You are done! The crate is wonderful for keeping them from falling over. When people use bags, yes they have holes in them.

As the temps outside warm up, just add more ventilation holes to keep them from over-heating.

Hi kiddo, I'm glad to see you made it here! The bag thing is a mystery to me and I'm looking forward to lblack61 telling us why she did it. My first guess would be to create mass so the jugs don't blow away?

But no, it's not common practice and certainly not mandatory. I've never seen it before.

Hello seedmama! Yes, with your encouragement and Trudi's helpful FAQ I just couldn't hold out anymore. Had to see what all the fun was about! I'm revved. Now I have to go down to the recyle center this weekend - to make a withdrawal! ;-D

Kris

Nekked. No reason to bag here.

Definitely not mandatory...Bags are not needed.
I use them because of particular situations I have in my yard:
1. the number of curious dogs out here
2. the amount of snow we sometimes get which makes it difficult for me to get my containers outside.
3. wind
With any one of these alone, I could use crates or some other set up. But with all three factors, it seems the bags solve the entire problem in one swoop.

Linda

I'm w/ you, Linda. We have the snow of course, also neighbor's cats are out all the time. And the wind!! I lost a lost of babies that first year, so now I bag the 2L bottles and anything smaller than that.

Yeah...my first year, i had tons of jugs, so i'm not sure i would have noticed what was happening if my SIL (who lives next door) didn't come over one day with an empty jug that had traces of soil in it and say, "I think this is yours". One of their dogs had taken it for a little joy ride (lol).

I don't know for sure what else I lost that way that year, but I decided the next year I wouldn't let it happen again.

And there's an advantage to being able to kind of swing a bunch of bags onto the nearest snow drift when the door has 1-2 feet of snow blown up to it and the lawn has much more snow than that. Kinda like the shot-put contests. I'm getting pretty good at it :-)

Linda

Well, great! Thanks for the explanations! There are cats around here, but doubt they will bother a bin of containers. The wind, though, can be fierce. Has anyone else noticed that for the past several years that as the planet warms up, the winds grow stronger and more frequent? I'm doing more gardening with wind in mind than ever before. My plan: to invest what's left of my money in the staking industry. ;-)
Kris

Here is a link that might be useful: My first winter sowing effort

Kiddo, welcome to winter sowing. I enjoyed your blog.
Two things to consider.
1. The changing temps help to break down the seed coating with the freeze/thaw cycle. Seeds won't be hurt by freezing temps and will germinate at the right time and not be affected by those temps while they are in their containers. Exception is tender annuals, ie: cosmos, zinnias etc. If they germinate and the temps drop to freezing some people bring the sprouts into an unheated garage while others cover them. So, put your containers outside now.

2. As you have realized from the info on this post, you do not need to use the bag over your ws containers. If you do use a bag to enclose containers that don't have any other top be sure to poke holes in the bottom of your bag for drainage, as well as the top for ventilation. If you haven't done so on the ones you have shown on your site, do it now or you will find your smaller containers floating inside the larger one. Or remove the bag completely.

mnwsgal - thank you for the welcome and the advice. :-)

I did put the crate outside on the deck instead of putting it in the garage as I originally intended and removed it from the bag. I had made those pics for the blog before I posted my question about bagging. Since I don't have a full milk crate yet, I've used a bungee to secure the ones that are in there so they don't get blown over (really high winds here today - gusts up to 45). Have not sown any tender annuals, just perennials right now. (hollyhock, canterbury bells, purple coneflower, false indigo, milkweed & privet)

Took my mom shopping today and had a chance to scarf up her trashed milk jugs too. More sowing tomorrow! :-)
Kris
P.S. and thanks for stopping in at the blog!

Here's another question. Nancy Drew stated in another thread that she puts her containers in the shade so not too much UV on the plastic. My deck gets 6-7 hours of sun in the a.m. Too much UV or direct heat/sunlight for my WS containers? If so, what is the most direct sunlight WS containers should have each day? I seem to have either lots of sun or no sun, not too much in the middle...
Kris

I am a new WS'er and came up with an idea to move the 100 milk jugs around on my deck to stay out of my husband's way and his need to shovel the deck after it snows...we just lost 20 inches of snow in a 2 day warm spell. I put the jugs on heavy, heavy sheets of plastic and can pull the plastic to where I want it on the deck...and all the jugs go along for the ride. No lifting is great!!

kiddo, mine were in dappled sunlight and I've had really good germination and no scorching. The only thing I've placed in shade are the hosta seeds. No sprouts there yet. I'm considering moving them just to get them going.

When I sowed seeds last fall, I found it was better to let them germinate in the kind of light they would grow in. The shastas and rudbeckia got full sun. The only issue is keeping them watered.

Some of my containers are in full sun, others in part sun/shade. They all germinate fine. The ones in full sun need to be watered more often and I need to open them more for ventilation. The ones in more shade take a bit longer to germinate.