They have disadvantages- too small, too shallow, dry out too fast, blow away easily, no headroom for seedlings. I recommend milk jugs or 2 liters.

Karen

Blueheron,

I've been using them for 8 years now without any problems. They work fine for me. have never had weather issues with them blowing over, drying out to quickly or being to shallow or not enough room.

I used a few gallon jugs my first year WS and found them to awkward for me to use and they had very low germination results for me.

Don't use 2 liter bottles either. don't buy any tonic, and no one would have any for me as we have a bottle deposit return law, and you don't find much in bottles tossed into recycle bins, they get returned for the deposit money.

Check out the link below that I started a couple of years ago, you will see lots of the berry containers with seedlings in them in my yard. It looks like that every year in my back yard.

Fran

Here is a link that might be useful: WS seedling pics in berry containers

I do believe there are two different types of berry containers being discussed here. Back in 2006 when I first started winter sowing, the berry containers I used were rather shallow and did cause a problem with drying out. Now there are deeper berry containers, particularly those that contain strawberries from California, or yellow plums from Ontario which are quite useful. The only problem is that they do not have a lot of head room to accommodate those seedlings which grow quite tall, while still needing to be protected (covered) if there is a late frost. I use them for plants like petunias, which I transplant when still very small and which don't grow very tall in any case because I sow them too thick. My preference is 2-litre pop bottles. I get lots from our neighbours who have seven children under 11!!

My guess is Fran and Northerner don't get the early spring hot days that we get here- it was 85 degrees yesterday with wind gusts to 40 mph. Today, strong storms with winds up to 50 mph, possible tornadoes. Less heat and wind = less drying. You girls live way north, so much cooler I expect.

And obviously you guys don't get wind. Last year my gallon jugs were in bins, 6 ot 8 gallon jugs/bin, and even those were blown away
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Since my tomatoes were in 16 oz cups (i.e. lighter weight) I had a brick in that bin. It's fate
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ALL of my wintersowing was blown away last year.

Karen