Pru Foster shares the fabulous results from her winter sowing experiment with native seeds:
This past winter, I once again tried winter sowing. I’ve been winter sowing for a few years now – in open pots, in milk jugs, and straight onto the soil. My results have been underwhelming. I got low germination rates, and lost seedlings – especially those that were growing on open ground. But this year, WOW!
What did I do differently? First of all, I abandoned sowing straight onto the ground and only used open pots and milk jugs. Most importantly, on the advice of our member, Sarah Gallis, I used a seed medium, Pro-Mix BX, that I moistened before putting into the containers. I think this choice made a crucial difference. I also put the containers in the shade to prevent drying out.
What’s more, I carried out an experiment to test if sowing in milk jugs was worth the extra hassle relative to open pots by sowing the same seeds, with the same medium, at the same time, in both open pots and in milk jugs. If you don’t already know, milk jug sowing goes like this: poke holes in the bottom of the milk jug, slice it open on 3 sides, fill the bottom half of the jug with moist soil and sow your seeds. Then tape the jug back together, open the cap, and wait for the magic to happen.
You can see from the pictures that the milk jug seeds did dramatically better for all six of the species I sowed “both ways”. That includes Baptisia australis, Lobelia cardinals, Vernonia noveboracensis, Zizia aurea, Monarda punctata, and Eryngium yuccifolium. Because of my previous results, I may have (ahem) slightly over sown and now am faced with overwhelming seedlings to transition to adulthood. Not a bad problem to have.