depends on how good I am at restricting myself. I would guess 30 - 40. Unless the seeds are too small to separate I will plant 12 seeds per jug so they don't get too crowded.

Here is last years winter sowing. I tried one pop bottle and whatever I had in that didn't germinate. I can't remember what it was. I also use some large cottage cheese containers, I may use a few this year if I run out of the others.

I am lucky my husband does the cutting, he uses a heavy duty box cutter. If you use a wood burner make sure you are outside or in a very well ventilated room. The fumes from the melting plastic are toxic.

Okay, I'm confused (which is easy to do!) - I've seen milk jugs cut in half, and milk jugs left intact without the top.
With top - I can see the greenhouse effect would be better, but.....how do you get the seedlings out without tearing the dickens out of the plants? (tries to imagine cutting a milk jug with growing plants inside and sees self in ER instead)

I have cut all my containers in half (far too many to count) - was I wrong??? I thought you cut them in half, covered them with baggies and such (some kind of warming cover)

Help! Do I have to start collecting all over again?

:( Sunny

Hineni: There is no right or wrong way to wintersow. I used milk jugs and left the tops on during the cold months, but cutting them off would be fine as well. Once the weather warmed up, I cut the tops off with a pair of scissors.

BTW, one common method with jugs is to cut all the way around except for a few inches. You can then flip the top back while filling with potting mix and seeds. Then just some tape to hold the top back on. I tried a different method suggested by somebody. I cut a "door" on one side (with the "hinge" on the top). It is a little bit of a pain to sprinkle seeds through the door, but it leaves a sturdier container that is easier to move around and requires less tape.

- Brent

Sunny, The tops are on mine, but I have used the method that Brent talks about they have been cut 3/4 of the way around I planted the seeds and then duck taped them together. Remember to label them. I make the plant label so it is ready to go into the ground when I plant the seedlings. The bottle caps are left off and where I used the cottage cheese containers the plastic covering them has holes. That lets them breath and rain in when spring comes around.

An electric drill works well for the holes in the bottom.

Sorry my photos confused you, if you look very closely you can sort of see the tape.

Whatever I end up wintersowing will have to fit on the table on the patio. Which is a small, round table. All along I've been thinking of 10 - 15 containers, I guess. Now I feel like I'm underachieving! I really don't have much more space to put stuff, unless of course that hill... and that hill.... hmmm. OK, make it 100 containers, lol.

xxxx, Carrie

And the window boxes!!!

xxx, C.

I got a bunch of pots/planters from Freecycle and I'm going to try sewing in them with bottles/jugs over the seeds. They say "necessity is the mother of invention" but I think it's "laziness". No transplanting! LOL

Thanks Zen, I probably didn't look close enough as I was zooming through the forums while doing something else.

I appreciate the clarification!

~Sunny

I use gallon milk jugs. I cut them 3/4 around so that there is a 'hinge' to fold the top back. I cut small triangular holes on the bottom ~4 of them, one in each quadrant of the bottom for drainage as well as one on each lower side with a box cutter. I fill the container with at least 4" of Miracle Grow potting soil and saturate it with water. I let the container drain while I work on cutting the next container. Then I sprinkle the seeds on the top and cover with a light dusting of soil. I mark the container with a paint pen and put a piece of duct tape on each of the 3 cut sides so that I can pick the container up by the handle without spillage. This year I will add a plant tag in the container as well for when I am ready to plant them out in the spring. The whole container goes out on my south facing, stone patio for the entire winter. I leave the plastic top off to allow for air and water/rain. I had an incredible return/germination rate and absolutely love this method!

(looks frustratingly at her existing containers and plans to start anew)

Hmmm, maybe DH hasn't taken them all to recyling yet and I can duct tape them back on!

~Sunny

Hineni: I have to say that shallow, flat container were a pain for me. I like milk jugs and 2 L bottles because of the depth. Have you seen this?

http://wintersown.org/wseo1/Making_Flats.html

Karen

This is my first year to try to WS and I think I am going to try this baggie technique http://www.wintersown.org/wseo1/Winter_Sowing_in_a_Baggie.html along with the milk jugs, and I have some
plant pots I am going to use too... That way I can figure out which one I like the best,
who knows I may like them all :o)

Connie

Hi Karen, yes I had been there but there was so much more container info here that I hadn't really looked closely at the WS site for that.
I think I need to spend an evening reading and taking notes so I'll be more prepared.

Connie,
Hmmm, I hadn't seen that either! Another idea to try :) So far I have jugs/soda type bottles, carry out containers and fruit containers of various sorts, sour cream and ricotta containers, regular 4 and 6 inch transplant pots and...now I'll see how cheap baggies are at Big Lots too.
I think soil will be my biggest expenditure - and organic mixes are always 3 times more expensive :( I'll have to see what I can find.

Thanks everyone for sharing on this topic - I can't wait for us all to get sproutin'!

~Sunny

Hineni,

Make it easy on yourself! Do you drink milk, soda, juice, bottled water, etc? If you can put at least 4" of a good potting soil in the bottom, you've got a container to use for winter sowing. The large containers of sour cream, ricotta & cottage cheese make excellent candidates also. Don't forget about Cool Whip containers too. However, I'm concerned that a regular 4 or 6" transplant pot filled with soil would require constant watering and would dry out to quickly. Remember, dry soil = dead seeds. The deeper the container the better. I've never tried the baggie method, so I can't comment on this.

Have you asked your family, friends and neighbors to help collect containers for you? I'm sure that they would love to receive wintersown seedlings next Spring!

Please take the time to read, read, read the Wintersown website. http://www.wintersown.org It's constantly being updated and is chock full of great information & pictures.

stupid eyes - I read that wintersowing,org was CHOKED full of information and I thought, interesting use of metaphor, but sure, why not? LOL at me!

This is my first year WSing and I really thought I had a handle on not being overzealous in what to sow! Thought I took it to heart and would only sow 10-12 containers... Today DH cleaned the garage..."Who are we saving all the milk jugs and ice cream containers for?" The few I thought I saved ended up being 31 gallon milk jugs and 14 gallon and half size ice cream containers!! LOL... Hey Hineni, when I fly home to SC, I'll air drop a few in your yard! ;0)

carrie: I had to re-read my post to make sure I had not misspelled "chock", but I easily could have written "choked"! :~0

garden6: Glad to hear that you saving up your empty containers! Big milk drinkers in your family!! YEAH!!!