Congrats! Plus I love the pink tape!

Looks like you have a lot of annuals. Do you plan to let them reseed? I'm zone 5 also. I ran out of containers, but I still have seeds I want to do. Looks very good.

Beautiful selection of plants! Have you winter sown before? I am also in zone 5 and start in February, concentrating this year on medicinal plants with new seeds and try to use up the oldest seeds I have. Winter sowing always surprises me positively!

Thanks Xian girl! I thought the pink would brighten the dreary winter. I am going to do more perrenials in the next batch. I'm hoping the annuals I have will reseed.

Kiskin, I've never wintersown before so my fingers are crossed. I'm hoping I don't have a bunch of jugs of dirt come springtime time. I'm willing to experiment though and will do more in February and March.

I'd love to do veggies but we live near an old factory and I don't trust the soil.

I have just sown the first February batch (I use 4inch pots) including some complete unknowns (to me) such as lepechinia hastata and boykinia aconitifolia...a few I have never grown before: francoa appendiculata, anemone leveilleii, thalictrum reniforme, altheae armeniaca, dianthus cruentus...and then a bunch I have not had for years: paeonies (several species), ranunculus gramineus, various primula, including our now rare native oxlip, primula elatior, more umbels - astrantia, eryngiums, pimpinella rosea, thyselium and angelica arguta, a few geums and another batch of hardy annuals. I am attempting to keep some sort of record (ha) this year unlike the usual chaotic mess which results from lost labels, rubbish memory and hopeless management of my greenhouse and garden.

Don't worry, they'll sprout! The first year I wintersowed, I was doubtful it would work for me in my cold zone 5 climate. But it did, everything came up. The only problem I had was in the early spring, when an unusually hot day fried the baby seedlings. Now I watch the weather, if its going to be unseasonably hot, I put my containers in the shade.

I planted only 40 jugs my first year, just in case it didn't work. Of course it worked! Planted hundreds of jugs of seedlings every year since and have many beds filled, gave seedlings away, and composted others. Not every container of seeds have germinated for various reasons but most have.

Those you have listed have been easy sprouters for me except delphinium. Hold on to the delphinium jug if it doesn't have sprouts this spring. I have had them sprout in the fall or the next spring.

Yup, holding my breath here. Wintersow for the first time this year. For the last few weeks, I have been sowing in jugs and other containers. I am up to about 40 now and still going. I have these going...

flowers: lavender, hollyhock, sea holly, Chinese lantern, snapdragons, datura, foxgloves, larkspur, sweet pea, nasturtium,money plant, marigold, lupine, sunflower, alpin enzian, Veronica, Japanese morning glory,

vegetables: winter squash, zucchini, bell peppers, cantaloupe, watermelon, cucumber, tomatoes,beet, purple cabbage, arugula,red Russian kale, spinach

Herbs: basil, lovage, oregano, borage

I have them in my raised beds which is south facing. I now know I have to move them to a shady part to avoid overheating. Thank you!

I am wondering if I should still start seeds in trays under light indoor as a backup. Any advice?

Thanks,

sara

Germination starting here; stylomecon, dianthus cruentus, aconitum napellus, phacelia campanularis and succisa pratensis.

Congratulations Campanula! You are in zone 8. There is hope for me in zone 7!

Sara - Hi, I do both starting on a heat mat and winter sowing. Tomatoes, peppers and eggplants go on the heat mat - we often go from cold wet rain in spring to a 90 or 100 spike in a very short window, so I need my veggies to be bigger than they would be winter sown for planting out or they don't make it. I also do my more prized purchased seed as both or all heat mat. Anything that needs winter chill is winter sown.

First year for me . I have lettuce , cauliflower, cabbage, Kohlrabi, lupines in gallon jugs.

Looking forward to seeing all your spring seedling results! If this is your first year, you will be amazed at how many seedlings you end up with! :D

Does anyone have sprouting yet? I added 20 more jugs last week before a big snow storm and they are now buried in snow. Before the snow hit the ones from 1/29 still didn't have any signs of growth.

I saw 4 jugs with sprouts before the big snow. I didn't think that they would live through the freeze, so I took those 4 indoor and they still look ok. I am now worry that I have to go through the hardening etc when it is time to take them out.

The rest of of the jugs are sitting under a sheet of ice and snow. I don't know if they would survive.

as backup, I started trays of tomatoes, peppers, squash, melon, and some herbs on heat mat and under light a few weeks ago. I have almost 100% germination with tomatoes, squash and melon but only 40% of peppers so far. I plan do a few more trays today.

i can't wait for the snow to be melted. I planted some peas in February, those will be a write off. I have potatoes and onion set from store that are ready to go in to the soil.

happy spring!!!

I'm in a warmer zone than pinkmaui, but I did a blog post showing snow all over the jugs and the little seedlings pulling through just fine - a hard freeze (prolonged below 32 and the jugs exposed, not against a house or protection) is necessary to kill them. They do sprout earlier than seeds in the ground would - but not months earlier so not seeing sprouts yet in zone 5 is a good thing. I'm in zone 7, it's been warm and I"m only seeing sprouts in about 1/4 of my jugs.

Good to know! I hate the first time doing something and not knowing.lol

They are still covered by snow but we'll have a couple warmish days so I'm anxious to see the jugs again.

Zizia aurea is germinating...as are various (tiny) seedlets from the primula family (japonica, bulleyana, florindae, elatior, auricula, vieris). A bunch of salvia I got from Robin Smith are growing away - most of them new to me including hummingbird sage (s.spathaceae), stolonifera, forskaoli,involucrata and a Greggii hybrid, 'Christine Yeo'. A couple of little dianthus - cruentus and carthusionorum are almost ready for pricking out. Still waiting on quite a lot though. Started the tomato seeds yesterday.

My seedlings that sprouted before the big snow this past week came out fine. I feel better when ti snows because it provides great insulation, but I have to admit being worried about one annual that had above 80% sprouting already. Because it is an annual, I was worried when our temps hung in the teens and twenties at night. Yesterday the snow melted off of them and they are doing well still, all look OK, but growing slowly--which is a good thing. When we had several days in the single digits and no snow at all, I did take the sprouted jugs inside. I feel very certain they would not have survived that.

Deannatoby are you zone 5 too? I left my sprouts out in that cold . I hope they are ok. If they can make it through that then they will be strong.

Campanula, that's exciting. I can't wait to see sprouting. Everything still covered in snow at the moment.

Deannatoby, that must have been a lot of work! I left mine out in that cold so hopefully I didn't kill them.

Samuel, I'm in the same boat (zone 5) and didn't bring mine in from the cold. This weekend should clear the snow off of them so we'll see what happens....

Another snowless winter in east anglia. Tomatoes appearing. Got some 'Wild Sweetie' ones as a giftie - smallest seeds I have ever seen (and apparently, it is one of the smallest tomatoes in the world too).

I advise leaving everything outside. The whole point of wintersowing is to mimic nature, but protect from critters, erosion, and keep the humidity more consistent with the covered container. There might be some losses, in very odd weather years, but the successes far outweigh the failures. I've been doing this for many years, and would prefer it to any other method of starting seeds. Just wait until time for planting out. You'll be almost glad to have some failed containers, because you'll have more sprouts than you know what to do with.

Martha

Yes, Samuel Adirondack, I'm in 5. The latest zone map that the US whatever put out a few years ago actually has me in 6B, barely, but I don't think it would be smart to plant for 6B here. I think I'm pretty solidly zone 5, and if we have an exceptionally cold winter with little snow then I'm probably more like zone 4!

pinkmauisunset, it wasn't too much work. We had strong warm spell that saw sprouting in less than 5 jugs followed by several days in the single digits and teens with no snow cover for insulation. I just put those 2-3 jugs on a tray and brought them inside the door at night. I know WS is supposed to work outside, but that was a hard hard hard hard freeze with no insulation for the jugs. I did keep one sprouted jug outside as a test case and the sprouts didn't make it,

I booked marked this to our progress and the results. Thanks. I have 23 jugs. Lettuce, cauliflower cabbage Kohlrabi lupines.

deannatoby, you're right it doesn't sound like too much the way you did it. I'm hoping we are done with the bitter cold even though we just had more snow yesterday. Still nothing sprouting.

I think it's too late to do anymore that need cold stratification when do you guys usually start the warmer weather seeds like zinnias ? My dad just gave me more jugs and I want to do another batch.

Samuel do you have any sprouting yet? If so did they survive the cold?

Yes the Lettuce cauliflower Cabbage.

I have around 85 jugs. Thankfully, we've had a lot of rain so I haven't had to mist anything. So far the only thing coming up are the poppies. I WS in Feb, March and a few more over the weekend. That's it. I'm done for 2017. Phew!

bella rosa...do you have any sprouting yet? What did you sow this weekend? I'm trying to figure out which seeds to sow this late in the season.

Thank you everyone. Winter sowing is so cool. It was easy and I don't have to hardy them.

They look great, Samuel! Yea to spring in Zone 4! I have sprouting in most of my jugs but nothing is going in the ground for a bit yet.

I put my Yankee hardy Lettuce in the ground . My soil is organic from 10 years of putting on 2 inches of Compost. The lettuce is so happy, it's loving it. I watered it in good. I didn't use the city water. I let it sit in a bucket for the chlorine to disappate. The seedlings are sensitive at this stage.

I figure May 10 full moon for planting out everything and tomatoes.

I've got well over 100 milk jugs that I sowed. I would say around 75-80 of them sprouted. It's supposed to rain here for the next few days. That's good, but I hope it dries out a bit over the weekend so that I can get my WS babies in the ground. They are exploding from their milk jugs! LOL.

Samuel those great, ahead of mine in zone 5!

Bella Rosa, any pictures? :)

When do you all put them in the ground. I have a lot of sprouting but only one (lupine) that is more than an inch tall.

I usually plant them around the end of April/first week in May. I would have planted them today, but it's been raining for the last couple of days and the ground is soaked. oh, well, we need the rain too.