Shocking weather patterns and germination

18 years ago

Hi. I am new here and new to winter sowing. Just started my first container today. Anyways, I see things about what to do about hard winters and such but what if you are having a warm winter?

We are having an extremely warm winter here in SW Virginia with high temperatures roaming around 50 degrees in the day and 30's at night. Is this going to be a problem? Will my seeds germinate to early? While mountain weather is usually unpredictable, lately it has been more shocking than usual with temperatures getting up to 60 one day and then a high in the teens the next? Will this cause problems for me? What can I do to keep everything from being too shocked from these temperature fluctuations? Thanks in advance.

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Comments (3)

clumsygrdner
18 years ago
I've also noticed the same thing blaith. Most of the people in my zone have 0-few containers germinated, while I have very many who have germinated for a long while.

One thing that may be the cause of early sprouts is not only weather patterns but the size of the containers, how deeply the seeds are planted, and how much sun the containers get at any particular day.

For example, I have my containers on a southeast facing concrete patio that gets a lot of sun. The smaller containers germinate quicker and freeze quicker. Fortunately, I've only sowed the hardiest of plants so they have mostly survived the wide fluxes. The larger containers, warm and germinate more slowly, but then they stay warmer longer so that the seeds can still be germinating even after a cold snap.

In the spirit of Do-Nothing-ness, my containers have stayed outside untouched except for a bit of rearranging. Right now the seedling leaves are dark green the stems are sturdy and the roots are lengthening. I'm starting to see second leaves on some!

There will be a bit of a stretch of solid freezing weather today into next week, but I'm not worried about it.
lblack61
18 years ago
We had that problem in NY last year, that it was warm for so long in the early winter, we were all afraid to put anything out. Last year was a wacky year for us.
You kind of just have to "wing-it", and maybe study up on some of the seeds to see how cold hardy the seedligns might be should they germinate "early".
My surprise of last year was that the things that I had difficulty getting germination from were the greatest and earliest germinators. The easy things, that usually germinate and perform great in the garden (like Petunias) did neither very well at all.
It taught me that every year WSing is different. It's all reliant on Ma Nature...and she does what she does... :-)

Holding back a little seed "just in case" with the option to re-sow makes putting them out in the variable weather a little easier, too.

Linda
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tiffy_z5_6_can
18 years ago
I think that Clumsy and Linda have said it quite well.

So did Forest Gump when he stated that "Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get."

The same with winter sowing. But I can garantee you one thing... You are going to get a lot more with winter sowing than you expected! Get ready!

Yesterday we went to +7C (45F) and tonight it's down to -15C (2F). Mama nature is working those seeds, and I'm getting ready to take a bubble bath!