I'm trying it on a small scale this year. I got some cauliflower, broccoli and cilantro started today. Will do more in the coming days. I've never done it and hope to see what works here. I'll also do my usual indoor seeds under lights, just in case!

@Karen: I am also hedging my bets with indoor sowing starting in Feb. This is will be our experiment!

That's a good idea. It will make you feel better, anyway. But you'll probably be giving away a lot of plants.

Karen

I know...just can't trust all of the conflicting advice on the internet and in books to not get my well-loved vegetables. If the W/S veggies don't make it, I won't know until it is too late to start inside. Too much may be better than too little!

I don't put vegetable seeds in my winter sowing jugs. I just start them from seed in my vegetable beds when it gets warm enough in the spring. I buy tomato, eggplant, and pepper plants already started by the local growers. I plant my seeds as early as possible outside in the spring:
radish, green onion, lettuce, carrots, beets, swiss chard, arugula, squash, gourds, cucumbers, and pumpkins, and probably several others. I should really try to start my squash, gourds, and pumpkins earlier so they get a head start. I don't think I am going to do as may vining veggies this year. They take up too much room unless DH finds me more area for just the vining things.

This year I am winter sowing a lot of flower seeds that I have. Most of them are older seeds and a lot are from my own flowers. So it is also an experiment to see if they are still good seeds or not. I have several new jugs so maybe I will put veggies in them.

Good luck with all of your winter sowing,

I am gonna try it this year with plants that like cold.. lettuces, cruciferous veg and sugar snaps, delphinium and larkspur on a whim. but honestly I'm not sure what to expect. I'm zone 7a. I'm also planning to place then surrounding my dog's kiddy pool (which I should have drained but didn't) hoping the water will help regulate temperatures.

The one thing I do balk at is Basil and tomatoes.. that's bonkers. They don't like 50, nevermind chance of frost. I always start early, much to my detriment, butNever tomato or basil. I'll buy the plants early, as soon as Home Depot has them on sale, but they never go out until the soil is warm, which can mean June! I hate anecdotes instead of data, but Grandma Rosie always told me putting tomatoes out before it's hot will stunt the plants. Even if you don't see the damage, even a brief period of cold, or simply soil that is hasn't warmed up yet, will take them weeks longer to produce fruit. She always started them inside, and even if they got way stringy, she'd just bury them up to their crowns. Even though she lived 10 degrees colder than me, she always had tomatoes before I did.

I also notice tons of pictures of set ups full of dirt, some sprouts, but nearly none of healthy transplantable seedlings, so I am going to take this with a grain of salt

Whatever suits you. But I find growing tomatoes from seed offers much better selection than Home Depot plants offerings. Sometimes I've wintersown tomatoes, and some years I grow the seeds under lights, but they're always wonderful and prolific.

Karen

I have never winter sown tomatoes or pepper but have had cherry tomato come up from seed in the garden from a tomato that I missed picking up when cleaning up tomatoes. They always have great cherry tomatoes on them. Good luck with yours. Can't wait to hear how they do.

Karen,
Have you truly sucesfully winter sown tomatoes? Have you noticed any change in fruiting/ first harvest date?
Do you want to race me ?
I wont buy anything bigger than a 6 pack and I won't pay more than $1.25 for it, and I won't put them out till June 1st which is 2 weeks past my last frost and I bet you dollars to doughnuts I get tomatoes before you do!

Basil is a pipe dream.
Cilantro, parsley and dill, absolutely. They love cold weather and shoot to seed as soon as it gets warm. I've never tried perennial herbs from seed;, oregano, lavender, thyme, rosemary are easier by layering but, Basil? No way. Not ever. Not until nights are over 55 consistently.. period.

No, I don't want to race. I just got home from 5 weeks in Florida, can't even think about gardening. We have much to deal with in the next few weeks, mostly health issues. I haven't even ordered my seeds yet, so will likely do them inside under lights.... whenever life allows.

I didn't say I planted them in the ground early. No matter how I start them, I never put them in the ground until about May.

Karen

I'm trying WS for the first time. I've mostly done flower seeds. Since I have nosy dogs I've tethered them with twine around the deck railing. I do lights too. I just have to have something growing! I think we're going to suddenly be hit with spring. I'm in Wisconsin and we have about 6-8 inches of snow on the ground. It's melting at the edges, but not fast enough for me.

Good luck to all.

My thought is tomatoes would probably be ok in WS. I always have stragglers from the previous years coming up in my garden. They seem to know when the time is right.

Last year was my first trying anything with winter sowing, and it was fabulous! I tried it with vegetables and flowers, and was able to fill my garden that way. I was temporarily living in an RV waiting for some house renovations, so I didn't have ANY space to do grow lights.

Onions, leeks, salvias, kale, collards, bachelors' buttons, cilantro, broccoli, Chinese cabbage, regular cabbage, and cauliflower were all sown before March and did well. We were having quite a cold winter, too.

In March and April, I tried all kinds of things, including tomatoes in April. They did well. I had one variety of basil sprout. Two other varieties didn't, but that may have been due to old seeds. They fruited later than the starts I bought at a school plant sale, but they did bear fruit and it was fun to try those varieties out.

I'm in Zone 5B, and I'm getting the winter sowing jugs going as fast as I can this year! We are still using up the multitudes of leeks that came from my one jug last year, so the yields made a winter sowing believer out of me!

Hello to you all. I am a long time wintersower. I recognize Karen from many years on GardenWeb. I am so excited to have found another group of gardeners online, especially involved in winter sowing. I just moved back to Michigan after three years in an apartment in downtown St. Paul, MN. I bought a house with 2+ acres and plan to convert it into a pollinator habitat. I already have 100+ wintersown containers full of native perennial seeds sitting out in the snow. Having done this so many times in the past, I am fearful of the number of plants I will need to put into the ground. But, I am excited to get things growing. Once it warms up, I will sow annuals and some vegetables, as well. I look forward to hearing of everyone's successes with winter sowing.

Martha

Hi, Martha! Of course I remember you from GardenWeb. So nice to hear from you again.

It's such a shame that GardenWeb went down the drain. We had a good group of wintersowers there. But I do run into a few of our alumnae here from time to time. Welcome aboard, Martha!

Karen

@Docmom Martha. Glad you found us. I have put milk jugs and plastic booze bottle out in the past for winter sowing but did not put any out this year. I did put a few of those 6-pack containers with Daylily seeds out on my deck this winter to see if they would come up this spring. It will a couple years before I see any blooms.

I only have about 7 sown. That's as many jugs I had at the time. I have two more, thinking of trying goats beard. Collected their seed a while back. Just checked them. Frozen solid.

Good luck on the new house and garden. I watched a you tube video about design...at the moment all I can remember is "Y." She's originally from Russia, but has a garden and landscape business in New Jersey. It's a three part series. The real way to look at gardening.....I'm still fixing mistakes I made over the years when I knew nothing LOL. Not easy when your hubby likes to mow in squares....

put some milk jugs out on the patio tonight. this all feels so strange! excited to see these grow!

Hi to all the WS fans from Michigan!

I was searching around as I plan my Winter to Spring sowing of tender annuals. I love winter sowing. Glad to find this forum.

Just a friendly hello to WS fans and sharing some photos of last year's poppies & this year's 6a seedlings.

The gorgeous poppies I grew last year convinced me, along with Hollyhock, snapdragons and many pollinator plants. I'm trying to decide which to put in a few more jugs outside in the temporarily balmy Michigan weather & which to fill my limited indoor germination spot under lights inside.

I'm also doing both, winter sowing some tomatoes and growing a big variety under lights of heirlooms, all have sprouted.

kqcrna said:Hi, Martha! Of course I remember you from GardenWeb. So nice to hear from you again.

It's such a shame that GardenWeb went down the drain. We had a good group of wintersowers there. But I do run into a few of our alumnae here from time to time. Welcome aboard, Martha!

Karen

Hi Karen!

I'm at it again - but using what I learned from container winter sowing to direct sow. Still keen on huge gardens. 🤣

Finishing up 50+ jugs for my 3rd year Winter Sowing. About to begin spring planting, peas, radishes & lettuce, and spring sown cool annuals. Looking forward to first sprouts!