Milk jugs

Hello,
I am very new to the WS thing... I just put out 4- one gallon milk jugs... I have read and reread the WS website and I may be blind or just tired of reading over and over but I can't find the answer to my question.... So here I am .. :-) Ok I put drain holes in the bottoms and the cap is on the jug what I would like to know is do I have to put holes in the top also or do I leave the cap off??? I know I read this somewhere and I can't find it... So if you could help me I would be very thankful....
Susan

Susan, Just leave the lid off and discard it. Good luck- you'll love wintersowing.

Karen

Thank you so much for the answer and so fast... Ok will go out now and take lid off.. and that it? Will it still get enough moisture with the cap off ? I am going to put out a few more things maybe tomorrow or this week at least... I think I will like this... I will also try to sow in the house this year....
Do you know anything about planting bulbs in containers in the house? I will try and look for a bulb site... I am kinda new to Daves... Not sure where everything is as of yet but I am learning allot thanks to this site and people like you.... Thanks again..
Susan

Susan this is a great site and it shows different things you can use :o)
http://www.wintersown.org/wseo1/How_to_Winter_Sow.html

Connie

Thanks Connie. I got this url off of one of the pages you had posted before... Great site... It is just that my eye where tired of rereading the same thing.... Now it is off to bed for I work tomorrow..... I was thinking about you today... :-) Chat at you later...
Susan

Night Susan, pleasant dreams.

Connie

I don't think I have seen anything in any thread about what I am going to ask now. I have a bunch of milk jugs that came from our Costco, they are solid white, if that makes sense. If I put dirt into them, you can't see where it comes up to from the outside, like you can with "regular" milk jugs. Also, the pour hole is at one corner, not in the middle. I can't provide a picture right now (DH not here), but I hope this description is good enough. I am concerned that maybe it might not be light enough in the jug and the placement of the hole may not be good, being off center???

Clementine, I'm glad you asked about the opague containers. I was going to ask the same thing! Tamara

I think they may not let enough light in to assist with germination. That's just speculation though:) I'll be watching to see what the more experience WSers have to say:LOL:

Me too! Well actually I was wondering about 2 liter containers. Would Mountain Dew bottles work since they're tinted green instead of completely clear?

La

Well, let's wait for the experts. I do remember seeing someone say that green bottles are ok, Jane.

OK, I am leaving, seeing what I can scavenge up in town. LOL

I am by no means an expert, but I think that the transparant green bottles are fine. I don't think that the solid white jugs would let in enough light. However, not all is lost......... you could cut the top off completely, and then either duct tape some plastic wrap over the top, or pull a big baggie over the top and tape it or otherwise secure it. Be sure to poke in a few air holes. The containers need to act as a mini green house, so they need to get enough light and ventilation while still being covered.

Yes, Marie is right. Tinted bottles, like green Sprite bottles, will work fine. The solid ones, either white or colored, will block too much light. If you can't see your thumb through it, don't use it. But as Marie said, topless with a tent of some kind over it will be fine. The seeds just need light.

Karen

Well I will chime in here. Last year I used the white Cosco milk jugs with the top off and had great germination. They are translucent enough to work.

Good to know! =) I wouldn't have thought they would so that is great, more containers available to use:LOL:

Just to clarify (pun intended) this is a photo of the milk jugs that I used, they are from Cosco. I don't know if they use the same jugs where you are.

Thanks for the picture, Zen. Those are not the jugs I meant; our Costco, and apparently some other ones as well, carries the white opaque ones here. BTW, our Sam's has the translucent ones like on your picture and like the one on the right in my picture below. So there is another source!!

dmac: I think your Costco has the right ones (from having been there just once).

I will have to cut the top off of mine like Marie suggests, but fortunately I had a suspicion about this early on and have made only one of them and sown it.

Thanks, Karen for your input also.

Edited to clarify last sentence (i,e, thanks to Karen ....)

This message was edited Feb 4, 2007 3:33 PM

Karen,

I sure hope our Costco doesn't change to the opaque ones.

Pauline

The sad thing is it is actually better for milk to be in an completely opaque container or cardboard carton. The less light it has contact with the better:LOL:

Zen, please see my edited post above your post, sorry for the confusion.

Clementine

Got it.

That jug on the left in Clementine's photo doesn't look clear enough to me. The one on the right is comparable to those I've used and they work great. Notice, you can see your thumb through it, That's the same test I use for plastic bags for tenting.

Karen

Karen, the object of the picture was to show both types of jugs. I had said that I had gotten those from our Costco and then Zen showed the bottles she got from her Costco. My picture was meant to show them next to each other. You are right, the white jug is not transparent enough, i.e. you could not see your thumb from the outside.

This afternoon I fixed the problem by cutting off the top from the wrong type of jug and put clear plastic (with holes) over it with duct tape. And I looked very hard to see if there was anything green in there - but nothing. Whic is good because we are expecting 14F tomorrow.

Good luck to you.

Clementine

You could try just one of the white jugs with a few seeds in it. And sow the same seed in one with the top cut off... Do a little test with it. As far as the off set of the hole. you could punture a couple smaller holes on the solid part of the top... to even it out some... But keep in mind, it will be a tester type only. Then if you have luck with germination. next year you won't have to worry about cutting the whole top off :o)

Just a thought...

Connie

Good idea pepsidrinker! I did one solid white jug. I will do the same seeds in a transparent jug as well and note the germination difference. Guess I won't be getting milk from Sam's Club during winter! :-) Tamara

Wow, Connie, great idea, but in this case (this was my first jug ever) I have two different seeds in it, so I can't really duplicate this one. But I can try another set today, so they will have been sown on the same day, and the only difference will be the jug. Zone5girl, I'll be curious how your experiment will come out. And, z, I am not sure I understand correctly, but our Sam's has the jugs we want, the transparent ones. It is our Costco that does not. So you should be able to start collecting for next year, LOL, if you buy milk at Sam's.

C

C,

I can't bring myself to shop at Sam's, but that is a political issue not to be pursued here.

ok dumb question
"how are you getting the seeds in the jugs and then dirt on top of them in the milk jugs?",it dont look like youre cutting the tops off,sorry people but i just wanted to know lol and the 2 litter bottles are you cutting the tops off and then tape plastic wrap tot them? plmk and thxs for answering a dumb question lol
moretz

I am not expert -- this is just my 2nd year WSing -- but, I did use a number of those fully opaque white milk jugs last year and had good germination. I also have used them this year, as this is what I had on hand. I did open the tops last year pretty soon after I had seedlings emerging, but I am in zone 7b and the temps were consistently pretty warm once most everything sprouted. I don't know if the quantity of seedlings suffered from having the darker jugs or not, but I didn't have a single jug fail to germinate at all.

You need to cut them to plant in them. Here is a photo of mine from last year. I cut them and then taped them back together with duct tape. I tried posting this a while ago and my browser reset itself. Let's see if it works this time.
No photo, for some reason I can't send one right now.

So I cut them about half way down and only on three side so the 4th side was a hinge. Then taped them back together. When the seedlings are ready to fend for themselves to cut the top half all the way off and let the sun and rain do their trick.

I actually did not cut the 'hinge' off last year. Instead, I folded open the jug and stuck a rock in the top part to hold it open. Then, I was able to close it again when necessary (heavy rain or snow or hard freeze) and I am going to reuse the same containers this year.

Here is a good visual with directions from wintersown.org.
http://www.wintersown.org/wseo1/Photographer_Phred/IMAG005A.JPG

ok great thought that is the way you did it but wasent sure but i thought i seen it where you could cut it off and put plastic on it or in a baggie too? guess i was wrong lol thxs for the info very helpfull

No you weren't wrong.....using the plastic over the top is just another option.

liz: I'm shocked that your seeds would grow with so little, if any, light. I'm sure it helped that you're in a warm zone and popped the tops early. It would be interesting to see a comparison of the 2 types of milk jugs. I'm happy with my clear ones, though.

Karen

I had a few in a bleach jug, totally opaque. I put lots of holes everywhere, and didn't know what to expect. I can't tell you right now what they are, but they sprouted and are still hanging in there. When it gets warmer I'll probably put more holes just to make sure they get enough light. Since those sprouted I have two regular pots, and put plastic plant pots on top of them with extra holes........also opaque,................We'll see.

I am going to try posting my picture again. You will see how I did my milk jugs and large cottage cheese containers with plastic over them. I used a fairly heavy plastic with holes in it. I wish I could remember where the plastic came from it really worked well.

very neat. by the way, zen...love your patio!

Thank you we love it too and it has a great view.

zen does have a lovely patio and a fabulous from her home. I would think that cutting up a zip-lock bag would work for the plastic. It is pretty sturdy. What does anyone think about Press and Seal Wrap? Is it heavy enough? Would it 'stick' it out til Spring?

I had that on my tops in the begining, and it stuck very well. Later, I learned you don't need the tops. I think it would hold up pretty well as long as you didn't remove it. It looses it's stick once the seal is broken, well some of it. It stood up to the hole poking too.