Bob, really in Houston? USDA zone maps put you at about 8b or 9a.......?

1. IN Jan/Feb fill Walmart container with 3-4" wet potting soil (soil-less?).
Soilless potting mix, damp not soggy wet. I'm not sure what you mean by a Walmart container, have you looked at the examples to see what sowers are using here? I use no less than 4" depth mix.

2. Sow seeds to appropriate depth. Don't be overly concerned with sowing depth like per indoor sowing. If large seeds cover, otherwise cover lightly or not at all.

3. Cut slits in top & bottom of container for drainage & air. Do this first - then fill your containers, sow. You'll want to practice with one filled but not sown to make sure you've got the right amount of drainage for your particular potting mix. When you are satisfied it's going to drain, sow the seeds :)

4. PLace containers outside in part sun (or is full sun better - worried about "cooking"). It's not terribly important until germination begins. All my containers are in winter shade on my deck. As the angle of the sun changes later in winter, I'll move germinated shade lovers closer to the house, leave the sun lovers where they are.

5. Don't worry about rain/snow. That's right, let mother nature care for them. If you've had no rain, no snow, you might need to supply some water.

Questions: When do I plant in ground? No hard and firm rules here, I don't plant as young as some others do so I'll let you get more input from those who plant out quickly. I let my own get at least two pairs true leaves depending on the plant, even more for some perennials.

If I initially plant into 16oz styrofoam cups inside the containers (another option in step 1), do I remove styrofoam when transplanting or just cut bottom off of cups and plant the whole thing? Don't ever plant/place styro in the ground, remove the contents and release those roots into the real world :)

How/when do I water? When your containers begin to become dry.

If sowing things that really need the period of moist chill before they will germinate and you are in Houston Z8b or 9a, I'd try to sow those in January (would likely be things in the perennial, shrub, tree categories, not so much annuals/vegetables). I'm 8b here and we have cool Springs so I could get away with February - that might not give you adequate weeks of chilling for all plants.

I apologize. I don't live in Houston anymore. I live in Murphy, NC (5 miles from TN). Gets cold here. Don't know how to change my "profile".

bob

OT: I am having problems logging in. I log in then it acts if I am not logged in, so I refresh my page and then it acts as if I am logged in. Confusing?? I think so.

Ok now for op, lol.

Bigbob, something I do that some do not do that I really think helps a lot, to me it is extremely important. I first prep my container then fill with my potting mix then I sit it in my sink and I water thoroughly. I water enough to where sometimes my mix may even float. I then wait for my container to drain. If it does not drain I know I need to add more drainage holes. I find adding extra drainage holes a lot easier before I add my seed, mainly cause I am a clutz and I usually will knock out some of my dirt. After the container drains then I may add more mix then I repeat the water and drain step again. Then I add my seeds.

Some may argue that watering like I do is not good, but being out in the snow and natural elements our containers are going to get a lot of extra moisture. The only way we can make sure that we do have enough drainage is to dump a ton of water in at the beginning to make sure it drains adequately. :)

That's fine, just wanted to be clear on your zone. I'm glad you weren't offended by me questioning your knowing where you are :) You have several more weeks of chilly weather in a 6b you might not have had in Houston for those seeds that require the chill (stratify= period of moist chill)

And many of us have had some profile issues with our log in pages lately. Improving though.

Not offended at all. THX. Went to change my profile (finally found where) and it keeps giving me an error. Oh well.

Does it matter if I use "soilless" or potting soil? Wintersown.org says it doesn't matter, but want various opinions.

bob

Welcome Bob!

Hi Bob,

I use Fafard soil-less professional growers mix. It works great. About the only things you want to avoid using are regular garden dirt or bagged garden soil since they tend to be too heavy. I mix in about 1 part potting soil to 9 parts growers mix. Why? Because that's what I did last year and it worked so well. Probably don't need the potting soil but I find the growers mix absorbs water better when I mix in a little of the PS.

I do not care for the texture of soil, I use the mix. I do not go buy a certain brand either. I use old mix that I used for a 6.5 to 7 foot ficus. I buy bags to go with that and I mix that together.

Your close to the beautiful part of tennessee!! I am surrounded by farmland!!

Hi bigbob7777 and welcome! This is my second year Winter Sowing...last year everyone on the forum was so helpful about answering all my many questions, so here's the stuff I leaned about last year:

Soil: Last year I just used regular MiracleGro potting soil and it worked very well. I also used some fancy organic soil with worm "castings" in it and that worked amazingly well, but the soil was kind of expensive. I also tried seed starting mix last year in some of my milk jugs, but I discovered that it didn't work as well as the regular potting soil. I haven't tried Fafards or Pro-Mix yet but a lot of people say those work really well too.

Containers: The containers that worked best for me last year were milk jugs. But other people seem to have great success with the 2-liter bottles and other types of containers. Not sure about sowing in the drinking cups because I didn't use them last year but there's a whole thread on the WS'ing forum about sowing in drinking cups (see link below).

Sun: Some people recommended putting containers on the east side of the house so they get morning sun and some protection from the hot afternoon sun. I don't have an east side area available for jugs, so last year I kept mine on the south side of the house in a spot where they had some afternoon shade thanks to our garden shed.

Planting out: Last year I planted my seedlings out in the garden once they got their set of true leaves. The true leaves are the bigger set of leaves that come out after the first smaller seed leaves appear (the smaller seed leaves are also known as the cotyledons).

Watering: We had a lot of snow here all the way into March, so I didn't start watering my milk jugs until the late spring since the melting snow piled on top of the milk jugs took care of any watering until then. Not sure how long the spring rains last there in NC or how early it heats up in the spring, but probably a little earlier than us here in PA.

After the snow melted and the spring rains passed, I would water the milk jugs if the milk jug felt really light when I picked it up, and/or if it hadn't rained at all in a particular week.

Watering from the bottom: During the time when I still had the milk jugs closed with duct tape, I watered them from the bottom. I just stuck those in a plastic bin with an inch or two of water in it, and the soil in the milk jug would suck up the water from the plastic bin through the drainage holes in the bottom of the jug.

Watering with a hose spray nozzle: Once it got really warm out and I had taken off the duct tape on the milk jugs, I watered them with a very gentle light spray from the spray nozzle on the garden hose. But if the original seed package said "water from bottom" on it, I still watered those jugs from the bottom. I wrote "water from bottom" on the milk jug on those so I would remember which ones they were. Generally I would water from the bottom if the seed was really really tiny, and it was sowed just on the surface of the soil.

Good luck & have fun!

Here is a link that might be useful: Wintersowing in drinking cups thread