>> 1 liter plastic bottles for WS...

Do you just sit them out in the shade (or sun?) by themselves, or are they inside something that protects them?

I save any half-liter water bottles I see at work. These are around 7: tall, and just over 2" diameter. I can't think of any time I would want much more than that of one variety - in fact I would usually try to break it up into 3-4 pieces. Around 3 square inches?

It is quite possible to only use 3 or 4 seeds in a milk jug, 2 liter bottle, etc.

Karen

>> It is quite possible to only use 3 or 4 seeds in a milk jug, 2 liter bottle, etc.

I'll put as many as 16 seeds in a 4" square pot, If I expect most not to germinate. Of course, thehn I get 100% germination in that pot.

Since I want many varieties and very small numbers of each, it seems sensible to use SMALL pots inside a larger tub, where the loarger tub is intended to serve the purpose of a "WS jug".

If I rermember the start of this thread, it was more about deep, clear containers for starting plugs. Hence my brining up soda bottles.

If I de-railed it in the direction of winter sowing, that was not my intention.

The 1 liter soda bottles and half gallon milk jugs work really well as individual WS containers... they are narrow but tall, so you can put 5-6 inches of potting mix into them and still have some "head room." I've tried using a translucent "sterlite" type storage box (holes in the bottom and in the lid) to hold a bunch of pots with winter sown seeds, but that just doesn't seem to work very well for me, and I don't know why.

>> I've tried using a translucent "sterlite" type storage box (holes in the bottom and in the lid) to hold a bunch of pots with winter sown seeds, but that just doesn't seem to work very well for me, and I don't know why.

I cut the blue opaque lid of one of those down to just a "frame" or "rim" and used it to clamp down some poly film with slits cut in it. I only tried WS once, and had 0% germination ... except for some very slow Penstemon that took MONTHS ... but then germinated around 100% (????) Unfortunately, after germination, they took more months to grow bigger than 3/4", so for now I've given up on Penstemon and will come back to them when I'm not working 50+ hour weeks.

My "bad luck / good luck" with one try at WS doesn't mean anything. I'm still learning how to manage the long winter / spring months during which their temps would cycle wildly if exposed to sun, but nothing happens in the shade. And my first tub didn't have good venting for a while early on.

Fortunately, I like starting seeds indoors. I would do that exclusively if I had enough room. My current plan is to start seeds the way that works great for me (indoors) and then try to make room start more trays indoors by making a vented cold frame that (hopefully) will keep seedlings warm enough through the occasional cold night but not (hopefully) steam them to death on rare sunny days.

FWIW, my most successful location for winter sowing has been under a bench on my deck, where the containers do get some sun but are shielded from afternoon sun (during the hot part of the day).

Sherri, you inspired me to see other items as tall containers. These are Crystal Light plastic tubes. Stuck holes in the bottom and collected in a bin to water. When I first put in the seeds, we still had some close to freezing temps and putting on the container lids made them nice little greenhouses.

Same Velvet Queen seeds, one set in the CL containers and the others just plugged into an existing pot of soil.

Great ways to start seeds economically! Amazing what happens when we put our creativity to work!