Seeds arriving soon - need advice

I have ordered delphinium seed (Pacific Giant) and clear springs delphinium (a dwarf Pacific Giant), Camelot Mix foxgove, and Love-In-A-Mist Persian Jewels, Has any one attempted any of these as winter sowed plants? What is the germination rate? One in ten? One in twenty? or Eight of ten seeds germinate?

I have some seeds outside that were kindly given to me by a DG member. I have them in milk jugs outside on my driveway where they will get lots of sun - but is this too "exposed?" Today it is rather cold and windy. Do plants inside a milk jug feel a windchill? So far the temperatures have not dropped below 0 degree F, but it has been below freezing for a while now, and will probably remain that way during February.

Are the plants okay on the black driveway (we live in an urban centre on a normal city lot).

Thanks :-)

As far as the cold goes that isn't a problem neither is the wind as long as it isn't going to blow them away. I have mine sheltered from the wind so I don't loose them.

It might be better to find a spot that just gets morning sun

right now the sun sets very early - before 5 pm, so I am too concerned about frying the seeds just yet. I just have to move them four feet and they will be in afternoon shade. I was more concerned about them being too cold, and thought that the radiant heat from the blacktop would help. I don't think they will topple over, but if it gets extra windy, I will move them . . . thanks for the warning :-)

Welcome to the Wintersowing Forum!

To answer your questions, I refer back to http://www.wintersown.org for the answers:

"Winter Sown seedlings are hardy to the elements of wind, precipitation and temperature. They are started in the protected environment of their mini-greenhouse."
http://www.wintersown.org/wseo1/Seedling_Care.html

"Amazingly, just when Winter is about to break, and you're still getting nightly freezes, the first of your flats will begin to germinate. When I first saw this I thought that the seedlings were goners, but they thrived. The seeds know when it's safe to come up, it's part of their genetics."

"Most often the earliest seeds that germinate will be of varieties that as adult plants remain evergreen in your garden throughout the Winter." http://www.wintersown.org/wseo1/Gemination_While_Its_Freezing.html

All the seeds you mentioned germinate fine via the wintersowing method. "Usually, we can expect very high germination percentages across the board....a large amount of the flats will germinate (my own percentage of success has been routinely about 90%...this could go higher if I stuck with only temperate climate seeds) and also, among the individual flats the germination inside the flat is super-high too. The flats protect the seeds from the elements, critters, wash-outs from downpours, and desiccation from wind...so there is a higher germination count simply because more seeds survive the winter to germinate when the weather warms. This is the main reason why Winter Sowing is superior to direct sowing, IMHO." http://www.wintersown.org/wseo1/Failures.html

"Moist soil is dark looking.... like the color of a cooked very-fudgy brownie. Dry soil looks dry.... it is far lighter in color and that color reminds me of a package of dry chocolate cake mix." So, check your containers frequently. http://www.wintersown.org/wseo1/Moisture_and_Watering.html

As Donn put it, once the seeds are frozen, they can't get more frozen. They just sort of sleep in winter. The cold at this time of year is good. You have to be more careful of heat when the time comes.

Karen

Think of it this way. This morning it was -10º here If I remember right we had at least -20º last winter and almost all of my seeds germinated. Frozen is frozen.

Can I plant the seeds in individual pots - or do I need to sow them en mass first, then thin them later?

I know people that do it both ways. It is important to have the soil deep enough, 4" is recommended. The roots get quite deep before you set them out. The people I know that go with individual pots are growing them to sell from their homes and have them in cold frames. I have also see photos of them on line so it is done. I don't know where I would even put that many little pot's so I haven't really looked into it.

Could a person put a couple of large pots into a large baggie?

I had actually made about 50 little pots for foxglove, assuming that once they germinated and have developed true leaves, they could be transplanted into the garden. I thought this would be easier if each had its own little pot. However, if bigger pots are needed, I am willing to do those.

sure, you could, you could even put those pots you made up into something to keep them stable and put plastic around them, maybe those super large clear trash bags would work..you still will need hole for air and water to be able to get in....I think we all try new things until we get something that works best for us...there are so many ways to do this...so experiment with what you have and see what happens...

Or you can enclose lots of them in a clear plastic container like Sterilite. I did that last year with styro cups and yogurt cups. The 2nd container from the top here is an underbed storage bin full of cups. Enclosing that many in one container helps to control moisture by the sheer volume of them.

http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j175/kqcrna/WS%20garden%202006/day2spring-5.jpg

Karen

Karen, that is cool! Did you poke holes in the top of it? that is a good idea...I will have to look at some of those too...I am getting such a late start with mine...

Yes, they have holes in top and bottom. I really only used the top (lid) on the underbed storage box all winter. The others I just used as big open boxes to contain them and keep them from blowing over. In that picture, it was a spring and I put the already sprouted ones in those, with lids on, to offer a little protection. Notice the monstrosity at the top (top half of a dog cage) was not covered at all and contained the ungerminated ones. During the winter months none of the others had lids on the sterilites, either.

Karen

Very creative! I wouldn't have thought of using the dog cage either..LOL I have a kennel outside...maybe sitting some trys inside that and see what happens...LOL

Janet: I don't know how big your dog crate is, but mine would probably hold a cow. I love it for my WS containers because it's huge and holds a lot of jugs, and keeps them from blowing over. As of now mine is holding about 20 gallon milk jugs and several gallon ice cream containers.

There are drainage holes drilled in the bottom.

Prior to using the dog crate and sterilites last year, I didn't have a problem with gallon jugs blowing over, but I did with 2 liters and half gallon milk jugs. It's very windy here. If your area isn't windy you don't really need to put them in anything.

Karen

Mine isn't that large, but I won't have too many pots either, I am going to plant four tomorrow, and maybe four to eight more in the next few days...I am hoping to have something grow...LOL I have waited so long though..I really want to start some veggies too..so I will see when I need to do those...