First Time WS#5 - Come on in, it's a great time to start

I am working on a photo example of my cutting keeper :).
Stevia.
there is only one way to describe it.

ABSOLUTELY SUPER !
I have slowly become a fairly good expert at diabetic care through family
and my head cook status. The US did NOT want stevia allowed for the longest time and just recently gave permission to a large company to introduce it as a food item and not a supplement.

Genna, I have a large supply of already processed stevia powder (not home-grown) that could use being shared. My Mother passed and there is no way I can use up all I have in the next 3 yrs! Dmail me your addy and I will be more than glad to share. No worries about postage, karma will turn it around to me someday.
the ratio for sweetness is 300 x the amount of white sugar...
1 tsp sugar = 300 tsp stevia in full strength.
I have way too much info to put in here, I did not realize how long winded I was last night. Too many years of being alone staying home-bound with Mom, and now I have nowhere to go that really interests me. :)

Will get those pics up by evening. I am looking forward to everyones comments as one "friend" said I was absolutely crazy for keeping and doing things my way....
Our little community Farmers Market doesn't do the registration thing, as far as I know. Last year when Mom was getting more complex care, I just put the containers out in the front with signs that said FREE, and sent a few notices around to some of my regular shopping places. It worked out fairly well, I just had to pay attention to them until homes were given.

Will post the pics soon.
~Gypsy~

I LOVE the idea of using the TP roles for WS some of the hard to transplant seeds! I'll have to try it. I think the seed envelope usually says if the plants don't like to be moved. If I remember correctly oriental poppies are like that.

OzarkGypsy you have dmail.
Bonnie

Ozarkgypsy, we are about a hundred miles from each other. All I can think to say is Howdy Neighbor. I look forward to you sharing anything that you can about stevia whether it be growing or using. It is a pleasure to meet you.

Hi Gypsy...I'm new to this neighborhood too!

Considering the week Ive had, Ive gotten quite a few seeds planted. Only one mishap where my system got interruped and I think I sowed two kinds of seeds in one jug....ha ha. thats me.
Ive marked it well so I know it will be a surprise either way. I am amazed to see which seeds can be WS'd. I was just working on perennials, yet the flyer that Wintersown.org sent with seeds listed all kinds of annuals too! I need more milk jugs =)

Nannie, do you use Freecycle? I just picked a ton of jugs today (free!) that I plant to use for WS.

Everybody, if you don't know what I'm talking about, go to http://www.freecycle.org/

Yes, they would be a great source.

Does anyone have any experience growing evening primrose (the pink one) or daisy fleabane? Or marsh malva? I have seeds but I'm worried that the plants are invasive and will reseeds too heavily. They might work in a large yard or field--but that's not what I have. The pix of them in the catalogs are lovely tho....

I have some evening primrose sprouting in my WS container outside! I have grown fleabane too, in the past, grew it in Santa Cruz CA where it was not at all invasive, but really the invasive factor has more to do with your location than with the plant! Look into the native plant society in your state.... there will be a list of invasives. I may have a link I can scare up for you.

Marsh malva, I don't know in particular, but I do know there is a malva that has been the only plant that would grow in strawberry fields treated with (I believe it is) the herbicide methyl bromide..... that means it is one gnarly strong plant!!!!!! I have seen this myself, a big field completely bare after that nasty stuff got put on it, and a mallow standing up there all tall and proud.

Under those circumstances I have to admit I was rooting for the mallow.

I am pretty sure mallow and malva are the same....... could sure be wrong, though.

I did the freecycle thing last week and received a total of 14 milk jugs and about 6 cat litter jugs. (20 lb containers) What I'm going to do with those is lay them on their side and cut 3 of the sides leaving one attached for the "lift gate". they're about 5 1/2 inches deep, so I think they'll work for WSing. Then just put holes in the top and bottom.. We'll see :)

DLW: I have oenethera (pink evening primrose) in my garden in Asheville and I'm yanking it out by the tons! It's horribly invasive here. If I had known how invasive it would become, I would never have planted it. It's pretty and smells good, but it's taking over.

I bought the pink Oenethera because it is supposed to be a "rapid-growing groundcover". Well, I wish I could swap mine with Hemophobic's, because it sure is pretty in Ms Marta's "Pink Garden", but it never spreads!

I do believe that 'Malva" and "mallow" are interchangeable. However, there are LOTs of 'Malvas", and I am pretty sure that the 'Marsh Malva/Mallow" is not the same as the wild, gnarly "Malva", which I, personally, think is a lovely plant with its pale to bright blue flowers. I have even transplanted it to the garden! It does re-seed; and can be found almost all over the world, but I've never had it get "invasive".

my pink Oenethera is a bit invasive as well. It is pretty where it is though. For Connecticut plant info try here - http://www.hort.uconn.edu/plants/index.html .

Oenothera speciosa (pink) is pretty aggressive here, but I love it anyway and wouldn't want to be without it. I let it spread among other plants, and the roots are shallow and thread-like, so it doesn't really choke other plants too much. Using them in poorer soils helps curb this tendency. The rampant spread is from runners or roots rather than seeding with mine.

Well, here's another question from a newbie. Some of the plants in my containers are getting quite big and I am wondering when it will be safe to put them in the ground. I understand it's best to leave the lids open/off for a bit before transplanting and I know dates will vary depending on location so I guess it would have to be relative to expected low temps or last expected frost date.

I also know that my poppies need to go in the ground as soon as they have a set of true leaves, so I'm waiting till at least 50% have that. Or should I wait until all of them have the true leaves? I am not sure which is the greater risk, transplanting some before they get true leaves or waiting till they all get the true leaves and risking some being too old.

I also have purple and white hyacinth bean vines and soy beans that are getting big. Plus several varieties of single hollyhocks have lots of leaves.

Any guidance on any these questions or links to other resources will be much appreciated!

(For those of you multi-threaders like myself, you may see this posted in the Cottage Garden Forum, too. Just trying to reach a larger audience of experienced gardners!)

Tonya

Tonya, what zone are you in? It would be a good idea to find out your last expected frost date, perhaps from your county extension office. The beans are the only things you mentioned that would resent cold temps. I like to remove the lids for a while to let them finish hardening off before planting in the ground. Typically with wintersowing, the plants are ready to set out as your climate dictates, so I'm betting you're safe to go ahead and start planting. For the Poppies, I think 50% having true leaves is a good time to transplant, especially if they're sown thickly. Seems like that's about the stage I set mine out last year.

Hello all! May I play, too? I do realize that it is rather late for ws, but I told myself I would not do it this year. Last year, for the first time, I put out nearly 200 plastic containers. Later, I planted 100 trays of seeds inside. I had so much fun, and pain. The anticipation and anxiety was tremendous. My family thought I had lost my mind, with most kitchen activities limited by seed containers. But, I must have done a lot wrong, because I ended up with only about 60% seed germination. And yes, those plants that made it were unbeleiveable!

But listening to you guys, made me miss all that. So, do you think there is still time to get started on something?

It's certainly not too late, still officially winter till March 21 :-) Scale back, just do a few, and I bet you'll have a much more enjoyable experience.

jsxtiger : I am "officially" in more or less the same zone as you, and I still have plenty to go!
The soil in all of my containers outside is still frozen. Not even the onions are up! Even the sweet peas in the long-tom pot inside the (unheated) greenhouse have not raised their little heads.
I wouldn't normally start the earliest of my indoor plants for another 2 - 3 weeks, anyway.
So I figure on plenty of WS and starting time.
Only thing up yet here are my mushrooms and some Blackberry Lilies that I started indoors last month just to see what would happen.

Hi Neal, I am in 8b (need to figure out how to add that to my info so it shows up with my name!) And I believe last expected frost date is around mid March, but we have had such a mild winter with only about 3 frosts total, so thought I could put a cloche over stuff (maybe the then empty milk jugs!) if there was a chance of frost.

Thanks for the advice, I think I'll be busy in my yard this weekend! I picked up some pretty stout limbs to make some "tepee trellises" for MG's. Do you think they would be sturdy enough and do you think MGs can go out as soon as they have a true set of leaves (given the cloche idea)? They are not quite as big, yet.

Also wondering if a Lindheimer's MG would grow it's way up a 7-8' red oak ok. Meaning will it grab on it ok and will the tree be ok. DH was a little concerned when I mentioned it, but the person I got it from mentioned in the PF's (I think) that she had one grow in her fig bush/tree.

Boy I just have a bundle of questions today. So glad to have such a wonderful resource as you fab garndeners here on DG.

Since you've got a plan in place in the event of frost, I think you can go ahead and plant. Morning Glories seem to prefer to twine around narrower objects, you may need to run a string up the tree to get it going, but I don't think they'll hurt the tree.

Tonya-this is crazy. I'm in the same zone you are and it was 26 degrees this AM when I took the kids to school. Everything I WS is still going strong, mine are in strawberry containers. So far I have been able to over winter tomato, pepper and egg plants along with some tropicals. I wouldn't recommend it though it is ALOT of work.
Lisa

Hi Lisa, It was pretty chilly in New Braunfels this morning, too, but certainly not freezing. My WS containers are going great, too. Curiously enough, there have been a couple of containers that had tiny sprouts (or even just one sprout) and when I came back, the sprout was gone. I know one of them was oregano, can't recall which the other one was right now. Any thoughts on that anyone?

Thanks for the MG info Neal. I am really going to have fun this weekend!

Let me get a new thread going, this one has multiplied here in the last few days. : )


http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/954677/

Here you are!

Anita, hemophobic, and Jim--this info is a great help. I'll look thru the CT website to see what's invasive here. It's funny--the bee balm is spreading and I don't mind, but I knew and placed it somewhere that is easy to get to to weed, and has pretty poor soil to slow it down. I guess part of my worry is the unknown of the other plants...

It has been in the 30's this week with lows in the 20's--but wind chill was bitter yesterday. Today the sun was out and it seemed much warmer. All relative! I WSed another 20 containers today--making about 100 total. Last year I planted the same seeds at different times--about 2 -4 weeks apart, but I didn't really find much difference in germination. This year I was a little more conscious of the seeds that need stratification (is that the word?) and put them out in January so they get lots of time in the cold!

I'm also trying a different approach to how many seeds I put in one container. Because I use the iced coffee drink containers I am only putting 2-4 seeds in each. I'll see how that goes. Separating the HOS made me nervous! All those delicate baby roots! lol maybe I'm extra sensitive cos I'm a pediatric nurse??!!

DLW: Maybe try the oenethera in a spot that's contained and see if it spreads. If not, you're safe. It does come out easily, but egads, I have so much of it!!!

I might try that... I have an area behind the garage where the former tenants left old rotting fire wood. We decided to pile it up and add some brush to make it nature friendly (we're in the city but across from a large park--so this is a relative kind of thing), planted hosta around the perimeter and have an unruly looking top to what we are currently calling hosta hill! I've added the leaves from this fall, so it should compost into dirt and my guess is something tenacious might grow! It's also in the shade--so maybe the conditions would slow down the spread of the oenethera. The only other thing growing back there is ivy--it's a really dry area also.

Sounds like the oenethera and the ivy can duke it out!

BTW, I now have the following WS'd seeds that have germinated:

Gaillardia, mixed
Gaillardia `Burgundy'
Georgia Aster
Bronze Fennel
Oriental poppy `Brilliant'
Salvia viridis
Clarkia `Confetti'

This is so exciting!

It's time for me to ask another of those questions before its too far into the process. For now, I'm using gallon plastic jugs/containers thats used for milk. When I cut the tops, fill, sow, etc., the tops don't exactly cover the bottoms now so that leaves small gaps that are open. Should I be taping them completely together so that the only opening is the top where the cap is?

if so, I have this shrink wrap plastic on a handy roller left over from when they packed my things to move...I thought I'd use that.

I think I already know the answer... it should be closed as much as possible to create a terrarium effect. If so...I need to fix about 21 plus jugs.

Well, nannie. It may be different in other parts of the country, but I just taped some of mine with a tab of tape opposite the hinge and some I didn't tape at all. The gaps weren't a problem at all. I know that some people punch a whole in each the top and bottom and put a "twistie" through the two holes to keep it shut, so chances are they have gaps, too. At this point, I am leaning toward not taping at all next year, because of the time it adds to the process for no specific benefit (although some have commented that they like them connected so they can lift them without the dirt spilling). I do have them packed together in boxes, so the wind doesn't blow the tops open, either.

I'm sure some others will chime in here with their opinions based on their experience, too. I have seen pictures of containers where people have taped all the way around, and remember that some said they wouldn't do it again. We'll see what they say!

Hope this helps and maybe saves you some time.

Tonya

Just in case you missed it, I did open a new thread. This one was getting over 200 and hard for some people to read!

The new thread is here:

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/954677/

I will post this here and on the new thread. I used the twist ties/holes and have gaps in mine. They're still sprouting, so I think TN would be okay, too. Now, those folks farther north may have a different answer, but here in the southern piedmont of NC, my jugs are beginning to sprout without being taped or wrapped in plastic wrap.

Hope this helps.