Propagation: Okay, I want to WS next January..., 1 by PVick

PVick wrote:
Hi Suzy -

WSing perennials is the way to go! Annuals - well, it depends. On what annuals you sow, on when you sow them, on when you get your flats from the nursery. Generally, I'd venture that WSed annuals will not always be as large as your store-bought flats when you buy them. They'll most likely be sturdier, more healthy-looking plants. Once you get them transplanted, they will catch up to and overtake the nursery plants. And they'll probably still be going strong when the nursery plants fizzle out.

Before WSing, I had been "outdoor" gardening for two years. I used to start a couple tomato plants and some kind of flower (marigolds, mostly) on the sunniest window sill I could find. Didn't do too bad, but my repertoire was ... limited. To say the least.

Winter sowing opened up the entire plant world to me, it seems. I'm now growing plants that I had not even heard of 5 years ago. I've never done any extensive indoor seed-starting, nor direct sowing, so I can't really compare the methods, but I know that my winter sowing efforts pay off - big time - and it's the way to go for me.

FYI: Here's an album of WS plants over the years: /photos/13288778@N00/sets/72157594242547020/

I don't use milk jugs, because my "garden" is a 20'x6' terrace, eleven flights up, and I don't need that many plants; nowadays, I use 4" transplant pots - one pot per seed variety. I really only need/can use 2-5 plants per variety, usually, so these work well for me. I'd be leery of planting directly into your wooden boxes, but perhaps you could use them to camouflage other containers? I think that as long as the containers are kept moist and get light from above, it wouldn't matter if the sides of the boxes are solid.

Whatever you decide to use, I think you'll be very pleased!

PV



This message was edited Aug 21, 2006 9:11 PM