My 3 big takeaways from Winter Sowing this year
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- Опубликовано: 25 авг 2024
- I outline my 3 big takeaways from winter sowing in 2023 including the results of my experiments using tote bins and when yo winter sow flowers, herbs and other perrenial ls that need cold stratification.
'Tis the season for this year's winter sowing. I consulted you many times last season, my first WS efforts (25 jugs/containers). Here, in your 3 Take-aways I found many things meaningful to me as I begin this growing season. Patience - In May I dumped the soil out a jug of un-sprouted carrot seed into the edge of a raised bed.....to grow a great patch of carrots ready late summer. Thank you, Esther for your offerings. I'm using and appreciating your work.
So excited to see what my results are. Year one, 4 jugs!
Fingers crossed!
Hi Esther. Appreciate the comment about natives takimg off slowly. Its july and my native seedlings are still small. Nice to know there's still hope!
Indeed. Yeah it's easy to get discouraged the first year with perrenials. They're getting established this year and should be much better next year.
Hi Esther - I tried winter sowing for the first time this year and your videos were so helpful. Thanks so much for sharing your experience and experiments! And your enthusiastic garden energy. 🤍
You are so welcome!
I've germinated Milkweed seeds on paper towels beside my window sill and it only took like 3 or 4 days for them to start sprouting.
I think what plays a big role in the viability of chilled vs non-chilled seeds is the species of the plant and the age of the seeds.
I've had those Milkweed seeds for almost 2 years and yet still had good germination
That's good to know thanks.
Hi Ester! Experiments are awesome. I am more than impressed that with your busy schedule you were able to carry these experiments out. I am going to do an experiment this coming year that will be very interesting to see the results. I was listening to a seasoned gardener on another site and he said that seeds will know when to come up and to plant the seeds as if it were the right time and they will know when to sprout. So, next year I am not going to use any winter sow containers and plant directly into the beds to see what develops. This year was so unusual I can't even begin to describe my garden. Hundreds of tomato plants came up, along with melons, and I have never had so many vegetables in my life. I am giving away bags of vegetables so I leave nothing to waste. I am feeling pretty good about what is going to grow next year.
Sorry for the delayed response. I'm so glad to hear you have an overabundance!
You are the one who taught me about Winter Sowing and I thank you again for those videos. Good evaluation about your experiments with it. Yes, I'll stick with the tried and true method.
Thank you! I'm glad you found it informative.
This was my 1st year doing WS and all my seeds germinated. Beginner's Blessings I suppose...❤
I grew everything in my garden from seed by way of WS.
I'm very happy!
Thank you and Juicygardner for your assistance.
I'm so glad you had great success. Often the best year for winter sowing is a person's first year because they trust the process.
I'm surprised about the winter sowing tote results! Fascinating. Thank you for sharing!
You are welcome!
Hey Esther! Love your videos - thanks for sharing your knowledge and experience! Wondering if you have tried overwintering any of your plants? I have five pepper plants in my garage. They are dormant now, but in a couple of months I’m going to start trying to bring them back. Of course they were winter sown last year - just trying to give them a head start. Fingers crossed!! 🤞 🌱🌱🙏
I have tried overwintering peppers. I find that usually 1 out of 3 survive it. But I'm not sure that I've mastered that process either.
Try flipping the tote over. It may create a mini greenhouse. I have great success with greens all winter in zone 6a this way.
Thank you. I'm not sure how that would change things though.
@@EsthersGardeningAdventures I'm not certain, but maybe it would create a little more air flow and circulation? Nothing ventured, nothing gained in the garden. Lol.
Thank you, Esther for the winter sowing series. You helped me alot! I love your videos ❤️❤️
You are most welcome! I'm glad you found this video (and the series) helpful.
I decided to go native in my front garden on a whim and ripped out half my garden and put in natives. My garden looked so shit the first year and I super regretted it :(. The next year I got blooms on most of my natives and was sooo happy! Worth the wait!
Highly recommend the orange milkweed. Avoid common milkweed, it takes over!
This is great information!! 😊I'm going to try winter sowing 🌱🌿this year with my sister and a friend so we can compare results and share. I'm a new subscriber and am enjoying your channel!🎉
Great video and takeaways, Esther
Thank you!
Thank you for the valuable info. I always enjoy your sessions 😊
You are most welcome Barb.
So good to see you, loved your hat, do an update on your garden when you can, happy gardening.
Thank you. Yes I will do that soon.
Hi Esther. Perfect timing watching your video. Was just considering trying winter seedlings in tot bins. Thanks so much for sharing. You saved me time and a disappointing experience. Thank you.
You are most welcome. And sorry for the delayed response.
Great info. My jugs did well. I had 3 out of 40 that were duds. I was worried earlier when it seemed like quite a few jugs were not sprouted. It seems like all at once they got going. unfortunately the weeds did too.
Haha. The weeds always do. Glad to hear you had good success
Great to hear from you and thanks for the lessons! Be careful with Obedient Plant. Even though it's a native, it will spread like wildfire and take over much of your garden area. Best to contain it carefully, perhaps even planting in pots or grow bags, rather than in the ground.
That's good to know. Thank you!
Learned that the hard way a few years ago
Looking great Esther!
Thank you!
How do you prevent mosquito bites while gardening? You have so much area to cover and they're pretty fierce this year in Northern Virginia. I police the yard carefully for standing water and use mosquito dunks and bits to avoid any breeding areas. Still, there are MANY mosquitos that fly over from the neighbors. Please share your secrets on how to stay bite free. Thanks!
I don't stop the bites (this year hasn't been as bad as past years for me for which I'm grateful) but I do keep my homemade bug bite balm with me. Here's a video on how I make it. ruclips.net/video/zqsC7R6-LAQ/видео.html
@@EsthersGardeningAdventures Thanks very much! I was happy to revisit your great video and will make the salves this year.
Interesting..I have used the damp paper towel method in a baggie with what is suppose to be a cold stratification using my own saved seed from my Green Twister Echinacea and after only as little as 3-days my seeds started to germinate so the concept of cold stratification had never applied to my echinacea seeds and have been doing this for many years. I can tell you that I do love to use the winter sowing for asparagus and strawberries ..for 2-years straight I have had great success and who doesn’t love asparagus and strawberries..
Very interesting. Thank you for sharing that experience. I suspect the "moist" conditions are much more important than cold for perrenials.
Thanks for the update on the tote bins. I was interested to see how that went. My winter sowing went well this year as I only had 3 out of 45 that did not produce anything. However, only 1 rosemary, 2 spearmint, and 2 mountain mint sprouted which I thought was odd. I usually have great success with herbs, and my peppermint is indestructible, so I don't know what's up!?!
That is strange. We're the seeds older than in prior years? That could have been a factor if so.
Great info! Even though you are Z8? You are still about same latitude as me. I’ve been observing another garden in NJ and some flowers are more advanced and were started earlier than mine, but tomato production appears to be the same. However, we tend to be cooler with frost later so that sets things back.
This is all interesting because I was hoping to grow most seeds outside to keep the mess out there, but this year has been SO trying because of weather. It was raining gobs here in January in WI, Z5a and it was WAY too warm that I covered the WS many times to prevent sprouting. I had many varieties of flower seeds and quite a few did not succeed. Issues could be with using an amended peat moss mix and could have been too acidic and maybe not enough fertilizer or perlite. It could be I used seeds that were not meant for WS and I think some rotted. It could be it was too hot as this spring many plants broke dormancy and a late frost before Memorial Day killed many. We had 90s up to that point and no warning. We had March weather in April and things were really messed up. THEN we entered extreme drought until July 12th with no rain😮!! We were 8+” down on precipitation.
So the results of your experiments and my experience I’m considering starting everything Much later than ever. There is a timing of those seeds and plants that will grow when it’s time. I will not consider starting anything earlier then end of April except onions and even those will not be started in February as I had to give them 5 haircuts 😅
I’m hoping by starting later I can utilize the small GH as it will be warm then and easy to heat at night. I will put blinders on when all the RUclips videos start pouring out seed starting and WSing because like you said, later is just fine. This will alleviate a lot of work and this past seed starting dilemmas will not be repeated with aphids and gnats-NOT HAPPENING! Never had a time like that before.
I did a lot more varieties this year in hopes to find favorites and that frost took many out and by then I was devastated and didn’t write things down on replant. So I hope I still have all varieties.
On the upside I’ve learned in this drought we can grow radishes under shade fabric and I hate the hose and love irrigation 😄. We just finished installing DIY irrigation on north garden on the 11th and it FINALLY rained on the 12th last week and a bit everyday so far.👏🏼👏🏼💃👏🏼👏🏼. Should have done this way sooner🙄
The deer and other pest pressures have been the worst ever. It’s been a battle. The deer ate hostas to the ground 😮it was so dry here the weeds died. I’ve had to barricade everything that is not inside fencing and if the bird netting isn’t up high enough they will knock the buds off trying to get to them. And I still need to catch whatever is eating the lettuce and scratching at bottom of beds. We have grubs and robins could be at work so need to get Milky Spore if the rain keeps up. And the two top new issues were voles which I never seen in my life and air alerts from CN smoke.
Thanks for doing the experiments as it answers a lot of questions and takes the pressure off for seed starting next year.
Edit: and the WS seeds that came through did recoup costs if I had to buy those plants. Sorry chatty but stuck inside all day😊
I hear you. Holding off in starting winter sowing is hard.
Esther I’m so grateful for the information you share about winter seed starting in milk jugs. I started with this in late winter/early spring 2021 and had a lot success. Now this year I bought Espoma Organic potting soil and my seeds sprouted but did not thrive, very disappointing. I would feed from underneath with a weak solution 1-2-1 fish emulsion to help boost growth. Any thoughts on why the seedlings did not continue to grow? Thanks, Kelli Page
I heard about others who had trouble with espoma too this year. It's hard to know exactly why some potting mix companies can have great batches one year but not the next. I'm guessing it's changes to supply chains.
Thanks Esther, you gave me the courage to try winter sowing and I have had very good luck with perennials, hollyhocks, coneflowers etc. How do you do with annuals like pentas and geraniums? I also live in Maryland zone 7a
I haven't tried growing petunias or geraniums via winter sowing but I have heard/seen posts by gardeners who have had success growing them using that process.
Thanks for the updates! Will you be jug sowing for a fall garden this year?
Probably not although it's not a bad idea
Do you poke holes in the bottoms of the jugs ?
Yes. They need drainage holes.