Please explain further how you are doing “winter sowing”. Do you keep these jugs under a grow light? What are you sowing?
I’m starting a Square Foot Garden for vegetables next spring. I have the boxes built, but no planting mix in them yet because the garden centers are all sold out. It is not safe to plant outdoors here until May. In fact most people plant over Memorial Day around here, although you can do it earlier with protection. It would be nice to have a few seedlings ready to go out mid May.
Irises anyone? I need to lift them and add fill underneath in a bed that is too low. They’ll need to be divided, but it’s getting really late in the season. Would they survive the winter if I just dug them up and stored them in the basement in Peat Moss?
Or, should I forget the whole thing and leave them for thel Spring?
If it were 10 degrees colder out there, I’d have 2 feet of snow on that bed right now. It might warm up again, but I have little hope.
There are limitations to what you can grow using this method but I'd say that is limited more to tropicals or temperature sensitive plants. I grow mostly tomatoes, peppers, perennials and hardy annuals using my pots outside.
I use my husband's soldering iron to burn the holes and then cut the containers about 3/4's of the way up. Plant the seeds in the potting soil (anything cheap will do), tape the tops back down and leave the screw caps off for air and water to get in. Stick, them in a sunny spot in my backyard and wait for sprouts around March/April. I live in zone 7B.
I'm not good with html code but here's a good website with more info about this technique. http://www.wintersown.org/ I've been doing this for about 3yrs now. I now only grows heirloom tomatoes since I can finally grow them myself. I never had luck with indoor planting, unfortunately. Too many curious kids, dogs, not enough space and my own incompetence. lol