I am trying WSing for the first time this year. For a person who has always put a lot of work into getting seeds started, this seems too good to be true. But I'm hoping it's lives up to it's reputation. I have seeds started in gallon and half gallon jugs and G2 bottles. So far I have sown cantaloupe, watermelon, okra, tomatoes, broccoli and squash. Hoping to get the peppers in tomorrow.

Our growing season is too short to try most of those. I might try an early variety of tomatoes.

Joanna, consider Matina. It's early (58DTM), and tasty.

http://davesgarden.com/guides/...

http://www.tomatogrowers.com/e...

Karen

How about sub artic plenty?

I've never tried that one. I only grow a few plants each year, but I do try to get an early and a late type, plus some cherry tomatoes.

Karen

I love the cherries too. I grow 5 different colors. My faves are Galina's Yellow Cherry and Chocolate Cherry. The whites are pretty good too and Matt's Wild Cherry has a very tomatoey (is that a word?) taste.

I have wintersowed several tomatoe varieties as an experiment.
It is a gamble on the weather here.
My wintersowed tomatoes are:

Red Siberian
Early Siberian
Glacier is from Sweden
Polar Baby is from Alaska
Siberian Yellow Pear

I shall report on how they do in June and over the summer.

I always get volunteers in the garden (usually from chipmunks) and usually grow up to be be nice plants.. how bad could it be?

Sounds good to me. When we had a compost pile (need to get one going here after the pigs are gone) we always had mater plants in the compost pile.

Can't wait to hear everyone's results on this. If I hadn't already started too many tomato plants indoors, I'd give it a go. I also always end up with volunteers--if they are hardy enough to make it through our winters, they ought to be hardy enough for winter sowing.

Cheryl, glad to hear the chocolate cherry is good--I'm trying that one this year, along with Dr. Carolyn.

Caroline--Glacier and Polar Bear sound so exotic (and well suited to a northern climate). I love to hear about new varieties that people grow.

I WSd this year again but I have had minimal success. I'm sure it's some mistake I am making. I will try it again next season. Always the optimist.

Cheryl--what types of seeds did you WS?

Did you have problems with your seeds not germinating, or problems after they were transplanted?

Here in the central midwest tomato seeds and even some bean seeds will overwinter on/in the ground just great. Even with the terrible winter we just had I have volunteers of both of them as well as a baby canna that has to be from a seed. I just found it yesterday. Second one in 2 yrs. in the same close area. The one from last year was kept going in the house all winter and it is growing nicely in a pot this summer. This fall I'll see if the tuber is large enough to survive being out of soil this winter. I'm sure this new baby will need to be kept in a pot for the winter.

I found some very small bulbs(?)in a bag that I had let dry out over the winter so I planted them late this spring. I thought for sure from the size and shape that they must be caladiums. They didn't come up for over a month and I thought they must have just been too dry to be alive. But one day I noticed something green growing in that spot so I took a closer look. They were baby EEs!! They still are small and will need to be kept in soil this winter as they should have been last winter.

I'd try a few seeds of each plant you want to WS and see what happens. But don't put all your eggs in one basket so to speak. Remember that hungry birds, mice, squirrels, etc. can wreck havoc on a row of seeds if they can get to them. You may need to put some kind of cover or barrier over the area just to be safe.

that's great that those plants will overwinter for you!

Wow, leaflady! I've never heard of some of those plants overwintering. I"ve gotten the occasional tomato volunteer, but never a bean or canna. I"m lucky I can get them to grow during the regular season.

Your advice is well taken, though, of trying things we might normally wintersow. Using the row-covers could be a big benefit. Thanks for the suggestion!

Cheryl,
If you would describe your WSing process here, we might be able to pinpoint areas that need attention. I tried for the first time in the Winter of 2009 and had tremendous success. It was so EZ. Let's see if we can't figure out what's going wrong for you, ok?

Linda

I think the problem the first year was that I used regular garden soil so the second attempt was with potting soil. Still not much success. Some of the jugs were too wet and some were too dry though they were all prepared and kept the same way and in the same place. I think another problem this year was that the wind upset a few of my jugs. And this season was wonkey any way you cut it. How do you guys do drainage and how do you water?

I got a few squash plants to grow, a few beans, a few broccoli, a few peas and a few cukes. No okra, tomatoes or peppers. I only do veggies.

Any ideas?

This was not their permanent spot. I hemmed them up next to the SFG bed with some bricks to keep the wind from blowing them over anymore.

Cheryl, what kind of potting mix did you use? Not all potting mixes are created equal. Did you use lots of drainage holes?

Also, your jugs don't look like they contain much soil. How deep was it? I always shoot for at least 3" deep, preferably 4". Deeper soil will both retain more moisture in hot weather and drain better due to perched water table.

If they're just a little dry, I just spray with a fine, misty spray from the hose. If they're very dry, I bottom water in this big tub. (These coleus were propagated by cuttings, not seeds)



Karen

nice setup Karen!

(Many square 3" pots in big transulcent tubs, but the snap-on lid was opaque.)

("Whatever" commercial seed-starting mix lightened with grit and screened pine bark fines.)

I have so much rain that at first I kept it all out by leaving the lid on ... but a solid lid lets no light in and slows ventilation. I was also afraid of slugs once weather warmed up.

But I figured they needed light & air, so I cut out the center of the snap-on lid and used translucent plastic film with just a few slits. Many small drainage holes in the big tubs, 4 large holes in each 3" pot.

I needed just a few survivors of each variety, but wanted dozens of varieties. Thus I put a different variety in each 3" pot.

Corey