Lessons learned for next year #2

dmac085,
After lots of bad experiences with trying to start seeds I gave up. But this is the second year winter sowing. The first year I did 80 containers and had about 85% success rate! Which I found amazing for me! I had so many plants I never got them all planted over the summer. Plus I didn't have to water them until May. I just set the containers in shade (because the sun, even in the winter, is brutal here) and let them be. This will be my second year winter sowing. It's the only way I ever plan to start seeds now.

dmac085 and Mobi:
I am an indoor seed starting failure also :) I did everything: bleaching containers, fans, lights, sterilizing soil, special tea waterings, etc., only to watch them all die at some point in their short little lives. This is my 2nd year winter sowing and I love it. I only planted about 15 containers last year because of previous failures and just assumed this would not work for me either. I had about 90% germination and had enough plants to share with other people. I didn't start watering until about April and that's all I had to do until they were ready to be planted out.

I'm already up to 40 containers so far and am even being adventurous and trying annuals this year. It's so fun to try things I can't buy in this area and have a reasonable hope that I will actually get plants from seed.

My first time... and I have nearly 40 jugs started. I have more seeds, just need more jugs. I'm taking y'all on faith that this works, LOL.

Mobi & Arachide, When you say 85% success or 90% germination rates, do you mean that 85-90% of your seeds germinated or 85 -90% of your jugs had plants?

I had planted 80 jugs and 9 jugs didn't germinate. So the percentage is more around 87 % (if my math is correct- it's been a long time). But each jug that did germinate was filled with seedlings. I had to do the plant a chunk of seedlings when I planted them. Since I did the "scatter a lot of seed in the soil" method I have no real way of knowing the percentage of actual seed that germinated. I have a list that didn't germinate, 2 containers of dicentra, 3 of astillbe, 1 chelone, 1 trollius, 1 verbascum, 1 meadowseet, 1 aster (I might have had sterile seed).

The ones that did the best
columbine ( I has SO many of these)
sweet william -tons
lambs ears - coming out my ears

What I was most disappointed in was not winter sowing but having the see germinate, getting it planted, having it bloom the first year and then never seeing it again! I know we have those plants that don't come up the next year, for whatever reason, but since I actually got it to germinate, the death of these ones were harder! I still think of the candy lilies I had that year and just didn't return.

Mobi and Arachide, Wow! That is so reassuring and very exciting to hear such great result:) I guess most people are "show me" types and find it difficult to believe this works despite all of the praise, testamonials and posted results:LOL: I told a co-worker who is aspiring to be a "gentleman farmer" about DG and Wintersown.org and he still hasn't bought into the WS idea and keeps questioning me about it. I get that it's just about letting nature take its course with a bit of help and survival of the fittest which happens naturally with reseeders and volunteer plants all the time, only we get to choose the plants we want. I'm hoping he at least tries a container or three just to see for himself.
Thanks for the reassurance=D

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

I have started #3 here is the link. This is way to long.

http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/694595/

My first attempt to WS is coming up, since I found out about it today. Two questions:
1) Is it too late to winter sow today March 1?
2) Can I WS things like sunflowers, love-in-a-puff, baby's breath etc, despite of the label directions to sow after danger of frost?
Thank you.

This message was edited Mar 1, 2007 6:47 PM

sunflowers are direct sow after all danger of frost. :)

Nope.. i'll still be sowing. :) Maybe it will be called spring sowing, but I'll be sowing. :)

Susan

You are right Susan,
I have way too many seeds than I need anyway, why not try?
I'll keep an update on my prog.
Thank You so much...

I sowed through April last year. Depends on the seed too.

Sunflowers are also listed in the catalogs as Hardy Annuals. Most of us wih birdfeeders can attest to the hardiness of the seeds because we have them germinating in April/May from the winter feeding stations, so I would put them in the "annuals to wintersow" category.

Suzy

How late do you all winter sow?

until my seeds run out and I fall over from the exahustion of it all

:)

Susan

still at it

The continuation of this thread has started it is at:

http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/694595/