I thought that I had specific information saved about wsing tomatoes that I was going to share with you but I cannot find it since it's been years since I've wsed. I am pretty sure that most people wait on the tomatoes-probably sowing them with their annuals closer to spring. Hopefully someone else is still awake and online and can let us both know. :-)
Michelle

Hey Mo & Michelle, nite-owl here. Z5 - CO. I WS tomatoes in Ummmm, think it was early March last year. Must dig out the journal to confirm. FAIR success. I was aiming for quantity (over 200) to sell to local gardeners so was disappointed w/ results.

But a New Year is almost here so will try again; sowing on the Spring Equinox (Mar. 21) seems like a good, if random plan, so that's what I will do. Best of luck to both of you; let us know how you do.

Treat them like tender annuals and sow your tomato seeds as winter is breaking into spring. I usually sow mine mid to late February.

What success have you all been having with ws-ing tomatoes?
This will be my first year ws-ing and also my first year growing heirloom tomatoes. I have established a fair collection of heirlooms, and I'm just wondering what percentage of seeds wintersown should I expect to germinate? I'm not worried about a lot of plants, but at least 2 good seedlings of each variety.

Germination depends more upon the viability of the seeds than the method. If your seeds are more than three of four years old you'll likely have less than 60% germination so sow heavily. If you're using seeds saved from this years plants you'll have a much higher germination percentage.

This year I was working with NPGS germplasm and had mixed germination percentages likely due variying viability. They were all wintersown the same way, same day, and kept in the same area so I feel that the flats with the lowest germination were simply older seeds.

Here is a link that might be useful: WinterSown 2008 Tomatoes

Thanks for your answers Trudi, from what I hear you are the wintersowing expert!

So then, am I correct in assuming that you believe that seeds of the same viability would germinate equally well whether winter sown or started indoors under lights?

I must say that, although like Trudi & others, I have better success with WS tomatoes in February, March & April; I have had some WS on winter solstice in years past that have germinated.

The birds, and chance, WS'd Tomato seeds for me this year. I didn't start any on purpose, but starting in April, I had volunteers germinating in my woodchip paths and in beds where I grew them last year. Several also popped up in my compost bin.

Although I pulled hundreds of them, I ended up with at least a dozen and a half plants, in good spots, and had plenty of Tomatoes all season (up until just before Thanksgiving. They got absolutely no care, and no attention other than harvesting. I didn't support them, fertilize them or water them.

All these plants grew from seeds which sat outside from early fall, right through the winter. They started germinating in April, and new ones continued to pop up until late summer.

YT,

Viable is viable, not viable is not. I've never compared indoor to outdoor germination with tomatoes simply because I want hardy seedlings. You will not get seedlings as hardy as WSed toms if you start them indoors. Then you have to worry about damp-off, hardening off, transplanting up to bigger sizes to inspire a large root system...none of that is useful to me so I just WS them.

Ok thanks , I was just curious, guess I am just nervous about the whole winter sowing thing because it is new for me. I've sown them indoors forever, never even thought about sowing seeds in winter until I stumbled on your website. Can't wait to try it!

I tried WSing tomatoes last year and also planted many indoors in February. I also like to sell the seedlings at a Farmer's Mkt. and could not have done it with the WS ones. In my zone, I need a longer growing season than WSing allows for tomatoes and peppers.

I know I'm living in a dream world but I *WISH* we could WS them NOW and have fruit already be sprouting by the time Spring arrives.. now wouldn't that be lovely!?!

:)

bump for any other interested parties.