lessons learned for next year #6

Claypa, thanks, I'm just now getting comfortable with Dave's tools myself. By using the journal, I can print out a list of all seeds, or only those seed entries in that journal which have so far been winter sown, based on the status I assign them. This way, I can take the list of only those seeds in my journal that I actually have winter sowed. Once in the garden with the list, I can make notations about each container, ie, germinated, etc. Those that have germinated, I'll move to another location in my yard to keep them segregated from the rest. Then I can make a status update ("germinated) for that RID# and record that data using the milestone record. Next time I need to check on the containers, I just print out another list by status (winter sown container) and head outdoors. Because the status was updated, I can now printout two new seperate lists; one for germinated containers and the other for those seed entries that haven't germinated. Hopefully this will be an improvement over last year's recordkeeping.

TCS, If you have a bunch of 4"pots, or any other size, you can also invert the ziplocs over the pot...like little hats. I had real good luck with that, but it gets expensive because the sandwhich bags don't work, they have to be a thicker plastic to hold their shape up and off the pot.

The real reason I liked it was because it didn't look like the ghetto trash district as it looks with the mik jugs.

No that you're asking me, but if you are looking to use zip locs as the pot themselves, I would use off brand (cheapest) *freezer* bags in the quart size. They are less floppy. I use them for germinating certain kinds of lilies. You also need a corral for them, to hold them upright. a cardboard box will work, but you have to get those puppies transplanted because the cardboard is only good for about 3-4 months before it just collapses.

Suzy

Suzy -- if i did the "bag thing" they would definetely go into a rubbermaid with a lid. I plan on putting them out side my fence line, in the shade of my shed... and i have this nutty Lab for a neighbor, and heck knows what he'd do with them.
... they dont give him toys to play with... so he comes to my yard where i leave toys out for him.

I think i have a few 4' pots that I brought home from Wisc from my plantings over the summer.

and oh yeah... the ghetto dist... that was me last year. my house is on the end,,, not a corner, but i dont have any neighbors to the south -- so anyone coming up the road saw all my containers on the side of my home... boxes, laundry baskets... i'm sure they all thought i was a nut.... so this year, they will got BEHIND the property.

Uggg, jsut dawned on me... that is also the area he [Rocky the Lab] likes to relieve himself.... only reason my grass is always dead there too. I may have to rethink that.....

I found the containers grapes sometimes come in terrific for WS. Unfortunately I only had one. LOL I got these at Aldi's and have not gone back there to get more grapes.
Veronica

Normally I just use sterilites to corral the jugs, with no lids, like this

Karen

Here, I used my white sterilite lids in late spring freeze. Just put the lid on the ground upside down, sit the jugs on the lid, then snap on the bottom boxy part. Clear or colored lid doesn't matter, though, when buried in snow.

Karen

Karen, never thought about using them upside down...excellent!

Inexpensive laundry baskets also work well to corral your wintersown bottles & jugs.

Laundry baskets! What a great idea! I have a few that have seen their last days for house duty, I think I'll use them to hold up some of my jugs. Rain water can come in from all directions too. Thanks for that tip!

I'm finding it difficult to winter sow seeds that are extremely small, dust like, into my containers so that I get an even spread. I'm now putting sand into the seed packets and giving it a shake, shaking it all out into my containers. Seems to work for me.

I used a laundry basket last year... worked very well... had a big crack in the bottom for drainage to boot.

Thanks Cordeledawg
I don't have a problem with them going anywhere as they are protected somewhat from the wind. Someone here ties the handles together. That might work too.

Ok, here's the problem. I sometimes use saran wrap as a top for some of my taller containers. When it rains, you know what happens, the rain caves them in kind of and I'm not sure what to do. So far I've just been really careful and pour the water off. Do you think the soil is getting too wet.

How does it feel? Do you have good drainage holes in the pots?

I do have good drainage holes and I actually haven't taken the tops off to check, I can see that it is wet, but like I said, I do have good drainage, so maybe they will be ok. I probably worry too much.

Hi WS addicts!

I got going on my Wintersowing last week too-- and I'm so excited for spring to come to find little seedlings coming up...

So far the plastic containers from Lowes seem to work well--knock on wood!

If anyone's interested, I started making WS notes on my DG diary page--hoping I'll remember for next year.... http://davesgarden.com/community/blogs/t/tabasco/7992/ and thanks to everyone's suggestions, I'm going to list the seeds sown in my DG Journal too. :-) t.

How do you make this a sticky? Does the originator of the thread do it? This one seems to keep getting buried, and I see there's recent stuff in #4 and #5 ~ I just don't want to miss anything!

Well, okay, just #5 has new stuff.... :o)

tabasco, I am so enjoying how your doing your winter sowing, very organized as well. I'm getting more inspiration, thank you

Going to be in the 60* today, hard to winter sow, thinkin it should go straight in the garden,lol.

Ths again for sharing

I really liked the idea of tabasco's first thread, "Lessons learned for next year". But do we really need to stick six threads with more than a thousand posts at the top of this forum? How does a beginner find out about winter sowing? I've read comments in other forums from people who couldn't get the gist of how WS works wthout wading through tons of posts, a lot of which is just chat. And nowadays you have to scroll past the stickies to see the regular forum posts.

I really wish there were a sticky explaining the basics of winter sowing... it could be done in a couple paragraphs.

>>How do you make this a sticky?

I think you need to contact the Admin -- which Zen usually does.

>>I really wish there were a sticky explaining the basics of winter sowing... it could be done in a couple paragraphs.

I too recall first stumbling in here last year going thru all those threads, finding it a bit over whelming.
It would be nice to have a "quick and dirty" explanation of WS, with maybe a few FAQ's tossed in.

>>But do we really need to stick six threads with more than a thousand posts at the top of this forum?

this is true too.... figure when we get to WS #20 or so ..... since the first post of each new thread has.... "We came from here" and the last [or almost last] says, "we are going here... "
so everyone should be able to follow the entire "Lessons Learned"

Yes, I too think it might be a good idea to clear out all the 'stickys' at the top of the Forum and start again with a clear cut "Wintersowing 101" instructional sticky thread ---keeping the thread length and depth of information manageable and on point.

Somebody can clear out my first sticky for starters since even the first sticky didn't really work out as a true "lessons learned" sticky!

Then we can each add our own threads according to 'topics' or 'specific questions' each individual wants to discuss--maybe then it would be easier to 'key into' specific informational needs...

Planting out more seeds today--it's pretty and sunny and I nice day to be out!

Happy (winter) gardening! t.

The "stickies" were originally intended to be informational and instructional. However, a lot of extra chit chat became incorporated. Now you have to wade through 5 stickies (soon to be 6) to just see the basics. Perhaps, starting over from the beginning would be the best idea.

And maybe making a sticky chat -- I love reading about what people are up to...I don't always have time to go down the thread to see the actual questions and answers, but I love keeping up with the general WS chit chat and love them at the top :))

Suzy

anyone up for collecting all the good stuff for a WS 101
I think having lots of links would be good too.
and keep the thread for information ONLY, no chit chat.

I'm too new to WS to contribute, but it's a great idea.

Sanna

What would be the easiest and fastest way of incorporating all the valuable wintersowing info? Would it be to sift through the 5+ "sticky" threads to copy & past the info into a new thread or have management delete all the extra chit chat out of the existing stickies, thereby condensing each one?

I don't think we can ask management to do the editing. How about we have one sticky just for links. we should include Trudy's wintersown.org and we can point to any articles here about w/s. there has been one published and I know there are more planned. and there are several places with good info about germination. that kind of thing.

then we can have another one with our own tips/tricks. but that's going to require someone to go thru those threads and do that cutting/pasting. if there are pics attached I don't think you can do that, but I've never tried. I will volunteer if no one else has the time to do it, but I would rather someone with more w/s experience do the 'culling'. I think one person should have control of that thread. if any neat tips come up, they should be asked to add to the sticky. I know they do that on other forums so the stickys don't get cluttered like these did.

what do you guys think?

I think we should ask Trudi before we do that.
Bev

First Sticky soley for Links to WS info on the 'net, WS DG Data Bank, other good DG WS threads, other Propagation and Seed Collecting Forums and Sites.

Second Sticky for Illustrated 'Step by Step How To Wintersow Basics'

Third Sticky for edited Tips, Hints, and Tricks (i.e., 'Examples of six kinds of alternative containers besides Milk Jugs', 'Three kinds of Marking Pens for Permanent Labels')

Third Sticky for Discussion (Hopefully dedicated to WS issues and 'on point' such as 'I have some mould growing in my jug--is that normal?' although this thread could get out of hand quickly...

Followed by Random threads for interesting topics and other chit chat (not Sticky's) (what's sprouting these days?), (my dog ate my seedlings!), (Here's an interesting article about WS-ing) (How many containers have you planted?) (I'm nervous about the cold front coming in) etc.

Those are just some of my thoughts... t.

Yay! I love the third thread already! LOL!

I don't think the admins like to link to outside sites in stickies. It seems to me that WS links wouldn't require an entire thread anyway, just a couple posts in a WS sticky thread.

OK (-:

Here are some examples of sticky 'Resource Threads' from other Forums--tomato, daylily, african violet...not quite the same kind of topics as 'Wintersowing' but pretty good templates for organizing.

Studying these Resource Threads might give us some idea of what we would like to see in the Sticky and then we can all contribute Links of our favorite wintersowing threads, books, outside links, whatever...

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/623557/

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/699383/

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/623557/

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/579234/

Just thinking out loud.... t.

A definite must on any of these sticky threads - no chat or comments . Just post your info.

A winter sowing 101 would be just the greatest thing. Since I know nothing I couldn't help, but I could learn!

Yes, OK, I understand about the chat, fully. (-;

Should we ask if WS posters know of threads that are full of good info and should be included in the 'Resource' thread? These threads may be here on the WS forum or on other forums throughout DG...

Maybe if posters here know of such threads they should post the links right here and then we can edit them if needed.

And, if just one particular post in a lengthy thread is especially helpful, then WS posters who want that information included can add just the "Post # xxxx" link into the Resource thread information.

This "Post # xxx" linking may apply particularly in the case of our "Lessons Learned" threads. Any careful preliminary culling and editing of threads and posts would be helpful, I would think...

Should we start gathering favorite threads and posting the links here, and then we'll begin to see what we need to copy and paste into the official Resource threads we get Terry to set up (hopefully).

Does any of this make sense? (-;

Anyone want to start out with some examples of particularly good thread or post links?

Maybe you recall some really nice tip from a post on the Lessons Learned threads?...

An example of a post pulled from a lengthy thread that is concise and may be useful...also includes a nice photo...

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/p.php?pid=1841622

Another one from Baa http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/p.php?pid=201931

Hello to all . I got hold of a 55 gallon aquarium no top, but everything else fine.
I put lots of styro. cups in it, found more glass and covered the top.
I did not cover them with plastic or anything. I figure the aquarium was like a greenhouse so I wouldn't need them. Please tell me I was right. I am not looking forward to putting all that plastic on them.