Winter sowing - is it too late to put some jugs out?
SnailLover (MI - zone 5a)
last year
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peren.all Zone 5a Ontario Canada
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Is it too late to winter sow?
Comments (2)I am new to wintersowing this year, but in zone 5, I would think it's still okay to sow most seeds, except for perennials that require a long cold stratification period of 30-120 days. There is enough cold weather left that those requiring 2-4 weeks cold strat will probably be okay. You can still give it a try, some winter sowers claim they've had things sprout the following year! You have plenty of time left to sow warm season grasses, hardy and tender annuals, and veggies though. I sitll have at least 50 containers left to sow....See Moretoo late to start winter sowing??
Comments (9)I agree, started early Feb two winters ago, my first, should be same zone as yours, only lost a couple out of 12-20 containers. I decided to try starting earlier this year. Nice to get 2 large plastic bags of containers out of my breakfast room. Next are the soda bottles, and things will be manageable in there with just a little more spiffing up. I'm very unconventional, give some people (my family) fits. My breakfast room measures 6' X 6', not very big, had great dreams for it when we moved here, anyway not really big enough for a family of 5 then 4 (divorce). So I used it for "my space", sewing room with tv. Then my most beloved cat somehow would never take to toilet training, and that was her potty room. I never minded cleaning up after her for 21 years, had given her away as a kitten and the lady took two (don't know if her kid would have been good to kittens, got out of the kitten business because of screening), anyway that whole night I was feeling really bad I gave that one kitten away. The next day she brought her back. I lost her in Aug 2005. None of my other cats failed to use the litter box (or basement if they could sneak down there). All I ever had to do was set them in it and they started scratching. I'm extra talkative now, my daughter said I was acting antsy since I got shot up with a bunch of novocain today, sure didn't start the day at 6am that way. So just skip over my silly stories when I drift OT or report me to management....See MoreWinter Sowing in Flats (ran out of milk jugs)
Comments (11)I've done wintersowing using foil roasting pans as "flats". Not the big turkey roasters, but smaller (about four inches deep, maybe 18 x 12 inches, and they come with a clear cover). I got about 4 or 5 seasons out of them, with care. Might be a cheaper alternative than the "official" nursery-supply flats. Also, if you have a freecycle group near you, post an ad for milk jugs. I had several people in my community supply me with jugs a few years running. And don't be shy about taking a walk on recycling night! Just bring a length of rope or twine with you and gather milk jugs as you walk! :) Dee...See MoreIs it too late to Winter Sow on the Front Range?
Comments (8)I think what you do will depend on how many seeds you're planning to plant! When I direct sow snaps I just take the dry seed heads and shake them over the mulch where I want more, but there are HUNDREDS of seeds when I'm doing that! Some will come up and some won't--but I definitely don't get hundreds! My mulch is "wearing down" too, so it's not nearly as thick as yours! But I also have snaps, some intentionally sown, some naturally sown, come up in my rock mulch which has landscape fabric right under the rock--as a matter of fact the snaps in the rock mulch when I moved in here is where I got my "original" supply of seed that I now scatter other places! So if you have a "significant" quantity of seed I'd recommend just sprinkling some of it over the mulch and then lightly pat or stir the mulch a bit to be sure some of it falls all the way down to the soil. If you have just a few seeds I think I'd recommend pushing some of the mulch back and then putting the seeds on or close to the soil. I'm not sure, but I don't believe a 3" mulch will interfere with them coming up. I don't grow annual bachelor buttons, so not sure, but from what Cat said I suspect they could be handled the same as snaps. And I don't grow these either, but I'm pretty sure Cosmos could be dealt with the same way! I don't do mixes because when something comes up you don't know if you're looking at a weed or a plant you want! In the past when I did try mixes I had some things come up that I had to grow all summer trying to figure out what they were--and they DID turn out to be weeds! When sowing individual types of seed you can have a pretty good idea what it should look like so you know pretty quickly if the "right" thing is coming up. With perennials you wouldn't usually want a "bunch" of them coming up here and there, so I recommend winter (or summer!) sowing those in separate pots and then planting them where you want them after they've developed a good root system. [When I winter sow, BTW, instead of using big jugs I sow my seeds in individual pots--8 oz. styrofoam cups, so when the roots grow down to the bottom of the pot I can just knock it out and plant it without having to transplant them at some point!] I have a sheet of Colorado Native perennials we compiled when I was at Paulino's, but it's a whole page, single spaced, and I don't have time to retype the whole thing here! If you come to a swap I'm at and want to see it, remind me and I'll bring it along. (I brought all my info sheets along to some of the first swaps but nobody seemed interested so I don't bring them anymore unless I know somebody wants to see one or more!) But is there any particular reason why you're looking for natives? Regarding pollinators, if you just have a nice mix of different flowers (and veggies) so some are blooming all summer you should have lots of bees around. One thing I happen to remember that bees seem to love are the upright sedums like 'Autumn Joy'. When I'd be selling those things it seemed like the flowers were always covered with bees! And my Agastache seems to attract a lot too, tho that could just be because there are SO many flowers! And Agastache is good for attracting hummingbirds too--or any other tubular shaped flowers, especially red or pink--but hummers will go to other colors too once they're in the area. That's all I can think of right now! Hope some of it might be helpful! Skybird...See MoreSnailLover (MI - zone 5a)
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