Hi there! New to the WS forum

Hi all--I just by chance discovered this forum. I purchased many seeds this fall but I am terrified because I seem to have no luck with grow lights (not to mention that my neighbors are wondering just WHAT I'm growing with the lights in my basement LOL!). I had no idea the concept of winter sowing in milk jugs or other appropriate pots even existed. What a great way to save loads of $$ in the spring.

Thank you all for a very informative, useful forum! I'm still reading all the parts of the 'sticky' but wanted to say thank you.

Beth in Georgia

Beth this will be my 3rd year and I learn something new every year. You'll have tons of seedlings. It took me until September to get all my seedlings transplanted. Some even bloomed in the ws containers. If you have a question and can't find the answer in the forum just d-mail me and I'll try to help you find the answer. Shoot, d-mail me anyway I may learn something new from you since you are reading fresh material.

Welcome, Beth. This will be my 4th year wintersowing and it definitely works. Folks here are friendly and helpful in answering questions.

If you haven't found Trudi's site yet, it's very helpful.
http://www.wintersown.org/wseo1/index.html

Where do you live?

Karen

Thanks Deborah! I'm stilllllll reading--lots of awesome information. I'll dmail you if I learn anything I think you might not already know! LOL!

Karen, I live in NE Atlanta, so I'm in a fairly temperate climate, but we do have some freezing nights and cold days. I did visit the wintersown website--that's where I got the best info on what sorts of containers make good WS pots. I'm saving all my milk jugs starting now for winter solstice!

Your weather will be fine for wintersowing. Jump in and try it- you'll like it!

Karen

Welcome, Beth! You'll love winter sowing--be sure and ask questions as you go 'cause everyone is very helpful.

I'm coming up to my third year this winter, and I can't imagine going through "the bleak mid-winter" without the fun of winter sowing. Besides the savings of $$ AND the recycling of containers emphasis.

On DG we have an annotated database of seeds that have been wintersown. We're still adding to it, but it's very helpful.

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/ws/

In addition, Trudi's site has a list of seeds for wintersowing organized by zone.

http://www.wintersown.org/wseo1/Seed_Lists.html

Thank you everyone! I'm excited to get started. The seeds I ordered this fall have arrived! I received some morning glories and sweet peas and others. The only one I'm not sure about WS is Altnernantha--not sure how it will do--but I'll try it!

Beth,

Welcome to Daves and Winter Sowing....

like Deborah, this too is my 3rd year... and i also learn something every year.

Along with saving money -- winter sowing givs you something to do during the cold, boring months when we can't play in our gardens.... then you have a nice busy spring and summer planting all your babies.

any time you have a question... just ask -- we were all new at this at one point.

Terese

This will be only my second year to wintersow, but I want to warn you that success is addicting! And all these folks here will lead you right into addiction, lol! Can you believe that I'm anxiously looking forward to winter??? Seeds drying, seeds arriving, kitchen table hidden...Yep, I'm getting ready. It's all their fault!!
Bev

OH heck... then you wind up in the Seed Trading Forum and a whole new addiction starts... at least they are cheap addictions.

Yep, already there! Again...who's fault is this?? I'm gonna blame y'all, lol!

Ahhhh Bev, in our own ways... we are all enablers!!

Welcome! You'll love ws'ing! This will be my 4th year as well.

Just a note of cynicism in the midst of all this 'happiness'.

This will be my FIRST year following the rubrics of "Winter Sowing".
It's a bit difficult to follow those rubrics here because tour American idea of a "milk jug" just simply does not translate to anything we have here.

This message was edited Nov 18, 2008 8:41 AM

Jim -- we dont drink that much milk anymore... my son works at a coffee shop, and i have him bring me home the containers.

the milk jugs just seem to work the best due to their size ... but i'll just just about anything that would get recycled.
2Ltr bottles work pretty good too.

I know somewhere... it may be on Trudi's site... there is an image of various containers ... and that can give you good ideas.

just something deep enough to handle about 4" of soil, and so there is height so the plants can grow.

Well, I am planning on using 1.5 litre water bottles.
That's about the biggest thing I can get here, except the garden!



This message was edited Nov 18, 2008 8:41 AM

Hey Jim--I do drink a moderate amount of milk. What you may not be aware of, however, is that our milk is sold based on the fat content. We have whole milk, 2% milk (which has 37% less fat/cholesterol than whole milk), 1% milk (even less fat), and skim milk (very little fat but also very little taste). I drink milk because I'm a nurse and I see firsthand the damage that a lack of calcium is doing to our population. We are living longer but our bones are struggling. Osteoporosis is prevalent in our family, so I drink milk to try to offset the inevitable. I would rather get my calcium from a natural source than from pills that my body will have difficulty metabolizing. My problem is that the milk brand I prefer is sold in YELLOW containers, which aren't really conducive to WS.

Hey, RN!
Years working in US hospitals taught me just how much RNs think of the opinions of orderlys; even those with combat experience and MSc s.

I am aware of the myriad varieties of milk in America.
I once "lost" my wife because I sent her off to get water in a Safeway, and when I found her she was standing in the aisle, literally mesmerised by the variety.

I remain dumbfounded by American packaging.

Who drinks 4 litres of milk before it rots?
How many chemicals that prevent rot in fresh milk can you consume before they give you cancer?
Wouldn't calcium pills be a better option?

>>Who drinks 4 litres of milk before it rots?

that also depends on how many in the household.

when my boys were consuming a lot of milk, we went thru a lot.
much of it went into Protein Shakes... but seems most are off that 'kick' now.

I try to get my calcium from yogurt and kefir, though i got thru about a qt [liter] of Half&Half for my coffee a week.

If i'm on a cereal kick, then i get milk... but i end up throwing more away than i use... so it's not worth it, as milk is pretty expensive... not like it used to be.

Hey Jim--sorry, I didn't know you had lived in the US! Our over-use of antibiotics in dairy animals is another bothersome topic, but I try to buy organic milk. I'm specifically an Oncology RN (clinical oncology research nurse, to be exact) and I can tell you that ALL packaged foods have some sort of carcinogen--sadly. There are some calcium pills and sources that are not as hard on the metabolic system, but to do any good, one has to take soooo much that the liver and kidneys can get completely overloaded.

Truth be known, the best thing to do to prevent osteoporosis is to eat right as a youngster and EXERCISE--jogging or running is the best thing--hands down--for osteo. But that's hard for an older person, so the next best thing is calcium supplements or natural sources (i.e., dairy products and some green veggies).

Anyway, this is way off topic. :) And I love orderlies and patient care technicians--couldn't do my job without them! Ok--back to winter sowing and its benefits and pitfalls of finding good pots! :) I'm curious--are the little tinfoil type baking pans not good because of the tin/aluminum? They are inexpensive and you can get deeper ones.

Milk is pasteurized, so chemical preservatives aren't needed. Water is available in gallon jugs, too. It's better to get nutrition from food than pills. Milk isn't strictly a beverage, it's used in cooking also.

Gallon-sized containers are more economical than more smaller sized containers. Less material is used to make a gallon container than four quart containers. I suspect people who buy milk in gallons are buying it for households with a number of children.

Welcome to W/Sing Plant RN... just loved that DG name! This is my 3rd year to W/S and I've had a blast inspite of a few failures...the success has been more than rewarding in my gardens.

With 4 pumpkins, I can easily collect numerous skim milk jugs in a week. Jim, the 1.5 L plastic containers will yield you successful W/Sing efforts as well. Perhaps your friends and neighbors can save some empty containers for you as well.

Portagere,
Did you read through this lengthy thread for container ideas?
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/809636/
Not everyone uses the same thing to ws, but the method seems to have success with others. I guess as long as the basics are there, you can use what you can find:-)

Portagere, we lived in France (Alsace to be exact) and I know where you're coming from! A lot of food-packaging as we know it in the US is just not the usual practice.
We used to shop occasionally in the hypermarches, and we would purchase milk in those cartrons that did not need refrigeration. As I recall, they would work for WS to give at least 4 inches of soil room.
Are you able to find 1-gallon plastic bags (on the order of zip-lock storage bigs with recloseable tops?) Many folks use these for winter sowing--with the addition of some drainage holes (and it helps to "contain" several of them in a box to keep them upright.) Then with Spring's warmer temps, you can just open up the top.

All--if you have a Linens & Things store near you, they have several sizes of plastic/sterlite-type storage containers on sale (20 to 40% since the company is going out of business). I bought two this evening that are 7-8 inches deep and the lids are clear as well. They also had LARGE clear with clear tops containers as well. Jim in France--this info probably won't help you since L & T is probably not there (sorry about that).

These are big enough that I am thinking I could use plastic dividers and plant several seed varieties with the same germination needs in one tub.

Thanks to all for the explanations and suggestions!

Jim--if you are interested, Linens & Things does have a web site with the same discounts. So as not to be advertising for any company, you can just do a search for Linens & Things to find the site. Not sure about shipping costs though. :(

I do have a question that I've not been able to find answers to with all my reading:
I saw where several mentioned using the aluminum turkey roasting tins--do you think the seeds get TOOOOOO cold in those tins? Or do the seeds cook as the days get warmer? They are fairly cheap and would be easy to make holes in, etc.

Also, I absolutely love sweet cherry peppers. Have any of you WS any cherry peppers? If so, did you have success and can you recommend a source for seeds? ParkSeed has them but wanted to ask the experts on Dave's first. :)
Thanks! Beth

i've used the aluminum pans with good success.

GREAT! Thank you! I have several roasting pans of varying sizes. My pile of WS pots is growing!

I've also had good luck with those aluminum roasting pans. (You can big lasagna pans too, at Costco or B.J.s, too.) The only trick is getting a clear top or lid to protect the young seedlings. I think the lasagna pans come with optional plastic lids, for transporting the casserole. Lacking these, I made covers out of plastic wrap and chop-sticks (to add height to the cover--plus liberal use of strong tape.) They actually worked fine, which amazed me.
I also made little dividers to separate different seeds in one pan, out of old plastic window blinds. Also used cut up blinds for plant markers--with permanent ink--in all my WS containers. I love those things!

PlantRN - one of the consequences of winter sowing is more plants than you can possibly use! I have started gardening in the public park on our street just to find homes for all the plants!

This year I am going to organize some of the neighbours to winter sow some seeds - then we can share the seedlings.

Meanwhile, I will have dozens of 2nd year perennials to find permanent homes for as they will outgrow the little bit of garden I could spare for them ^_^

CapeCodGardener--I like the idea of using old plastic window blinds as dividers. I think I have one of those somewhere in the basement....hmmmm...:)

LOL! Michaela--I think I sent a ton of seeds to your seed swap earlier this summer because I had too many already--and now I find the idea of WS!! I need help! I think I'm only going to WS annuals right now. Plus, I'm planning to give the left over little plants to my patients on clinical trial (well, those who aren't at risk after chemo). I'm ashamed to admit that I just don't have much luck growing from seed. I'm not sure what I do wrong--something to do with the grow lights I think--so I'm going to try WS just to prove I can do it! If I fail at that, will you send me your little perennial adoptees? :)

PlantRN, you will find that those mini-blinds are perfect for dividers AND plant markers! I love them. If you use a good indelible paint-pen on them for plant identification, they do not fade! 'Course, you have to accept the "little white tombstone" look in your garden, but in my crowded garden they don't show that much!
I always WS a LOT of annual seeds, because it is so easy and because I don't have to spend $4.95 on a 4-inch pot. As others have said, most WS annuals are smaller to begin with--not having been forced for bloom in a greenhouse--but they catch up and in some cases, bloom on and on when their greenhouse cousins have faded.
You've been reading the WS stickies: check out the DG list of WS annual seeds and their success rates.

Hi all, I too will winter sow this year for the first time. It is still not cold enough here though, they tell me after Thanksgiving the weather usually stops teasing like spring and gets into serious winter, LOL! (Though we did have one hard freeze on Oct 15, it since warmed up quite a bit and days are balmy now...... anything I plant will sprout, too soon.)

I am delighted by all the milk jug conversation...... I don't buy those big things either, but have neighbors who happened to have several they saved for something else that didn't happen, so I inherited those, then the other day I fished one out of another neighbor's garbage bin....... it had been squashed but I un-squashed it and washed it....... I imagine I will need to continue to scrounge containers as I still don't have an idea yet of how many I am going to need, but I do have seeds ready to go and getting there......

I'm still looking for some large things. The 'Linens & Things' option won't work for me, unfortunately. Sorry to hear they are going out of business as they were a good source for things hard to find or very expensive here everytime we traveled to the States! I can buy those plastic storage things here, but can probably buy more potted plants in the Spring than I can grow in one for what they cost!

How I do sometimes miss some BIG packaging: like 5 gallon pickle jars for making sun tea in the Summer. No such thing that I can find here. I may have to check out the backsides of restaurants! Maybe they will have big plastic things!

I've got SO MANY seeds I want to try out. Don't know what I'll do with the plants if I find containers and everything grows! May have to give them to the local school's Spring Plant Sale!

HA! I wonder what a gallon container of truffles would cost!

Beaucoup de "bucks," malheureusement!

I'll stop now. Just fun to practice a bit of my rusty French ;-)

Beth, keep us posted on your adventures with WSing, and that goes for you, too, Jim, in France!

Jim -- how about trying your local coffee houses... with the milk products they use, they just may have 4 liter sized.
and while you are there... get their 'spent' coffee grounds to use in your garden *wink*

We don't really have "coffee houses" out here in the villages, but nearly every bar, cafe, etc does coffee. I'll check to see, although I suspect that the coffee grounds just go in the dumpster with the other kitchen refuse! I could check at THE Starbucks when I go into the city each week! I hadn't thought of that.