I actually have this on the wintersowing forum also
Starting with cans and bags this time
MILKWEED AND IRONWEED for tomorrow begins
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/539/
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/57426/
This message was edited Nov 9, 2013 11:51 PM
WOW -- you are starting early. I usually do not begin until early January at the earliest.
Not sure how much I will do this year.... for various reasons.
I need to big up a lot of what I have grown over the years, mostly give away [free cycle maybe?] So, i'm not doing many perennials, if any this winter.
Yes , well , as a few sprouted already a mistake made here for this thread to see ,, some will live though .. it's a guess .
I get anything I want to grow more of though ,and I will know next time .
Two Daylily crosses sprouted , I will wait to do more .. they might live though , and often enough they do ..
Yarrow and Coneflowers sprouted ,(some I fall started ) some will live .. those usually do , vigorous growers those two are here ,,
Things like the milkweed , some won't sprout until next august , very erratic , for me at least ..
I planted some poppies. for Christmas ,
I will do some pics later .
For now ;Merry Christmas ; to all of you ,for those of you that might be browsing . Cold winter this year , huh ?
Off to see the family this afternoon , hoping the traffic is something other than insane...
Happy holidays to all. Had a house full of kids and grandkids for 3 days and it was wonderful.
It has been pretty cold here as well. Usually don't see this until Jan/Feb so I'm wondering what the next couple of months will bring.
Hoping to sit down with seed storage box and catalogs to see what I want to grow this year. Have milk jugs but haven't spent much time thinking about wintersowing yet.
Some have seen this before Here's the winter sow cubes ; Why I like this ? no transplanting later . ^_^
Choice of covers , Annual Poppies later ?
Indoors to outdoors quick time , for me . gardening below 20 degrees leaves some things to be desired ) lol?
outdoor image; little close to Iris
very cool.... so you place those right in the garden?
are they 'deep' enough? I do find if i dont have at least 3" of soil, they dry out too quickly.
Yes right on into the garden they go !!!
The weather here makes the ground soggy late fall , early spring , Even drought does not occur usually until April or May during growing season , and more frequently May or June .
Plants like Poppies are well on their way by then .
The paper roll is slow to dissolve is about all that is slightly wrong , the cubes slowly dissolve into the ground here when they become unfrozen .
The rolls hold the covers until then .
I am going to try some Snapdragons and Sweet peas this way in a while,
Only disappointment was my Delphiniums They were too late for fall , or too early as wintersow' Oh well , trying lots of flowers a few mistakes always happen .
Got 45 degrees here today and the soil cubes soaked up the thaw , here's another group .
Could try . not much to it really .
Paper towel roll
Small cut pieces
Fill the smaller with potting soil
Put the seed in cube (water well)
plant outside , just set them on the ground (mulch to preference)
place cover, if desired over cube .
Those are desert fruit cup
if water bottle , cut the bottle just below the label .
ideally the cube holds the cover and a little mulch helps hold all in place outdoors .
This does not include assaults from dogs, cats , ground hogs , etc ..
What are you asking about specifically
Oh I bet you remember your granny , or someone who use to garden doing the cover with the jars routine ,
All it is ; an update , with today's garbage .lol
Plastic instead of glass .. Jars are nice because of their weight ,
Differences , plastic lets in more air , but does not always stay in place ,
Jars break , and do not always let air in .
Old differences , But back in the day , there were some great gardeners , because sometimes they had to be , the ""you like to eat don't you"" kind of things ..
As for now I'm only playing with the flowers , and no , I don't eat them , most usually anyway ...
I have oodles of canning jars but I think I agree with you about the lack of air exchange. Might start looking at catalogs this afternoon. DD is taking over the bulk of the veggie seed starting as she has a basement in her new place and is planning on at least doubling her new garden beds. I loaned her my 3-tier plant rack that DH made for me years ago from a Rodale book and that will give her room for at least 12 trays.
I think that the only WSing I'm gonna do is some leftover poppy seeds, saving my budget for a couple of new perennials (which I totally ignored last year except for Indian paintbrush). I'll probably use the milk jug routine since I don't know at the moment where I'll put the new poppies. I'd use water/soda bottles but we don't buy either.
juhur - you inspired me with a little winter sowing. I haven't been comfortable with throwing potting soil in the bottom of a milk jug and then sprinkling seeds on top. It seems difficult to finally plant them out in the garden. I took your cube idea and set them inside the milk jugs. I only had some leftover poppy seeds to plant at the moment but it was fulfilling to sow the first seeds of 2014.
I have a few left also , only those little papaver rheos seeds . I haven't been able to do anything outside and Tuesdays Blizzard ? (tomorrow )
If it doesn't change though , I will dig through some snow , and plant a few out there , anyway
Could end up digging through pots to set out on the front porch though ,
All the others from some time ago are under snow still , Have been since about four days after I planted them .
I'll have to move my milk jugs to a sunnier spot eventually but at least the stratifying has begun. We've had significant continual snow cover since 12/29, especially on the south side of the house where the snow drifts off from the roof. Ugh. Getting a little stir-crazy as it's difficult to just walk to the compost pile with veggies scraps.
The only thing with the paper is they tend to fall apart after a while, Last years tray trial did not work as well as a few planted where they were to be planted , The better the cube is packed they easier they are to move .
My tray has cans this time , and the roll cubes are planted on the ground . No moving , and the way I do them they will likely fall apart as the seedlings emerge , only their where they are to grow ..
Just a thought to you when your seedlings appear in your milk jugs . Like everything , A technique takes a little practice ..
The better the cube ;
The better the soil , on and on ,
Unless I put on my full winter gear , mine I cannot get access unto . Weather gets long and yucky , so does our mood ...
After about 2 o'clock today ,another 10 inches is expected here .. bah , humbug ...
Well good luck with the cube trial ,, hope it goes well for you ^_^
This message was edited Feb 4, 2014 12:34 PM
I'd give almost anything for a 40-degree day with sunshine.
I have used paper pots in the past for sowing seeds that hate to be transplanted so that I can just drop the plant, pot and all, into the ground. Also use them for planting "up" - when seedlings have outgrown their 6-packs. I'm hoping they'll hold up ok since they're inside of the milk jug, somewhat protected.
I like that idea , since I can't plant outside , milk jugs with cubes to set on the porch ,,
Spring seems a long , very long , way away ..
It was 40 degrees , one day last week , for about an hour here .. felt good ,, said goodbye kind of quick.
I figured the paper pots or cardboard tubes would be good for the poppies since some of them hate to be transplanted. Today I'm stratifying some seeds indoors in the fridge for plants I like to keep a closer eye on.
Just about done snowing here but now comes the cold (again). We won't be out of the 'teens for the next week. Ugh.
Do you make your paper pots Nine-fold squares , or around a can from the kitchen shelf ?
I was shoveling snow this morning when I posted that , 20's now heading for 0 tonight ,
Not thrilled with that myself at all .. plant (seed) talk is great , Hard to be motivated or excited though ..
A few poppies and a few snapdragons are about to get stratified ,, if I can motivate into doing that ..
Oh I use to the nine-fold papers ...
When I first learned to make paper pots, I used empty beer or soda cans. The lightweight aluminum tended to buckle a bit, making removal of the paper pot from the empty can a bit difficult. I had never thought of using full cans that might have made it easier. Anyway, I invested in one of those wooden pot makers which did improve my ability to make a sturdier product.
Didn't get to stratify seeds yesterday but your comment about the snapdragon seeds reminded me that I need to get that done.
I am pacing , so I planted some leeks awhile ago , one standard milk jug , One more to go ..
Going to eat them as sprouts so no biggy about sprinkled seeds .
I've seen the wooden pot makers , and soil block makers ,, I have thought about it ,, You reminded me of that .
I was thinking about making a rod with a wooden round to fit the pie filling size cans , I like that size , might make a good reliable soil block ..
Weather is horrendous ain't it ?!!! lol ?
The jug , first since Dec 27
Others today
I know Elliot Coleman is big on soil blocks but I've never tried them. You'd have to have a number of them clustered together to keep them from drying out too quickly. There's also supposed to be an advantage to air root-pruning when using the soil blocks but, again, I have no experience.
This weather is really wearing my patience. I did see that we're supposed to hit 30 on Thursday but, of course, with more snow.
I am new to this idea, and loving it! but I am still a little unclear. I understand if you use a milk jug, you then have to transplant when the ground is thawed. And of course, not all plants like that. So, I take it you are putting dirt and seeds in sections of paper towel tubes, or making containers out of paper? Juhur7, you said "My tray has cans this time , and the roll cubes are planted on the ground . No moving , and the way I do them they will likely fall apart as the seedlings emerge , only their where they are to grow." What are the cans? In place of milk jugs? and if you put the roll cubes on the ground, is that something you did last fall? (Sorry if I seem obtuse, this is all new to me!)
Hello LauriSinger; The cans are shown in the first post on this thread , their kitchen cans , pie filing , beans , empty cans with baggies over them outside in a tray ,,They will have to be transplanted ,
Last year the paper fell apart trying that in the tray where the cans are ,
The seeds I tried that way last year with paper rolls and cubes already where they were to be grown did okay , except for bug and vole losses .
I like doing things fast , and inexpensive , not attentive as to watering and so on when gardening , especially as my number of plants goes up .
The paper pots dry out to fast in my tray , then when their watered they fall or fell apart, (last year) in a small closed container the paper stays wet , the paper pots push against each other and stay together , but , they still have to be transplanted ..
If I am only growing the plants for myself that is a lot of time I don't need to be losing transplanting plants ..
This message was edited Feb 8, 2014 5:31 PM
I like the cardboard or paper pots inside of the milk jugs because it makes them easier to get out of the milk jugs and I'm not disrupting the root systems as much. I'm terribly clumsy when it comes to getting the seedlings out of the milk jugs without something to hold the roots together.
I haven't even started yet... : { I don't know where to dig the HOLE....in the DEEP SNOW....baaahaaabooohhoooo
Hi ya , huggergirl ; Snow Kidding !!! lol ^_^
I think there is a good 3 foot of snow pack where I like to put my jugs...Grrrr There is a raised garden bed along the roof edge...I think...
Hey look on the bright side (as if snow isn't bright enough in the Sun)
You have Dish TV , and it;s warm inside !!!^_^ lol???
Yes , the snow ,, enough is enough , only there is more coming ..
Nature is telling us all to go "dig it" or "shovel it" anyway ...
I did that a few minutes yesterday ..
It's getting to me ,,, more poppies
Heard of rumor of 50-degree temps week after next. Might be a cruel hoax.
Did get my columbine and blackberry lily seeds into the fridge the other day. Wanting to start some seeds indoors but we have to go to AZ for a week on family business. Should I gloat when I get back? No, that would be mean. Ever wonder if Tom Skilling is fudging on the warmer temps coming up because he knows we're horribly tired of this winter?
Talk About A cruel hoax With three ft . of snow on the ground here , and 12 degrees ..
I Saw A Robin Today !!! That Right !!! that everlasting and Beloved Symbol as a Sign Of Spring !!!lol
Enjoy the Southwest Vacation in Arizona ,, Snicker and laugh at us ,,, It's allright Kiddo !!!
Be selfish and enjoy for a week ! That is what vacations are for , Right ??? ^_^
Besides were all going to be cold anyway ,, Might see 33 degrees here Thursday , Above Freezing , maybe ? ABOUT TIME !!! Goodness ,,,
Unless someone passed away that is ... In which case I just made a fool out of myself . That seems to be getting to be a habit on some threads though ,, no biggy to me .. excuse if so ...
Anyway it will still be warm ...
