Here's my latest

Wintersown germinated:

-lobularia
-anterrhinum
-centaurea
-silene

Oooh. Silene. I'll have to get some Silene seeds!

Grenthumb-- please be sure to document your 'research'. I think all of us will be interested to know the differences in your two methods.

I have to get some more potting soil today!

Do you think it's too late to plant Oriental Poppies?

Am I the only one around who thinks it's maybe a bit early to have seedlings in our northern zones? I wonder about this...

Thanks. t.

Hey Dave!

Miss G.. when did you plant the snaps? I haven't sown my yet. Maybe I'll do a container this morning.

T - I keep checking on my sprouts and they seem to be ok for now. I was going to plant them out this weekend and then cloche them, but it got cold again and the ground is not workable.

I was just outside for an hour and I am fffffrrrrrozzzzen. In addition to my list posted above, agrostemma and nigella have germinated.

Anita: Antirrhinum (Rocket, pink) was sown on Jan 27 and germinated Feb 21.

Tabasco: No, you are not the only one. I'm walking around outside this a.m., the ground is hard, the air is bone dry and really cold, and I'm looking at these tiny little seedlings thinking, "they're never going to make it." They are in their little bottles, and I have them in the sun in a cold frame without a lid, and as far as I can tell, nothing that has come up and subsequently died...yet. But I would say my attitude is one of highly guarded optimism.

Wintersowing is not the only gardening experiment I have going on this year. In the basement I have started at the same time as wintersowing, (i.e., way too early) 1/2 flat of a variety of things, including bachelor's buttons, which I have potted on already but have kept under lights. If I compare the wintersown b.b.s and the indoor b.b.s, the wintersown are much smaller at this point, but I would describe them as "beefy-looking" and darker green, compared to those indoors. Eventually, the indoor-started b.b.s will be moved to my heated grow rack on the deck, where even now I have a few other indoor-started seedlings looking okay but not really growing.

These experiments may all result in death and destruction of innocent seedlings, but the whole idea is to give myself a chance to garden even though it's only February. Otherwise I'll get into all kinds of trouble.

"Beefy Looking" sounds great though right?!!

I'm hoepfully and optimistically guarded as well. I have so much sown and so much more that I'm going to sow and all I can think is that mother nature has been doing this much longer than I have and I just need to sow the seeds and give them their best shot and hope for the best.

I'm off to sow more seeds today in more huge pots that we sawed down. I must take a picture and share how insane I am and how many I've got going!!
:)

Susan

LOL--missgarney, I like your attitude in your last sentence!

That's what I told my son when he mentioned his concern about my wintersowing obsession! --That it wasn't such a bad addiction to have and he should count his blessings! Of course, if all of my seedlings die I'll have to be institutionalized for a while!

I have read in my google research that little transplanted seedlings generally need the garden soil to be at a certain temperature before they will 'grab on' and really start growing...otherwise they will just languish.

I suspect that the Wintersown seedlings, being greener and stockier will, once the soil is at the right temp, really 'bust out' and catch up. I'll have to watch and see if this 'hypothesis' is correct..

"Guarded optimism"--that's what I am feeling, too.

Of course, I'm going to plant some more seeds today, nevertheless!

I completely support your hypothesis... They are in a holding pattern for their own survival and when the time is right it's full throttle petal to the metal!!!!

Yes, I will need heavy sedation and medication if wintersowing does not work for me after all the hope and dreams I have of my garden this year using the wintersowing method.

Susan

I am concerned that I have no sprouts yet. I put a bunch out 3-4 weeks ago (followed by more last week).
I used a drill for drainage holes, put slits in the top to fit my 2 liter bottles back together again and allow some air, then decided to remove my bottle caps after a week or so.
Is there something I missed or am I just being impatient?
Dave

Dave - you didn't miss a thing. Just give it a couple more weeks and you will be overwhelmed with seedlings.

I've been doing this for 5 years now, and I still doubt, every year, that anything will come up at all - even though I've been proven wrong in my fears each and every year. Guess I just like to give myself agita.

tabasco - the only things that come up early for me are poppies, bach buttons and alyssum. Alyssum is reseeding in all my pots now; if the pigeons leave me any, I may not even have to sow any seeds for this one.

missgarney - "beefy-looking" is just right! That's exactly how those WSed seedlings look. They are usually much smaller than inside seedlings, but once planted out, they will catch up to and outperform their inside cousins. Believe me. Amazes me every time.

A little story: my first year WSing, I planted everything I could get my mitts on, with no consideration for early or late, annual or perennial. That winter (2001-2002) was a realtively mild one too. I planted 6 seeds of a white MG, and was so thrilled to see one of them germinate and begin to grow. Then we got hit with a serious cold snap; when I looked, my lone MG seedling was frozen and really dead-looking. I could have cried.

BUT ... when the weather warmed up again, I had 6 MG seedlings growing in that pot! So that dead seedling had to have come back to life.

Made a believer out of me. Even with the yearly agita ........


PV

PV-- thanks for your words which instilled confidence in me (and others, I bet).

(I bet, too, you get tired of repeating them on DG!)

PVick... Thank you thank you thank you for those words. I just finished unloading a truck load of compost into over 60 of my huge nursery pots and my husband kindly commented that I sure don't do anything on a trial basis... I just jump right in and go full throttle. I started to doubt myself and thought of all the gardneing mistakes I have made in the past and wondered if this was another one. It does make it so much better to follow the lead of those who have gone before you and shown us the way. Thanks so much. :)

Susan

This message was edited Feb 26, 2006 5:51 PM

Thank you PVick. I gotta love the agita referrence too.
Dave

Here's my latest.. The ones without the white tags have not been sown yet..Just filled. Hoping to sow today. On Friday I went to a nearby county for the free black dark compost in the back ones. I filled the truck and then got home and got ready for a wedding! Yes, I went to the wedding after all that but i took a bath first!!

The soil in the ones towards the front is spent potting soil that a nursery throws out inot a mountain. I will stay away from that as I realized afterward that it probably has it's own seeds in it! (duh!) I have not covered them up, but I have the clear plastic and PVC support to do so if I feel the need to. My concern is drying out, but I don't want to fry them. I may cover until I get sprouts and them move the sprouted ones to their own uncovered section. I don't know. I have to ask for divine guidance!! Or you could chime in too.. maybe you all are my divine guidance!!!!!!

Susan

ohhh, and I guess you can see my junky pot section and unturned compost bin in the back too!

Susan

Oh, Susan! That picture looks to me like great potential! I'm having visions of a great spring for you! I am so excited for everyone who has posted in this thread! I can't wait to see pictures of everyones pay off for all the hard work they have put into wintersowing. EEEK! How long till spring!?!?


Dena

too long....

Hi everyone. I posted awhile back with a photo of my 38 milkjugs (I've since added a square plastic container and a clear drink bottle) that I had sown in the beginning of January. I have a two year old greenhouse which isn't winterized yet and is unheated. Have the jugs sitting in the raised bed in the coldest part of the greenhouse. I'm guessing that the temps there vary between the teens and around 50 degrees or so. The warmer part of the gh gets a lot warmer than that - the reason for putting them in the cold part. I have twenty jugs with sprouts in them - hollyhocks (two different ones), sempivarum (hens and chicks), sedum, artemisia, limonium (sea lavender), jupiter's beard, achillea and others that I can't remember here at work. Hopefully these will grow in an unwatered entry garden to my neighborhood. As soon as they have second leaves, I'll be transplanting them to pots and putting those up on the shelves. Am hoping to have lots of plants for that garden. Will try to find time to take some pics this weekend.