Sunday, February 22, 2015

winter sowing

I collected eight plastic bottle at our Town recycling center. I cut them open then added potting soil and planted flower seeds. After taping the bottles, I dug out a spot for them in a south facing area of my yard and then buried the bottles. This method is good for all sorts of cold hardy seeds, especially flower seeds that often need a chilling period. The bottle makes a nice little greenhouse and the hole at the top is perfect for letting in just the right amount of moisture.

I've tried this a couple times before. Sprouting has always been really good the hardest part is getting the seedlings out of the bottles before they are fried or rot.

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6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've used this method the past two years for tomato plants. Found they tended to be hardier then the ones I start indoors and gives more space for other seedling under the lights!

kathy said...

Wow. I think I'll look for another bottle snd try that!

Anonymous said...

When you say buried - do you mean in the snow or actually in the ground?

kathy said...

Just buried in the snow. Hopefully the snow will melt and then they will be sitting on top of the ground.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for clarifying - my first thought had been: "how did she dig into the frozen ground?"

What a neat technique...hope you get good results!

pam_chesbay said...

Wintersowing is a great technique, especially if you want to plant masses of flowers or lots of veggies. At the Wintersowing site at www.wintersow.org, you'll find information about different types of containers, how to plant various seeds - and an offer of free seeds.