Which containers work best?

Shirley - I actually moved this poppy topic to it's own thread. I didn't want to take over Dave's. I'll move your comment as well...

http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/573255/

I am a fan of the bigger, more is better school of thought whenever I garden- even if it is wrong. I have read that having deeper soil is better than having less soil for WS. I was racking my brain to figure out how I was going to WS, since I had not been saving my salad containers and such. I saw on the WS forum where one persons looked like a cold frame and it gave me the idea to make a WS area out of sawed down pots. I want you all to know that I sawed these myself with a powered saw and I was hoping that I wouldn't cut myself open or lose a finger and thank goodness, I did not. Since I've heard that folks lose more seeds to over heating than to frost, I would be staking up vented plastic over the top and removing it on days where the high temps warranted removal. Any thoughts on this from experienced WS's would be appreciated!

Susan

WOW, Susan! Mega size pots to plant all your seeds in!! How much potting soil do you calculate it will take to fill all of them? Vented plastic will work fine for the covers and removing it when the temps warm up will definitely prevent the seedlings from getting "cooked"! Please keep us posted, this sounds very interesting!

Not only do I get those pots for free.. they are thrown out at a growers, but I go to another nursery where they will load their thrown out potting soil into the back of my truck for $10.. if wanted to shovel it myself, it would be free! :) So...... While it may take some soil to fill those up, I am certainly not spending much to do it. I will certainly continue to post all abotu it and I see this as something I continually do!

Susan

wow Susan, LUCKY you!! :-)

So interesting to see how everyone's winter sowing is going. Sorry I haven't been back for awhile. Been overwhelmed by life and work. But my winter sowing is going great. I ended up with 38 milk jugs, one clear drink bottle and a square clear plastic container that contained granola from costco. Twenty of my milkjugs contain germinated seeds - very exciting. I check them every day or two. They're sitting in my raised bed in my unheated greenhouse. GH gets very warm on sunny days but the jugs remain pretty cool from being in the cold part near the ground. And the milkjugs provide very good ventilation (tops are off). Almost all the plants I've started are intended for a dry entrance garden to my neighborhood. There's no way to water it and there's a maple tree in one corner of it. But things do grow there. I want to cram it with plants and lots of mulch. So I'm thrilled to be growing these inexpensive perennials for it.

Here's mine to date :)

Susan

question on using enclosed containers???? Do you need to punch holes for drainage??? Do you moisten the soil before sowing the seeds????
I am new at this and hear it is almost mid march and I need to get growing!!!

Thanks for your tips.
Chris

Purple, Drainage holes are very important. You also need slits or holes above the soil to let in air & rain. And you do need to moisten the soil before bfore sowing. Good luck!
Dave

Hey Purple - Welcome!! I would suggest you read this as it is very detailed. I am sure it will answer any questions you might have. http://www.wintersown.org/wseo1/How_to_Winter_Sow.html

Good Luck!
Anita

Has anyone tried making newspaper pots? I got a 'pot maker' that allows you to make 3" pots from newspaper in about 10 seconds or less. Much cheaper that peat pots and you can plant the whole thing. And it's easy enough that my kids can make pots for me - and they love it.

BackyardZoo, I've been making them from 2" to >4" to plant different seeds or bulbs. Here's the larger ones with Begonia tubers planted. I just roll the folded newspaper around different size glasses/cans then tuck. I think it will make planting out a lot easier.

I have a veritable kitchen of containers out on my deck - not nearly as pretty as some of yours! But I did use peat pots to sprout sweet peas and nasturtium since they don't like to be transplanted - I'm hoping this will give me a jump on their growth time. I've never had that much luck with planting seeds directly in soil.

I took my dahlia seeds in off the deck and put them in front of a window in the garage where the temp will be more moderated. I'm not sure they can handle getting as cold as it surely will before our last frost date.

On the container sizes - I can see already that I sowed too many poppies and Dianthus barbatus in too shallow containers - I bet I'm going to be transplanting them way before I would have had to.

I got smarter as I kept reading everyones posts all winter and started using 2 liter bottles and really whatever I could lay my hands on. I also think I put too much drainage in some of the containers - they drain very rapidly and I'm not sure how thats going to work as the weather warms up. This has been really fun - and what a great way to keep my hands dirty all winter long.

Katy, I made those too and I had thought to use them for my poppy seeds, but them I read that someone was able to transplant them without problem, so I planted them in my large wintersowing pots and I still still have not used the paper pots. they are somewhat labor intensive after a while. Especially since I am unable to so anything in moderation.

I wanted to ask you... do you get more begonias??.... by taking cuttings of the roots and planting them? How are you growing them on please? Thanks!

Susan

soulgardenlove, I'm new to gardening with any serious. I'm recently retired and moved here from the Lake Tahoe area. I never had time until now so I have more enthusiasm than skill. This is my very first effort to WS and start plants from bulbs/tubers. BUT, I'm willing to try just about anything $ allowing! LOL

Good for you!! And I've read up about begonias from tubers too! I too am still a baby to gardening.. I just try to plant lots and wintersow as much as possible to make up for my lack of good design judgement and maturity! :) Maybe one day! :)

Susan

Hi Dave47..Winter sowing is so rewarding. I hope you have the same fun and excitement that I have here in Zone 6. You can use almost any container. The smaller the container, the more you have to watch it to keep it from drying out when they start to sprout. I have included a picture of some of my containers. I have used 2 gallon containers to small 2 inch pots. A girlfriend of my doesn't have much space and she used Styrafom coffee cups. I started getting sprouts as early as 2/2/06.
I wish you sucess with your new adventure. Good Gardening...from Marthalouis in Louisville,KY.

Thank you Marthalouis! I ended-up using 1 gallon milk jugs and 2 liter soda bottles.
I am worried because I've had no sprouts yet.I planted in January, followed all the directions (drainage holes in bottom, slits on top, taped bottles with aluminum tape, started with bottle tops on then due to feedback, took the tops off). I watered them today because it has been dry here.
If anyone has suggestions, I'd be happy to learn what I did wrong.

Dave 47: I doubt you did anything wrong; they're just not ready. If you have had the cold weather we have had here, that's to be expected. When the weather warms up, you'll have lots of sprouts. Most veterans say germination usually starts around the last week of March or April. Time is coming! Hold on!

Karen

Thanks Karen! So many others seemed to have seeds sprouting. I will be patient.

Dave47: I just saw the weather forecast. We are to get highs in the 50s and lows in the 40s this week. Looks like it is coming your way. From what I've read (this is my 1st year) the warmer nights make a big difference. As I write this it is 6:30 a.m. and 25 degrees. I'm sure nighttime lows in the 40s would have to be more conducive to germination. Watch those containers; your time is coming!

Karen

I agree Dave. I'm sure they should be popping any day now.

Yes Dave, my husband commented that several of my pots had not yet sprouted... Well those are the "smart" seeds. We have had frost for the last two nights and even though they were covered, I did lose some moonvine seedlings to frost...so you don't want that to happen! Yes, the temps are rising here too... at least for the next week or so. We will see what April holds for us.
:)

Susan

Thanks for the encouragement.
Anita, why do you think yours came up so long ago? Is it that you put yours out in our winter warm spell & by the time I got mine out in Jan. it was cold?
Susan, If you run into my old college roommate Mark, tell him I said "HI" ;)

I am so relieved. I have Shirley poppy and Radar Love clematis sprouts today! Whew! I'm going to believe the rest will germinate too. I believe, I believe.

Dave - don't worry, you'll be seeing sprouts any day now. I've gotten a few sweet william seedlings poking their heads up, seedpods attached, in the last couple of days. None of the perennials have sprouted yet; most were sown in January and February.

But the "warmer" zones are beginning to report sprouts - like KatyMac - so you gotta figure that all the green is making its way north!

Keep the faith - we'll all be reporting sprouts soon!

PV

Dave,
Sometimes I find that it depends on which seeds you plant. Bachlor Buttons, Flax and Godetia have been the first to germinate for me for the last 3 years. Things like balloon flower and columbine seem to be one of the last to sprout even though I ws these at the same time in Jan/Feb. Once you have consistant daytime temps and higher nite time temps your seeds will wake up for spring. Soon you will be seeing lots of green in your containers. They just seem to pop literally over nite. Hold tight we will be dancing for you soon!

Michelle

Michelle - since you mentioned godetia, I've got a question. How big do they get - tall and wide?? I have seeds for it, but have not sown them. Maybe next year ....

PV

I also have mine on my stone patio in full sun. I'm sure it's like a micro climate there - maybe a zone 7?

Katy, I've got radar love too and I'm so excited I can see the smallest little green specks of green coming up! Very exciting! I'm going to grow it through some red roses.. Red and yellow my favorite hot colors together for the traffic stopping front yard. (not yet, but it will be!!)

Oh... and FYI, I figured out why I lost some moonvines... they were touching the plastic that covered them when the frost hit and there was no layer of air insulation to protect them. Live and learn. I will get some more!! Thank goodness I have more seeds than I know what to do with or else I would have been upset!!

Dave, is he in any gardening clubs? or hes not a gardener?

Susan

PV,
Last year I ws godetia and it grew to about 12-15inches tall and about 6 inches wide. I probably should have planted the seedlings more dense to have a wider spread but they bloomed forever. Why not start some now since they are an annual you will still have lots of time for sprouts and when transplanted they grow very quickly.
Michelle

I planted out my poppies yesterday. I couldn't believe how big they were. I can't wait to see them in flower.

Anitabryk2, how big *were* they? Did you thin them at all, or sow thinly (so hard w/ poppy seeds)?

I did the hunk of seed planting. If it doesn't work, then I'll know better for next year. The seedlings were about 3" tall. There are a few other containers that look like they might need some planting out, but I'll check them this weekend.

Thanks, Michelle! Godetia sounds like a great candidate for my "cram as many as you can get in the pot" method of gardening!

Would they be good in combination with larkspur and linaria, do you think? Bear with me guys, all of these are new to me ......

PV

I love the hunk-o-seedling planting. It makes the perfectionist in me throw up her arms and leave it to nature... a healthy conclusion.

Moved some thyme and stock to a garden bed today. Coolish, wet weather and nice for transplanting and weeding.

Zeppy, when you do your "hunk-o-seedling" planting do only the healthy survive being crowded? I had a bit of an accident sowing one of my poppy containers and I think I'd better try that method. LOL All the seeds pretty much landed in one small area!

We'll find out, KatyMac. This is my first year trying this method. It's terribly imprecise, but I think it's probably the best way of going about it. A very cottage-gardeny sort of method.

Just a couple of them, but I found sprouts yesterday!!!!!!!
Sweet pea & shasta daisy.

Actually its my 6 yr. olds that sprouted, not mine! Funny! It was great to show him though.

Suan, He is not a gardener. I realize that Marietta is pretty big and its not likely you would know him. But should you ever run into a Mark from CT who graduated from Uconn, I can assure you it would be a memorable experience. What a charecter!

Dave47: Congratulations! See, just a matter of time and temperatures. I've had lots of germination, but the seedlings are tiny. Most have no true leaves yet. I have a few that I think are ready to plant out and I might try to do some of those today.I t's warming up now - hoping for lots of sprouts and growth for everyone.

Karen