I'm going to try winter sowing a lot of my veggies this year for next spring's crop. The best cherry tomatoes I ever had were volunteers from the year before. In SC, I never planted tomatoes. I grew some type of heirloom that was given to me, and they didn't know the name. Every year, I'd just let the leftovers fall to the ground, and every spring, up they came. I'd just pull out the extras, and put a wire cage around them.

I use old toilet paper rolls to start a lot of seeds. Just direct sow, then just plop them into the ground when they get big enough. Works just like, even better than, peat pots, and can't beat the price! You can get two "pots" out of one roll.

Great tip junkyardgirl! I can see that this would be the best for plants like nasturtiums and the like, that don't like their roots disturbed. I guess I need to save some up for later use.

Christine

Glad it's working for you, Ill! My seedlings are coming up but it seems I'm having a lower germination rates this year. I don't know what's causing it. Maybe I let moisture get in my seed storage containers (I keep them in the fridge). Anyhow, it looks like I still may have a crop because I seeded pretty heavily.

I planted cilantro from the 99 cent coriander at the Mexican store and they're germinating very well. I planted parsley dividing up a pot of parsley (from Ernie's) the way you showed me, so it looks like I'll have a big parsley patch in much less time. We will see. . .

Oooh, have you tried those Trinidad Perfume/Aji Dulce/Cachucho peppers yet?

Bill

Congratulations, Ill-Man! Glad to see you are having success. Me, I've never been able to grow squat from seed, most of the time. In the ground, or in flats, either way. I'm basically a failure at it. I just cheat and buy the 4" pots of whatever I want, and go from there.

Now I do get some volunteers of different things, like my rudbeckia trilobas, seaside goldenrods, and penstemon (TOO MANY of that!), but not much luck when I actually try to plant the seeds myself.

One exception would be morning glories, I guess, and nasturtiums in POTS but not in the ground. Other than that, something always eats the seeds, or they wither in the pots, or there's an epidemic of damping off. As a result, I've pretty much given up on growing anything by seed intentionally.

You have my undying respect! (But you pretty much had that anyway!)

Marcia

I direct-seeded some rows of spinach, turnips, chard and romaine lettuce, as well as chives for the bed border and lines of marigolds between things. I'm not sure if it will all work out the way I hope, but it's been fun so far watching my little green babies pop up, a little at a time! Oh, by the way - I live in Deland, too, and I'm not sure where to go to buy straw for mulch. What's a good nearby source?

hey, bill! those aji dulces you gave me are finally bearing, a bunch of little peppers. for whatever reason, they really suffered this summer and didn't produce squat. but now, it's like someone flipped a switch -- darn things have doubled in size in the last few weeks and set tons of peppers. haven't tried them yet. they any good? cute peppers, in any case.

karen--the only place i've found for pine straw is west volusia shed. one bale goes a long way, i've found. drop me a line at centralfloridagardener@gmail.com. we have a small group of deland gardeners who get together, trade plants, etc. (gatormomx2, castorp, happy_fl_gardener, gardencpa...)

I think some of the problems most gardeners have with seeds is that they don't realize just how tender the seedlings are when they first sprout. Sure, in a farm where there may be hundreds or even thousands of plants popping at the same time, they will lose a few and not even notice. But for the home gardener, the loss of five plants out of a dozen can be catastrophic.

I've grown plants from seeds for over 40 years and I can tell you that in the early days, I lost at least half of them. Here are some simple rules I follow that have reduced my failure rate to less than 5% after sprouting:

1. Whatever you start the plants in, leave them there until either the roots grow through the bottom of the pot, tray, or can.
2. Water carefully. A hard spray can damage the main trunk and kill the plant and don't flood them either. Seedlings don't need as much water as most gardeners give them.
3. No fertilizer until the plant is big enough to either go in the ground or moved to a larger pot.
4. If you start a seed in the sun, keep it in the sun. If you start in the shade, keep it in the shade until it's large enough to go in the ground or a larger can.
5. Be patient. Some seeds take weeks before anything happens (some take months.)
6. When you do re-pot, make sure you don't damage the root ball. Take ALL the soil from the old pot and ONLY re-pot when the soil is dry and then water once you're done.

I'm sure there are other tips that skip my mind right now, but these are some of the basics.

Well your Aji Dulce is doing better than mine then, Ill. The plant looks great but it keeps dropping blooms. Either it's the heat or a sensitivity to day length. (It's not the normal species of garden pepper and I think it may be day length). Anyhow, both aji dulce and trinidad perfume produced a couple of peppers for me so far. I let them fully ripen, aji dulce to red, trinidad to yellow, and the flavor was something else, very unusual, and each was different from the other. It's true they have the habanero tastes without the heat--"smoky" is the usual description but it doesn't really do it justice. I hope they start producing a bunch of peppers soon.

Bill