You can sow your seeds outdoors in containers. Those seeds that sprout, and there will be many, will be hardy plants that produce well. I did this last year, and am doing it again this year. I used ziplock bags, but you can use any vented container.
Here are the steps:
I will be posting again in the spring with Part 2.
Source: www.wintersown.org
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Judy,
I have expressed my doubts about this type method in another article. As I am often wrong, and as this would be a great early start to gardening if it is reasonably successful; I am going to persue it with an open mind.
Please, though, do set me straight on one thing. Nature has a way of keeping seeds dormant till the best time for them to germinate comes along. I bet you didn't know that a lot of farmers in my state who live near the coast, plant their tomato seeds late Fall. The seeds survive the winter and produce earlier plants in Spring.
But, your method is not simulating Nature. I keep imagining a few warm days in mid Winter which trigger the seed to germinate. Then, I imagine a very hard freeze to follow.
The freeze kills all the two and three day old, very tender seedlings. This is the part I don't understand about your method. Please explain this.
I do know that in the wild, many seed are lost to mid Winter germination. Nature makes up for this by producing an over abundance of seed and having a staggard germ time within them. With these safety measures in place, a few are bound to make it, and they do.
It seem that with all your seed being in one place and all kept under the same conditions; if you lose one you lose all.
I did have success when I did this two years ago. I was really busy last year and didn't do it.
Hi, had to add my 2 cents. I belonged to a network of wonderful people from all over the world. We exchanged all different seeds. I had just had 5 gardens dug and had to fill them. I'm in Canada so everything had to be perennial. We decided as a group (from all over), we would try winter sowing all at once.
I was totally prepared with toilet paper rolls, good earth, seeds, & a bottle of Merlot @ 12 am Dec 21. We laughed, left our comptors & started planting. My seeds were planted cased in covers, labeled with a few slits on top. We had 1 foot of snow covering them.
Spring came so did dripping condensation, bingo! Our plant date was May 24. Five years later, I had beautiful gardens. Have sold it since.
Hope this helps. Happy planting!
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