There's an active thread, a few posts down, with pictures.

Welcome to wintersowing.

Karen

Here is a link that might be useful: Pictures

OOps, sorry, was distracted and posted that to the wrong thread. Meant that for the one asking for WSown pictures.

Others have different opinions, but things I'd avoid:
1. Shallow containers with less than 3 in. soil depth
2. Peat pot or paper pots- dry out too much
3. Won't sow tender annuals befor late March or April- if they sprout early they freeze in late frost.
3. Use big drainage holes, and lots of them.
4. Won't use Sharpie markers- they fade. I only use paint pen. Mark top and bottom of jug.

Favorite containers are milk jugs, preferably gallon size, or some 1/2 gallon or 2 liter pop bottles. They give good soil volume and depth and plenty of head room for seedlings.

Karen

Don't buy cheap potting soil. It will turn into a brick.
Duane

Hi Maemae,

You will love ws. I am glad you made it over here too. Once you do it you will never stop. Tons of plants and little money invested. Karen and Duane are soo right. I am gonna start mine pretty soon here. I might even get a couple done this weekend.

It is so neat to go out in spring and see their little heads popping up. I just love poppies I had such good luck with them this year. When you plant them just plunk and run. How easy is that. This is another fun group of people like the brug forum. We are the coldest gardeners on the planet. LOL PS I got your email thanks for your generous offer. I will send you my addy. See if there are any seeds from me you need for wintersowing too....Smile Barb

My biggest mistake is not getting beds ready for all the seedlings. I'm determined to do better next spring. I would have worked on them more this fall but I planted lots more shrubs and a girl can only dig so much.

I've had the best luck sowing most of my seeds early to mid February here in TN. I mostly use gallon milk jugs. Don't worry so much about making mistakes. Just jump and and see what works for you.

Mechele

Mechele thanks for telling me when you get started, so I sould wait just a little bit then? I was going to start after christmas but I know we can still have a warm spell then.

Mary

Mary,
I seem to have better germination by waiting a little longer, don't really know why. I think part of my problem may be with fluctuating temps I don't always check the moisture level when we have a warm spell. Most years we have some pretty warm weather for part of January. I try to pick a really cold spell in early Feb. and have found that most hardy plants will start sprouting quickly when the weather starts warming up. Tender plants just do better planted later, around March or April. If you want to sow some of your seeds this month go ahead and give it a try. You learn by trial and error what works best for you and I know how excited I was the first year I learned about winter sowing. I couldn't wait to get started. I'll start on the Solstice by sowing apples and lilacs.

Last year was my first year WSing. Here are a few ideas.

- Try to use some sort of record-keeping system. I created a spreadsheet that was a master WSing list, with many columns of info, and as the seeds sprouted, I would fill in "date sprouted", "date planted", etc.

- Think twice about using duck tape. It works well, TOO well. It's impossible to get off of containers once it's been sitting outside for months. Some people slice through to make it easy, but I like to reuse my containers and don't want messy tape all over them.

- Whatever containers you use, plan to re-use some. Soak them (plain water fine), rinse, scrub a little, air dry, and store. It makes the next year SO much easier.

- The earlier you plant out seedlings, the earlier you will get blooms. This is especially true with perennials that bloom the first year. I had some Asters that were planted out in 2 batches. The earlier batch bloomed abundantly. The later batch got nibbled on by something and never bloomed (but probably will next year).

- Ditto what Mechelle said. You know that saying "your eyes are bigger than your stomach"? Well, my eyes were bigger than my garden beds. I sowed 158 containers,and although not every container sprouts, I had literally hundreds of seedlings. The biggest problem that resulted from WSing was too many seedlings! I was frantically digging and making lasagne beds and planting all spring and summer, and still have 30 WS seedlings sitting in the pot ghetto.

PS. I will probably make this same mistake again this year! :)

Terrene I just had to laugh at the "pot ghetto" I think everyone has one!!!!

Mary

About recycling milk jugs....

I read a few years ago how someone didn't have enough room to store them vertically, so they hung a chain in the garage and tied the handle of the jugs to the chain. The whole thing took up so much less space that way!

I like lasagna pans and kitty litter boxes. I can nest all those together at the end of the season.