There is a winter sowing forum on GW that probably has answers to all your questions.

Thank you - I posted my question there.

I have winter sown in the final pots. The problem I had was the volume of soil (mix). It took much longer for the soil to warm and the seed to germinate.

It can be done, tho. I used thick, clear plastic to cover a 5 gal bucket with a tomato seed inside. It germinated eventually and grew to produce well.

One tip: locate your ventilation hole/s away from where you've planted the seed or eventually moisture drops will uncover the seed.

Thanks reclulse. I hadn't considered the extra time it would take to warm (in my case, defrost) the soil. Great tips, I saved you response to my clippings to refer to when the times comes.

You're welcome, zahzeen. Another thing to consider is how to keep that volume of soil from becoming saturated while the seedling grows.

I always plant ws seedlings right into their final pots and it's a real pain trying to keep the sprout moist without saturating the soil.

I have the most problems with pepper seedlings. They just do not like wet, not even moist, soil. They like barely damp soil until they have some real size to them.

It's a bit of extra work, but I prefer it to potting up all the time.