Do you have a tarp or something like that that you can throw over the containers? All you need to do is prevent frost from getting on the leaves. We had a really warm, really weird winter last year -- warm for a few days then down below freezing at night, then warm again, etc. Some plants germinated weeks earlier than usual, but throwing a heavy drop cloth over them at night worked great. I didn't lose anything to the cold.

Caryl

Do you have a tarp or something like that that you can throw over the containers? All you need to do is prevent frost from getting on the leaves. We had a really warm, really weird winter last year -- warm for a few days then down below freezing at night, then warm again, etc. Some plants germinated weeks earlier than usual, but throwing a heavy drop cloth over them at night worked great. I didn't lose anything to the cold.

Caryl

Sorry for the double post -- I got a server error and hit submit again not realizing that my reply had already gone through.

I'm in the same spot. First year wintersowing, went outside yesterday evening to get our raised bed cleaned up a little bit and happened to see sprouts in probably half of my containers. I was shocked. maybe I shouldn't have been considering the weird up and down winter we've had around here, but it's definitely going to get colder before it gets warmer here. It's been high 40s - mid 50s here for the past week, but next week it's supposed to start getting down into the 20s.... and some of my tulip bulbs are poking up too! ARGH.

I want to agree with Caryltoo, but, if it were me, which it was last year, I'd just leave them be. If they don't make it, you can resow them. I just have too much potential winter left to want to be bothered covering and uncovering containers for another 3 or 4 months. Then again, I've been doing this for more than 10 years and I know I'll have more seedlings in the spring than I'll know what to do with. If you have more seeds, I'd resow whatever you absolutely can't stand to live without. I think that would be less trouble than trying to protect early sprouts from freezing. I hope that doesn't sound callous, but the whole joy of wintersowing is not having to worry about babying anything. Only the tough survive. But there are thousands of "tough" ones. Good luck.

Martha

Well Martha you've inspired me to stop worrying about it. Once I'm done with a little house cleaning today, I'm going to make myself feel better by wintersowing some more flats. :)

Martha, my early germination last year was March vs. April in a normal year, so I didn't have to cover all that frequently. Plus, I usually do about 50-60 jugs and they're all grouped together so pretty easy to cover. If I had sprouts now I'd probably follow your advice and just re-seed. I wouldn't want to spend the next four months babying them either.

Kwolfe, are you in the south? We've had a few days of warmish weather here, but nothing like last year where we had weeks of 50 and 60 in Jan. and Feb. -- very unusual for PA. This year is more normal, but that could still change.

Caryl

Caryl, I'm in suburban Washington, D.C. which I think is technically the south but I was raised in Texas so I don't really think of it as the south myself personally. Definitely not way down south though. Probably not all that far from you depending on where you are in PA, we are zone 7A here.

Last month we were mostly high 40s and low 50s but there was a 3-4 day stretch where it was 68-70. Then so far this month continued that pattern of high 40s-low 50s but we had a stretch of days again that was high 60s-low 70s and I think that's what triggered the sprouting. It's going to be back down to high mid-40s and lows of high 20s for the next week or so which is more normal weather for here this time of year.

Our average last frost date here is Apr. 15, so there's a ways to go yet before we're free of a frost danger...