My sprouts are slowing popping up but they're few and far between. Only about 25 jugs have sprouted so far out of nearly 300. It's been a cold spring where I am plus my jugs are mostly in the shade on my breezeway. The penstemon jugs all sprouted at once a few days ago and it looks like 100% germination on those seeds. Others there's been a single sprout in the jug for at least a week. It's way too early to give up on any of them. I know the waiting is the tough part for lots of folks but they'll sprout if they're meant to in their own good time.

Where Gardenweed had all that snow this year, we've had a lot of rain. I opened up the jugs to start hardening off the seedlings, several days when it was nice. Planted out some yesterday and even transplanted some that only had a few sprouts in them for whatever reason, and when I emptied them in my hand from the milk jugs, the soil fell apart because it was so wet. Even the perlite is green inside from so much rain. If I do this again next year, I'll definately save the original lids so I can put them on when we have so much rain constantly, and enlarge the holes around the top of the jug and increase the drainage holes.
I took off all the tops of the milk jugs yesterday so they could harden up. It was in 60's here yesterday and we have had rain all day and supposed to have it all night. Instead of taping up all those jugs again, I loaded them into the back of our truck in the garage so they wouldn't get more water logged. There are still some in milk jugs that are just begging to sprout or no sprouts. Gardenweed, David finally sprouted but so far only 1 sprout. Maybe when the soil dries out it will be more. Opps! The bottom just fell out again(hard rain again)It's real windy too. Where is Spring?

It's plenty normal to have one or two errant seedlings while the rest of the pot doesn't germinate - then have a warm up in weather only to find the stragglers in the pot sprouting. Maybe look at it as most aren't late, just a couple are early :)

There is good reason to expect you will have better germination in those pots once your weather gets a little warmer. I've been looking at one lonely iris pointy seedling in a pot for three weeks with nothing joining it at all, but feeling positive there will be more sometime this Spring. :)

I too have worried about the SLOWNESS THIS YEAR. The sprouts are just sitting there. Then again, it's been unusually cold... and then, so so much rain... Tons of rain... flooding today.

I hear you guys, just waiting... and hoping..

amy

I'm a southerner now, but a New Englander when I started WSing. In both places, I find that not everything germinates at once. If I am satisfied with one or two plants of a particular variety, I'll go ahead and plant a container out when it has only a couple of sprouts, but otherwise, I wait - lots of times the container will produce more.

In fact, I've had containers with a few sprouts that have died - I don't pitch those right away, either, because many times there are still seeds left that will germinate later.

Hope that helps.

Do you ever think about things You "could or should" do differently next Wintersowing season(2012)? My neighbor is saving me one (1 gal)milk jug each week and last night I told her not to save anymore until next I gave her the word in Nov. or Dec. because I don't have room to store them. Maybe I should just use 1 gal. jugs for perennials and not start so early as I did 12/30..maybe wait till first week of Feb. Since the seeds won't germinate until they are ready..it's like a kid waiting for Christmas to arrive. I think I will add more drainage holes, in case we have another rainy season early spring like we've had this year. Maybe only do perennials that bloom the first year or selected perennials, not get wowed by beautiful catalogs. Maybe elevate the crate on bricks so that the crates aren't sitting on top of wet ground and maybe this will help milk jugs drain or have more air circulation. Trial and error and try to be a more patient gardener. Learn not to get so heavy handed when sowing to avoid HOS. Gosh, I'm sure I could come up with more "dos and don'ts"

I'm edging closer to panicking about my sprouts too. I hope everyone is right and they're just waiting for a warm spell.

Thanks everyone for your advise, I will continue to be patient. My husband says I'm going to give them a complex if I keep checking them every day, LOL! cab321 you are in a simmilar zone so it is comforting to know that you are playing the waiting zone too. I have attached a photo of my seed flat. I have been using fish bins from my husband's restauraunt and inserting black blister packs inside.

Here is a link that might be useful: Seed Flat

Don't worry about giving them a complex hopgood--the seeds don't care that we fret and worry about them. The cat getting so close in the photo might make them flinch though!

One thing I noticed (besides the cat)--will there be enough headroom for your sprouts in the fish bins you're using?

In zone 5, it is still plenty early. In another month, you'll be worrying about where to plant them all, LOL.

Another thing that no one has mentioned is that weeds will often sprout first. Don't know where those weeds come from but there they are. My first years I was excited by those first sprouts to find out after the flower seeds germinated that those first ones were weeds.

From MN z:4 where I am still sproutless.

I am glad Hopsgood has asked this, because my delphinums, Larkspurs, cape fushsia, Lobelia Cardinal, got like 1 sprout.

Today, we have torrential rains with high winds. This will be another observation. Test of good drainage.

I check my jugs each morning and I also have a "the sprouts are coming up sooooo slowly" feeling this season. But I am trying to use the "delay" time to get the beds ready - a nice clean canvas- to actually make planting out easier.In the past I've had some panic moments with hundreds of jugs full of babies and beds not really ready yet to take them in.I'd spend my time eyeballing down spouts instead of working the dirt....

This bed readying is easier now that I know the weeds in my yard. When I first started WSing, I really didn't know what to clear out. Are those reseeding flowers or weeds? Now, though I still don't know their names ( I call them the creeping one with curly leaves, the carrot root one, the one with the underground runners, etc) I DO know that they have to go before I put my precious babies in the beds. I am also trying to quickly pull one that has little white flowers because I have a new appreciation for the seed setting cycle as a WSer. If those weed flowers set and release seed, I'll be spending more time pulling those weed seed babies.

So the moral of the story for newbies is appreciate the gift of time this cold season has given us. Use the extra few weeks to make sure you are ready to hit the ground running (with beds free of weeds and real estate available and waiting) when your sprouts are needing to get out of their jugs and into the ground!

Nancy

It's just early for zone 5, and this has been a pretty cold spring, at least here. Most of my sprouts popped on the intermittent warm days we have had. Most of my annuals, recently sowed, have not sprouted. Most of those need a fair amount of heat to germinate, too.

Karen

Check just once a day?? Only once??? My, I wish I had that discipline!! I feel the need for mult. checks, not sure why... but it's fun...

Amy

I think it is still pretty early for Zone 5 in Canada, where it seems you are. I am in Zone 5A, and the only sprouts I have are from my Baby Bok Choy, a cold-season vegetable. Looking at my records, sprouting usually starts in late April -early May. But we had snow yesterday, so ours may be a bit delayed this year.

I always ditch my containers by June - what has not sprouted.
Maybe they would have sprouted eventually, maybe not. By June the garden is going like crazy and I don't have the patience to have empty jugs sitting around.

My experience over 8 or so years of WS'ing is that some plants will sprout thickly, some will sprout less than 50% and some won't sprout at all.

One time I asked someone what was her secret of getting 100% germination on everything, and she said she calls it 100% germination if one seed sprouts in the container!

I guess we can look at it this (non-mathematical) way, and claim great success. :)

That's funny. For most things I'm satisfied if I get reasonable germination- certainly more than one seedling but if it's just 8 or 10 sprouts, that's enough. I don't need hundreds of the same plant.

If I get only one or two seedlings in a jug I don't consider that 100% germination either.

Karen

Yes there has always seems to be containers that only get one sprout, despite having sowed a dozen seeds or so in the container. Sometimes another seed or two will sprout, and sometimes not. I wonder if some seedlings don't like to be crowded and they won't sprout too close to other seeds? It's hard to imagine that one seed was the only one that was viable. Oh well, stranger things will happen.

If I want more plants I re-sow the seed the next year. Last year I got only one sprout of Virginia Bluebells (Mertensia virgnica), so this year I sowed 6 smaller containers instead of one big one. Now I've got sprouts in 3 out of 6 containers and 2 of them have 2 sprouts in them so far. Go figure.

Yes I agree that it has been a cold spring this year. However, Northerner, I was getting lots of wormwood and foxglove sprouts back in March! These were incredibly early but they are still going strong:) Gardenweed, the fish bins are 4" deep and the blister packs are 2" so that gives them 2" head space. By the time they are out growing their WS containers they should be hardened off enough to put in the garden. Oh yeah, the cat isn't too interested in the seed flats...it's my year old GSD that I have to worry about, LOL!! Thank you all again for the reassurance:)

This is my first year to try this. I have several things sprouting, but only a few seedling, each. I am in zone 4 WI, so I didnt expect anything this early, but we did have a week of warm weather before it got cool again.

I have to admit that I only check mine once a week or so. I only have a dozen containers going to test this out. But I have 25 trays of mostly vegetables and annuals under lights that I am babying daily, so that keeps me occupied. If this works for me, I suspect I will have a lot fewer plants under lights next year.