Lessons learned for next year #3

Sure Carrie you don't have to worry about the containers being that clean when you are WS them outside they aren't as particular. I probably won't even wash mine maybe just rinse them out I have a big pile of them from last year lol

I saved a few of mine.... most were mutilated just getting the seedlings out.

None of the sterilizing and bleaching and nonsense?

Carrie: Since most of my milk jugs come from other people, sometimes they're stinky and nasty. Those I rinse out in bleach water. Most I just rinse once with tap water . No problems in 2 years of WSing.

I don't reuse jugs only because I have usually cut them up at planting time, if not before. If I were going to reuse, I would just give them a good rinse.

The purpose of all that sterilizing stuff for indoor seed growing is to prevent disease, the most common of which is damp-off. That isn't an issue with WSing.

Karen

Carrie you don't have to do that I would just rinse them real good, take a tub of water put some dish soap in them swish them around rinse and let dry they should be fine :) That's what I'm doing and that's what I do with my pots outside that I plant in and those plants are fine. Now if your were planting in the house that would be a totally different story bleech those seed trays, rinse and let them dry! lol Too many things can happen in the house under lights but the ones outside will be just fine :)

Hurray! I just held them open with a clothes-pin when it was time to open the lid. But we stopped getting milk delivered in those half-gallon containers. : (

Carrie,
If you need more you can go to the recycle place if you have one sometimes I go there to get jugs. They don't mind at all sometimes I even get 5 gal. buckets if I'm lucky that day lol

I need less! Last year was fun but pretty overwhelming when it came time to transplant all these things that, amazingly, had sprouted and grown! I'm not telling how much DIDN'T make it.

carrie -- i too will do less this (next) year.

last year was my first stab at it, and i had way too many seedlings.

as i mentioned -- way somewhere up there - that i will do less seeds per container

plus i will be more choosy when it comes to seeds.

certain seeds i will direct sow, like sun flowers, since the bunnies eat them anyways... so why go thru all the trouble SW'ing them only to have them on the bunny buffet.

I have to do less this year. After 2 years of wintersowing and cramming seedlings into every visible inch of soil, I'm running out of bed space. Plus, perennials which stayed small this year and didn't bloom will need more space next year than this year.

I sowed 80 some containers the first time, 60 some containers the second time. I just have to cut back.

Karen

I don't remember how many I sowed - maybe 50 according-to-the-book containers, and then once I realized those were actually sprouting I planted 3 46 cell trays of annuals but most of those dried out. Some of them I transplanted in time and gave me pretty flowers, eventually!

I'm keep telling myself I'll do less than the 50+ milk jugs I did this year, but I already have 26 seed varieties on my list for next winter and it's only October...oh dear.

My biggest challenge was getting rid of all the seedlings I didn't have room for - I had to pot them up and label them to give them away - that took me weeks to do. Must be more organized next year.

Joanne

Joanne:

Isn't there a local Farmer's Market or somewhere similar that you could take your extra seedlings?

I am starting a new thread this is way to long. Here is the new one. Now to remember how to make this a sticky. Would someone remind me please?

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/779338/

This message was edited Oct 11, 2007 6:53 AM

Candyce - my post wasn't really clear - it wasn't actually a problem to find people to give them to, it just took me a long time to pot them up to do so...

Joanne

I have #4 started and it should be a sticky soon.