I personally plant a lot of lettuce and it comes up so easy with just tossing it on the ground I don't plant to ever winter sow it. I'd have to plant a LOT of containers to get what I wanted as well.

Personally I start most peppers and tomatoes from seed because I enjoy a lot of variety and I've never seen anywhere around here that has much variety or sells what I want. However to be honest I just sowed a bunch of tomatoes under grow lights. I'm trying to get a head start with some tomatoes this year and I don't want to wait till they'd sprout outside. I plan on starting them inside and then planting outside under polytunnels.

lettuce is a great winter sower. rememberm on annuals, the seeds won't sprout until they're ready. the seeds know what to do.

"the seeds know what to do"

Cough!

I start all my veggies in cell trays or plant bands, for a couple of reasons. The birds around here will get anything up to 1/2" below the surface when I direct sow. I've even had them dig up and carry off 7' long seed tapes. Also, I have very limited veggie space, so I can't afford dud or lost seeds. With cell trays and plant bands, I maximize the number of healthy plants.

Things like tomatoes and peppers seem to be better producers when started from seed, as compared to store-bought nursery-grown starts. They start out smaller, but catch up quickly and are far more hardy and hearty.

Now we know the difference between anal retentive and anal expulsive. Love ya Donn....you are my AR hero!

The containers warm up more quickly than the ground, so germination will occur sooner than planted directly in the ground. The containers also do provide protection from late-spring, night-time frosts. My biggest reason for starting tomatoes and peppers from seed is the chance to grow varieties that aren't sold in stores. The plants grown with WS do start out smaller, but catch up quickly and are much hardier--most likely due to the excellent root development. Does that help?

Martha

Also-no need to harden off:-)

Rhonda

I, too, was a doubter on whether WSing tomatoes and peppers would work. I WS both last year and it was incredible. I got so many sprouts, I planted 120+ tomatoes and still threw out tons of seedlings. The peppers did far better than ones I've bought before. I WS my tomatoes in cups inside of clear plastic totes.

I think it rather depends on your climate whether winter sowing tomatoes is worth it. In a climate like mine with cool summers by the time the temperature is high enough for a tomato seed to germinate outside, even in a plastic jug, it is mid-summer and there is no time for the plant to grow and any fruit to ripen. They have to be started indoors. I start mine in a little heated propagator in a cold greenhouse. No lights.

I grew peppers for the first time this year and they not only had to be started indoors, they had to stay under glass their entire lives in order to produce any fruit before the end of summer.

Flora, you are describing my tomatoes. They can't be WS here either with any expectations of ripe harvest before first frost or Fall rains - we don't have enough summer heat. One summer I grew them on in containers, and moved them over against my neighbors reflective garage wall to get the last of the seasons sun, where the deer found them and I still had no ripe tomatoes :)

We have the opposite problem:
It gets too hot too fast for tomato fruit to set. Its not so much the daytime temps as it is the night time temps. It just doesn't cool off enough at night here. :(

Then we keep the plants alive through the whole summer, (they look awful) and finally late fall we get bumper crop. Some we have to pick green and bring them in to ripen.

If we can get them in the ground real early..at least a month before last frost --AND PROTECT them, we _might_ get fruit before the heat sets in.

With tender annuals, winter sow them 2 weeks before you can put them in the ground.
If you go by "the seeds know what to do", as I did one year, and plant them now here's what happens-
in my area we always get a warm spell in Feb. The seeds think it is Spring, they germinate, and then whoa - I being a human being know that a frost will come and wipe out my tender annuals.
So you then either toss them, or keep them covered with plastic or ground cover until April, which I can tell you is a pain in the neck.
So do yourself a favor - wait until almost Spring to plant those tender annuals.