Propagation: Lessons learned for next year #2, 0 by soulgardenlove

soulgardenlove wrote:
Here's more reassurance... I had soooo many plants that I still have some in LAST YEARS wintersown pots and they are still wanting to be planted out, and I will do that soon!..

Of the pots I lost, I'm positive it was due to drying out..even though I eventually had my husband put a misting/watering system over all my pots. While this year is a little cooler, last year was relatively warm and I had them covered too much. This year, I would only cover if it was below freezing at night.. which it is doing now.

Also, a big mistake I made was getting spent potting soil by the truckload from a nursery and Duh.. it had it's own weed seeds, some of them were stronger than my true seed.. but a little bit of a mess nonetheless.

I am going to be direct sowing more seed this year and getting beds ready by cleaning them up and applying some good soil to the top and making sure the area stays misted and damp as I would if they were in wintersown containers. Zinnias in particular.. I bought a huge amount of seed for this.

Also, since I am soo full throttle, compulsive and the mother of two small children, AND the unexpected always seems to happen when I least expect it... I am going to take the time to sow lots more in my own handmade newspaper pots. This way, I will not have to rip apart plants that have become overcrowded in those small spaces. I know it's is a lot of work up front, but I have I determined for me... being as how I can't guarantee that I can plant out at precisely the right moment in time, paper pots assure me that the plant will have room for its own roots and I wont have as many overcrowding casualties.

Wintersowing works... mine may be a variation of the true wintersowing gurus.. but we all tinker with stuff and make it work best for us right?
:)

Here are just some of the pots I did last year. The plastic you see on the side is how I covered them and the PVC held it from touching the pots and plants.

Susan