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| Do you all realize in about 2 weeks, some people will start wintersowing? I think more of us will wait until after the holidays are past, parties have ended, Xmas tree and house decorations have been taken down and put away before they want to start wintersowing. Most nights I suffer from insomnia and when I can't sleep, I get my gardening books and magazines out and look or read in them. I found my handwritting form I'd made up back in Jan. and I planted my first seeds on Jan. 10th. Which do we sow first, tender, half hardy or hardy seeds? How can we go back on GW and find posted messages from the past year that I may have started or posted a reply to somebody else's message? If I could do that, I could tell a bit more about the time frame. |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| Pippi - just put your name in the search box and every message you started or replied to will be listed. You can refine the search by adding more words that would have appeared in the message, including dates. After you enter the search term, scroll down and you can get more hints about searching. |
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- Posted by gardenweed_z6a 6 (My Page) on Wed, Dec 1, 10 at 17:44
| I have to laugh at how eager I was last year. I didn't pay any attention to whether the seeds I WS needed cold stratification or not. I just WS perennials in Dec-Jan-Feb and in Mar-Apr I WS the annuals. Anything else got done as and when I had containers. Judging by the hundreds of seedlings I got, either I had beginner's luck or there's little rhyme or reason to which seeds need to be sowed when. I only had the old stand-by seeds to work with since I only discovered winter sowing in November. Most everything germinated and I just chalked up whatever didn't sprout to my own lack of knowledge. If I'm wrong someone on the forum will correct me but I believe the hardy perennial seeds are supposed to be first up followed by the half-hardy and finally the tender. |
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- Posted by countrycarolyn 6-7 nw TN (My Page) on Wed, Dec 1, 10 at 20:05
| I am excited, I am excited, I am excited, hey I am excited. Lol Ok don't ask me for botanicals, but in 20 days I plan to plant my huckleberries, my currants, a paw paw, beautyberry, gooseneck loosestrife, alpine strawberry, chocolate flower and probably a few others. Then I will plant more throughout the winter. By the way did I mention I am excited, lol. |
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- Posted by kimka z7 (jkkaplan@erols.com) on Thu, Dec 2, 10 at 9:02
| Countrycarolyn, I had almost overwelming germination on my red and yellow alpine strawberries last year. I found I got better long term survival if I moved the seedlings onto 4 inch pots for a couple of months before I planted them in final homes in both window boxes and the ground. But I did get some berries to harvest last summer and fall. |
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- Posted by countrycarolyn 6-7 nw TN (My Page) on Thu, Dec 2, 10 at 11:53
| Kimka, when did you sow your seeds?? I figured I wouldn't get berries for at least a year, oh boy now I am even more excited. Yumm!! My huckleberries and currants are suppose to take 3 years to produce fruit. From what I gather they are well worth the wait. |
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- Posted by countrycarolyn 6-7 nw TN (My Page) on Fri, Dec 3, 10 at 9:03
| 2 and a half weeks!!!! :o I still need more containers!!! :o |
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- Posted by gardenweed_z6a 6 (My Page) on Fri, Dec 3, 10 at 9:28
| The Starbucks kiosk in the office building where I work is saving gallon milk jugs for me. They rinse them out and I've been bringing home almost a dozen every week. This is much easier than dumpster diving! ;-p I divided my seed list into separate lists by which seeds need cold stratification (to be WS first) and those that don't need a cold period. I'm looking forward to winter sowing this year but hope it's not the frantic exercise it was last year. I really got caught up in the Zone Wars the first time around. I'm going to try and photo-document each step of the process too. |
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- Posted by countrycarolyn 6-7 nw TN (My Page) on Fri, Dec 3, 10 at 10:02
| I think my husband has been secretly tossing away my containers. This is the one time it stinks being married to a neat freek. I sent out a mass sos text message about containers a few minutes ago so I am crossing my fingers. I am also going to my sisters and see if she still has that plastic kiddie pool she uses during the summer for her lab. If she does it may just come up missing, lol. |
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- Posted by kimka z7 (jkkaplan@erols.com) on Fri, Dec 3, 10 at 11:35
| Countrycarolyn I hate to say that I don't remember (records? We don't need no stinkin' records!). I sowed more than 200 containers last winter because I was running a plant stand at my local farmer's market. But it seems to me that I did the strawberries in February. I did store the seed in my refrigerator for a month or more (I just store all of my seed there, but it also helps with seeds that need long chilling) and I've read the seed should be frozen for 3-4 weeks. It also depends on where you got the seed. At least one seller sells his seed prefrozen and ready to plant. The seed needs soil temperature around 60 degrees to germinate so that may effect when you see seedlings. When you look at some of the strawberry sites, they write like germination is really difficult. But the problem is usually not letting the seeds dry out and then not keeping the seedlings too wet. Well of course wintersowing pretty much takes care of all that. The seeds need light to germinate so I just sprinkle them on top of my soil in the container. The ones I got berries from were in my window box in part to full sun. |
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- Posted by countrycarolyn 6-7 nw TN (My Page) on Fri, Dec 3, 10 at 17:13
| Sweet!! I read that about germination also, I am with you, wintersowing takes care of all of that. I am glad to hear about the light cause the area I plan to plant them in gets morning sun afternoon shade. I have this one spot that seems to give me problems because it is like the understory of a moist woodland. This is where I am going to plant the alpine along with the huckle berries. Natrual moss grows beautiful there. |
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- Posted by jodie74 5 (crandalljodie@att.net) on Fri, Dec 3, 10 at 22:06
| Gardenweed- how do you find the info on which seeds need to cold stratify? Do you google each & every one? Would you share your list??? I am a newbie & I don't know which of my 300+ seeds to start with! LOL (I've done alot of trading the past few months!) I planned to just read what everyone else WS & then copy them! hahahaha Jodie |
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| If I remember from last year, do I start off planting perennials seeds first, then go to annuals? |
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- Posted by gardenweed_z6a 6 (My Page) on Sat, Dec 4, 10 at 5:25
| Jodia - I emailed you the list I use which is one I copied down from the wintersown.org website. |
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| Pippi, yes, perennials first, then annuals. Karen |
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- Posted by daisydawnny 5 (My Page) on Sat, Dec 4, 10 at 9:20
| I am more excited about December 21st than December 25th if that tells you anything! I can't wait to get my hands dirty again! |
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- Posted by countrycarolyn 6-7 nw TN (My Page) on Sat, Dec 4, 10 at 12:30
| I will second that daisydawnny!! Since there are no believers of santa clause in the house, it isn't that exciting anymore. For the ones that still have believers, enjoy that sleepless christmas eve setting up santa clause!!! Sweet, precious memories!! |
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- Posted by jodie74 5 (crandalljodie@att.net) on Sat, Dec 4, 10 at 19:21
| THANKS GARDENWEED! That'll help alot! Jodie |
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- Posted by countrycarolyn 6-7 nw TN (My Page) on Sun, Dec 5, 10 at 13:37
| Gardenweed may I have a copy??? |
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| Here is a link to Tom Clothier's germination database. You can look up each kind of seeds to determine cold stratification requirements. Keep in mind you are not trying to create these conditions. Ma Nature is doing it for you. Just use it as a guideline for what to plant first. For example, if something says 12 weeks at 28 F, followed by 2 weeks at 70, you know that a)you need to plant it earlier, and b) the two weeks at seventy will not immediately follow the 12 weeks at 28. But it will happen when Ma Nature says so. Conversely, if something says 78F for 2 weeks, you know you don't need to sow it until much later, into the spring. Best wishes, |
Here is a link that might be useful: Tom Clothier's germination database
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