HOMESTEAD LIFE: WINTER SOWING, PART 2
Back in March, I shared about how I was Winter Sowing some of my vegetables. I wanted to share an update on how that went, if it was successful and what I will change for next year.
Since this was my first year using this method, I decided to try seed starting a few different ways. I did my first round of Winter Sowing in January, another round in April and also did some seed starting indoors under grow lights.
How did the January Winter Sowing go? Great question! The round of WS that I did in January did not produce very much, but I learned alot from it!
If there is a gap between snowfalls to cover the containers, you need to manually water them every few days. I noticed that by the time it began warming up, many of the containers were too dry to ever germinate.
The clear water bottle containers germinated much better than the opaque milk jugs.
I should have drilled more holes in the tops of the containers, instead of just leaving the cap off the top.
I did not use enough soil in many of the containers, so the roots ended up being really shallow.
Unfourtunately, most of my Winter Sowing jugs from January looked like this.
How did the April Winter Sowing go? It sounds funny to “winter” sow in April, but as long as you still have snowfall, you can winter sow. We have snow well into May typically, so it gave the jugs about 5 weeks of “greenhouse” time to begin to germinate.
I still used the opaque and clear gallon containers, but I also used a few fruit containers, the rectangular ones that you get strawberries in at Costco specifically. I actually liked using these the best. They had really good drainage already built in and were clear and easy to see through. I’m already saving those type of container for next year.
I used more soil, so the seeds that germinated developed deeper roots, which was great for when it was time to transplant them.
Since snow was intermittent, I hand watered these every few days so that the soil never completely dried out. I think it helped with germination as the days began to get warmer.
Look at all that green!! This is what most of the jugs that I Winter Sowed in April looked like when I opened them Mid-May. I’d call that success. All of these have now been successfully transfered to our Rain Gutter Garden and are doing great!
Here is a list of everything that I planted and what produced well vs. what did not. Next year, I will definitely winter sow more flowers!
