Much Better late than never...Winter Sowing

Last year I experimented with Winter Sowing.  I loved this very simple technique for starting seeds.  It proved to be very successful and resulted in me having lots of perennial seedlings, that I have not had great luck with using direct sowing. I do not currently have a great place to start seeds at my house in Kentucky.

Some of my favorites were the Foxgloves, parsley, cone-flowers, Pumpkins-on-a stick, Luffa gourds, and Passion Vine, just to name a few.

I started this last year around the 2nd week of January but I seem to be way behind the garden 8 ball this year. However,  it was just too successful for me not to attempt it again.

Here is an article I wrote about the experience of Winter Sowing.

I first heard about the Winter Sowing technique for starting seeds on a podcast over a year ago. The hosts were homesteaders in Texas. They had extensive gardens and also sold plants. They propagated most of their seedlings using this method. Of course, a quick Google search provided me with much needed additional information including a definition that follows.

Winter Sowing is a method by which seeds are sown into containers that act like mini greenhouses. These seed vehicles are then located outside, experience the chill of winter, and eventually germinate in the spring." It is a phrase that was first coined by Trudi Davidoff.  You can read more about her on her website www.wintersowing.org. 

      I do not have a greenhouse, so finding a suitable area to start seeds is very difficult for me. The notion that I could use the outdoors as a place to start seeds set my wheels in motion, so I gave this method a try.    

   Now after one attempt I am hooked. That is not to say that I had a 100% success rate and all was perfect. But the pros outweighed the cons, and I am going to do this method of sowing certain seeds again this upcoming winter. 

    Here are the steps that I took for this project.  

# I sorted through my recycling to find an assortment of potential plastic containers. Milk jugs, vinegar jugs, fresh greens containers, large fruit plastic containers, and liter beverage bottles all went into the potential greenhouse pile. 

#2 I decided to start with perennials. I have good luck with direct sowing annuals in the garden but not perennials. So I end up spending a fortune on new perennials.

#3 All summer I collected seed packets, buying some when they went on sale after the planning season rush. I tried to focus on plants that I wanted in mass and ones that I have not had great success with direct sowing. Here is an example of the many ones I tried. 

Parsley, both the curly and the flat leaf( I need an abundance of these for my Spicebush Swallowtails to munch on). Hollyhocks (I am still experimenting with this beauty, as it always dies in my garden. But I am determined). Butterfly Weed, (to add to my Butterfly Garden), plus some Coneflowers and various other perennials. I tried to stick to seeds that required cold stratification to germinate. 

#4 Early in January, I enlisted the help of my husband to prepare the bottles for me. I have a lousy track record with knives, so I thought this the best approach.

#5 The milk and vinegar jugs, were cut open about 1/3 of the way down and just 3/4 of the way around. So it resembled a lid that opened but was still attached. By doing this, I was able to plant the seeds evenly. And I figured that when they are ready to venture into the real world, I will be able to transplant them into the garden swiftly. My husband created drainage holes on the bottom of the plastic jugs using both a box cutter and a drill to make the drainage slits and holes. The salad greens containers already had hinge type lids and just needed some additional drainage holes.  

#6 I purchased seed starter mix and filled each vessel with about 4 cups of the mix. Next, I made sure the soil was wet.

#7 Following the directions for seed planting depth and coverage, I sowed each container. Then I watered them into their winter home. 

#8  I marked each filled container in two places. First I used a water soluble pen and wrote on a plastic knife and duct taped it to the side and in addition, I labeled each jug by writing on the container. 

#9  At this point I wished them all a good growing season and battened down the hatches. I used duct tape to seal the flip tops and made sure the caps were off the jugs and took them outside to my patio table. Since I had a somewhat eclectic array of duct tape, including Mickey Mouse, from a project with my grandbabies, my Winter Sowing project table was very colorful.

All throughout January, February, March they endured the snow, sleet, and rain and I did doing nothing to them. By April I was starting to see some sprouting, then in May, there was a lot of significant growth. Near the end of May, I began to transplant my hundreds of seedlings into pots and the gardens.

I would estimate that I had about a 60% success rate. Here are the reasons for the failures. 

#1 The salad containers worked the best. The holes in the bottom of the vinegar jugs and coke liter bottles seemed to get stopped up, not allowing the water to drain efficiently. Thus causing the containers to fill with water and destroy the seedlings.  So next year I will focus on better drainage. 

#2  My labeling system was a big miss. I double labeled all the growing bins, but only about 1/2 of the labels were still legible. I had saved all the seed packets and had to do a guessing match game. My labeling system needs some serious TLC before next season. 

#3 I need to be more proactive with transplanting the seedlings. I lost quite a few due to not separating, thinning and putting them either into pots or safely in the ground.  My lack of experience with transplanting seedlings was an issue. But I learned and will do better next year.  

The bonus was that I ended up with hundreds of seedlings, from Foxgloves to Parsleys to Butterfly Weed and much more. It also helped me fill that urge to get my hands in the dirt in winter and provided me with something interesting to watch all winter long.  I feel my outdoor Winter Sowing without a greenhouse was successful. I hope you will give this fun project a try. 

Lessons  Learned:
* Label and label again and make a chart.
* Take more care with transplanting and the timing of the transplanting
* Be prepared with space, pots, and good soil to move these babies on up!!
* Be selective and pick perennial seeds that need the freeze/ thaw cycle, they do best.

I hope you will try this technique. It is not for all seed starting but works well for some!!