First, let's confirm you mean winter sow in the way it's defined on the Winter Sowing forum. If so, the answer is yes. Dill germinates at 60 degrees and tomatoes and parsley germinate in the 70s. If you have your containers sown and sitting outside, they'll be ready when the right temps hit.

If you instead mean sow seeds in winter under lights, I would say yes to tomatoes, not yet on dill and still too early for parsley.

yes, I mean outside. just didn't want to put them out too early, in case they were like a tender annual. I know that I have zinnia, marigolds, etc. come back volunteer, and the occasional tomato, but didn't want a late freeze to be the end of them before they even got started.
Thank you,
justsaymo

If it warms up toooooo much you may have to bring them inside... I have never done them out in pots but always under grow lights or in bright windows and my maters are all about two inches high right now from the first batch and more seeds have been planted. I winter sowed perennials but never had thought about annuals...

Go ahead and do it. Here's my two cents to address your concerns about "too early". Research suggests that toms will withstand temps down to 28 degrees. I'm not that gutsy. I use walls of water.

There are pros and cons to WS tomatoes. One pro is that by the time we have the 70 degree weather which is needed for germination there are very few freezing nights left. If you install your cages before you plant in the ground, you can toss a sheet or towel over the cage on a freezing night and your toms will be fine. Additionally you can put some 2 liter bottles with water in them under the sheet to give protection similar to walls of water.

So if toms are in fact tender, why am I encouraging you to put them out anyway, then take care of them? Because even the earliest tomatoes take 50 days to maturity, and it seems most varieties fall later in the mid or late season category. If you have a tom with 85 DTM you'll be well into the end of July before you harvest.

If we were talking marigolds or zinnias, I'd say wait. But with tomatoes, go for it. If your sprouts are still in jugs and a freeze occurs, it's easy enough to toss a towel over them. If your plants are already in the ground, it' not that much tougher to cover the cage.

I have never sowed my tomato seeds directly before. I always started them inside and transplanted them. I do have volunters in the compost.
Let us know how it worked for you.Maybe do a test with a transplant and compare growth and first ripe tomato.

Mine volunteer in a big way every year from tomatoes left in the garden. They generally have a hard time keeping up with the plants started indoors, but they are an excellent indicator of when it is time to bring out the plants.

Centralwa, I've never thought of checking for the volunteers, but it sounds like a good idea. James