It's all about personal choice. It doesn't effect germination how you close the lid on the container, you just want to secure it enough that the soil surface isn't exposed to drying winds or windblown seeds.

I like tape, I use both duct and packing. I don't use twistems or pipe cleaners because of the physical manipulations--I have bilateral CTS, twisting my wrists can make me see stars. Tape is easier for me to apply.

I do advocate a piece of ductape on the bottom of the container on which I write the variety name before I fill the container with soil and seeds. The tape and name are on the bottom exterior because the sun can't bleach it down there.

Here's what mine looked like in January 2011:
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Each jug is closed with a 4" piece of duct tape with one corner turned under to give me a spot to grip when it comes time to open the jugs. This will be my third year to WS. I did 486 jugs the first year, 300 last year. I'd say the duct tape does the job.

In anticipation of questions about germination, here's what they looked like in June:
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Gardenweed, that is some seriously good labeling you're got going on! What sort of a marker are you using to write on your jugs, Last year every single label of mine either fell off or bleached out to the point of being illegible.

Mine look like gardenweeds, but not that pretty. also, i never have plants that mature in a container...i slap them into the ground at the first true set of leaves. 3" of duct tape does the trick, no need for a complete seal.

Thank you Trudy for getting right to the heat of the matter
"It doesn't effect germination how you close the lid on the container, you just want to secure it enough that the soil surface isn't exposed to drying winds or windblown seeds."
Sorry about your CTS. Mine is pretty bad too so I need to make this as easy as possible.

Thank you Garden weed for your very informative illustrations, and WOW what n abundant crop, you really know what your doing. Thanks for the Spread Sheet too.

Based on this information I think I will also go with the duct tape since I was making 3 sets of holes for my pipe cleaners and that requireds even more prep work.

Trudy can you be a little more clear on how you use duct tape on the outside bottoms of the contaierns? Actually what part of the bottom of the containers do you stick the labels? Do you happen to have a picture of one of your labels?

My idea with labels was to print out labels and use clear plastic tape around each one, making 2 labels, one for inside and one for outside. Or lable containers numerically which corresponded to my spread sheet.

Garden weed if you could answer Nans questions I would be interested as well.
Thank you everyone, this is so much fun and I'm trying to get others interested in it too.
Micki

A paint pen has a lot more staying power than a magic marker or sharpie. I used a sharpie for my first wintersowing, and will never do it again. The sharpie writing all faded away by the time spring came. Now I use the paint pen all the time, writing directly on the jug and it does not fade at all.

On the outside I only number them. (this worked great when it was chilly outside...I could write down the numbers that had germinated and then go inside to the spreadsheet/garden journal and document)
On the inside I put number and name on the mini blind plant marker that will get placed in the ground when they are planted out.

I use Industrial Sharpie which doesnt fade like the regular ones.

Reading older threads are a great way to find helpful hints as well as pictures. I read FAR into the night many times...so excited with the concept of WSing. Its magical and yet so simple :)

Trudi, last year was my first experience at WSing and I thought I needed to place the tape ALL the way around the jug. This year will be much easier with just a few inches :)

Trudy can you be a little more clear on how you use duct tape on the outside bottoms of the contaierns? Actually what part of the bottom of the containers do you stick the labels? Do you happen to have a picture of one of your labels?

Just slap a piece of duct tape on the bottom, the underside, of the container, then write the variety name on it with a sharpie or a bic. Sun bleaches ink. Put the name on the bottom of the container and it won't fade out.

I did find an instructional from the gallery on the website for making a container from a take-out pan, old stuff but still good.
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