I am sure this is a silly question. I was reading about winter sowing on wintersown.org and I needs some experts to guide me thorugh this process.
Why wouldn't I just winter sow the seeds in the ground where I want them? Why go through the process of creating the green house with containers? Can I sow them in the ground where I want them and create some kind of 'tent'/ greenhouse affect right there?
what have you tried that has been successful?
thanks for any guidance you can provide for a newbie.
Using containers lets me start the seeds in a higher quality soil than I have in my garden beds. It also keeps birds, mice and chipmunks from snacking on the seeds and prevents winds and rains from moving all of my seeds off to my neighbor's yard.
That gives my seedlings a good jump start before I transplant them into the garden and has made a big difference in how many mature plants I end up with out of each seed packet.
I don't direct sow anything in the garden unless I have so much saved seed on hand that I don't mind when 90% of it doesn't germinate. And the more I wintersow, the more I end up with tons of plants and saved seed - so I do eventually switch over to direct sow on a lot of things.
But if it's something where I don't already have gobs of it in the garden, and I'd be sad if I didn't get great germination - then ABSOLUTELY it's wintersowing in containers for those.
Connie, the wintersowing method is really about protecting the seeds and seedlings until the weather warms up enough to plant them out. Hardy perennials can germinate anytime and usually survive snow, ice, and very cold weather.
I'll be sowing a lot in place this year, but covering them with the tops from my two liter containers. It's like wintersowing, but since our soil rarely freezes, I should still have good success, possibly as early as with sowing in containers.
Critters love fresh seeds of all types. The squirrels are already eating some of my direct sown seeds.
token I'm planning to sow in place this year, but I've been saving gallon milk jugs. Is the two liter containers better? I don't normally have those but could try to save a few if they are better.
Has everyone found the "discussions" side of this forum? (Not sure if the newbies realized they were on the exchange side) Tons more info over there! Here's a linky:
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