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Tried winter sowing for the first time this year. I'd say overall the results were pretty good -- I definitely learned quite a bit along the way. Just yesterday I was staring into the containers thinking what on earth am I going to do with several hundred datura! LOLOL! Will use HOS and see what happens. Thanks for the great article!
Datura are very popular... the option I somehow neglected to mention is... pot them up and trade them, swap them, give them away! I'll be taking some WS extras to a swap in a week and a half... :-)
Chatnoir, this my first year to winter sowing and I do have ALOT of seedlings too! So far I only transplanted poppies so THANK YOU, Critter, for inspiring me to start "potting up"!
Jill, I just can't bring myself to 'pot up'. It's an extra step I just can't find the time for. But I do like the HOS. If you prick them all apart, you'll be exhausted before you get thru one container LOL. I do have containers with only 1 or 2 plants, which is a relief. Sometimes, you only want one. My biggest problem, and what I'm working on this week, is where to put the results of 144 bags. I guess you can't help with that ;0)
Keep these great articles coming. I always get something I can take away. jan
Everybody finds what works for them! I don't prick apart every seedling when I pot up, though... I transplant clumps, so it's like doing little HOS's. For me, the extra step is worth is with perennials because I just haven't had good luck planting those little seedlings right out into the garden.
I figure if you've got a huge container of seedlings, you can always try it both ways... split off a couple of little clumps to pot up, as "back up" plants, and put the rest right into the garden, HOS style. :-)
I want to add (although I know I'm the only one who needs constant reminding) LABEL, LABEL, LABEL! Even though you've nursed a seedling through sickness and health, or, I should say, successfully ignored it through snow, frost, cold and hail, you still may not know it when you finally meet it face to face with its 32 sets of true leaves (which aren't bluish gray but sort of grayish green), that smell (well, you know teenagers) and the fine down on its leaves.
I always wound up potting up some or most of my seedlings because the beds weren't ready yet (who me? successfully make plants out of seeds? never happen!) . . . and they had outgrown their 1 liter soda bottles, poor dears.
I've found that silver Sharpie markers work really well on those black or green plastic nursery pots... and for good measure, I try to stick a vinyl marker into the pot as well (cut from a window blind slat and labeled with a paint pen or an *industrial* Sharpie marker, not a regular one).
Critter I have been doing the HOS on my containers after I too just stared at all those containers filled w/ thousands of seedlings.
I think I will do that little clumps of potting up on some, plus the time it is growing bigger & stronger it will give me a better idea where I'm going to put it in the garden.
I am so sold on WS, being my first year, its just amazing how they do so well.
Another great artical with good ideas for a very overwhemling project of gardening passion. I love to see the containers being emptied one WS container at a time. I'll need to get more pots tho to do the pot ups.
Plans- half of each WS containers will go into garden and other half potted up, this is perfect timing for this weekend.
We are planning a fall roundup for the midwest and my potted up WS plants will be nice to share with others.
Thanks too for the types of soil we should use for this potting up.
If you're doing a lot of potting up, you might chat up your local nursery people... a guy near me lets me buy a yard of his "special mix" (bark fines, sand, etc... a lot like the blend that Tapla recommends, I think... coarser than the peat based bagged mixes but just right for perennial containers). He charges me about $15 more than he would for topsoil, and he's generous with that scoop!
Ths Critter I will check on that. You know the seedlings I already planted look good but done in clumps. I think if I did each one they would have disappeared in the ground.
Now some of the plants in the containers are not as many and more sturdy to plant out in the garden. So really each container should be judged on the best way to get the best plants out of it.
172 containers with a mass of seedlings is a lot of plants.
Us WSoers are so different , we don't care what the containers look like, we don't care if our deck, porch, yards , etc look like a landfill at some point, and we really don't mine thousands of plants coming up after we stare at them awhile and wonder "what have I done"
LOL People look out at my deck and say, OMG! and I respond, yes, isn't it amazing? I'm so excited about all these new little plants for my garden! Then they don't know what to say...
Thanks Critter, for all your seed starting articles this spring. I am a long-time gardener, but new to DG, and a first time seed starter, and I'm hooked! Just about the time I was wondering what to do next, here came your timely article. Have had better luck with the seeds than our weather this year------- Tomorrow I will use moisture crystals when I replant my hanging baskets and planters.
Jean, I'm glad you liked the articles, and I'm glad they were well timed for you. :-)
I tell people I start plants from seed for the selection of neat varieties, or because it's more cost effective, etc... but the truth is, it's just such fun to see those little sprouts poking up and to raise them into great plants for your garden! I'm glad you're "hooked" too!
