Winter sowing
With the seasons changing, I start to think of those plants I wish to winter sow. Does anyone else winter sow here? What seeds do you winter sow? Be sure to include your zone!
I have had great luck with asclepias, echinaceas, alliums, calaminthas, rudbeckias.
Anyone?
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(post #11891, reply #1 of 25)
I sowed a bed of mixed greens two weeks ago in my non-heated greenhouse. Just starting to see some sprouts. It is maybe later than I usually sow for the winter, I was busy and couldn't get to it. I think I will get some results. This winter will be odd, the el nino rains were later so I'm not sure how things will go. Worth a try!
I'm somewhere in zone7.
New Mexico home organic gardener
Adopt the pace of nature; her secret is patience. Emerson
Edited 10/11/2009 4:34 pm by Astrid
(post #11891, reply #2 of 25)
I always plant a bed of spinach in the fall. When it gets really cold, I cover it with an old bedspread. If the sun shines for a day or two, I can pick it. There is always enough for a good salad. When spring comes it really grows. We have it until it really gets hot and bolts.
If I have saved flower seeds, I always scatter them where I want them to come up in the spring. Saves a lot of work later, you can always thin them out if they come up too thick.
(post #11891, reply #3 of 25)
October 15th of each year I plant garlic. In Zone 7 we can use what we pick up in the supermarket. It comes up in the fall, dies back in the winter, then comes up again in the spring with really big leaves. When these start to die back in July it's time to harvest the crop. Last year my crop kept me werewolf free right up through March.
I've also planted blackberry lilies last Fall. They didn't bloom this year but I have my fingers crossed that they will next year.
Other than that, whatever self-seeds is welcome.
Northern Virginia, Zone 7A.
Northern Virginia, Zone 7A.
(post #11891, reply #4 of 25)
Yes, we plant garlic in October too. (And here I was thinking I didn't have any winter sowing to report.) Last fall we planted spinach that made it thru the winter and kept us well-supplied for 5 or 6 weeks this spring. However most winters it gets too cold for it to make it thru, even under the 2 layers of row cover.
(post #11891, reply #5 of 25)
Actually there is a whole website devoted to winter sowing. It more concerns planting perennials that make use of a cold stratification period. You sow in flats and cover or milk jugs or some such and let the winter do your stratification for you. You get a jump start on starting them from seed and it is easier then refrigerating them and then growing them under lights.
I sow in flats, water well, and then around Thanksgiving cover with a plastic tarp and 4-6" of leaves or chopped corn and uncover around tax time here in zone 4/5. THe seedlings come up surprisingly quick, within days of uncovering, if they haven't already sprouted.
It is really a process of using the natural cycle, and there is quite a long list of plants with which this works very well.
(post #11891, reply #6 of 25)
You're reminding me, Olivia. I have small trees, bulbs, mystery seeds etc. potted up and buried in one of my raised gardens. It does work very well and it's such a pleasure, come Spring, to see them come up (particularly the mystery seeds!).
Northern Virginia, Zone 7A.
Northern Virginia, Zone 7A.
(post #11891, reply #8 of 25)
And don't you just love mystery seeds? I currently have this packet of seeds that are fairly small, black and shiny, and I don't have even a guess as to what they are or where they came from. Some trip somewhere, i suspect. My gardening neighbor always tries to blame me when she has mystery seeds, saying I gave them to her (very seldom true) and expects me to identify them! My method of dealing with them is to throw them out in the wildflower garden where they generally just disappear forever.
(post #11891, reply #9 of 25)
"throw them out in the wildflower garden "
A wildflower garden is something nobody should ever be without. If I had space for one that's where my mystery seeds would go. However, it's fun to grow some of them carefully and try to identify them.
My current favorite are seeds from some sort of tree in the legume family that I picked up in Northern Michigan outside a motel window. The tree makes a narrow pod with small black seeds, it's not terribly tall but it makes the sort of beautiful, light leafy shade that locusts do. If I recall, however, the leaves were not like locust leaves. If I get these seeds to germinate next spring, I'll try to get a photo to post.
Northern Virginia, Zone 7A.
Northern Virginia, Zone 7A.
(post #11891, reply #10 of 25)
The city where I work has planted chestnut as boulevard trees. At lunch a co-worker and I sometimes go for a walk around the block to get some fresh air. As the Chestnuts fall, I fill my pockets with them, and take them home and throw them randomly in the edge of our woods.
I wonder if any of them will sprout/survive next spring. If so they will have to work hard to compete with the cedars, grasses and poplars/birches for space. Its a fun little experiment, but I don't expect much to come of it. So far I would guess I've tossed about 50 chestnuts in there. Thats about as close to winter sowing as I come.
If it can die, I can kill it.
Certified Brown Thumb, 4th degree
If it can die, I can kill it.
Certified Brown Thumb, 4th degree
(post #11891, reply #12 of 25)
Wow, chestnuts! That's some tree to plant on city streets. Are they the variety that produce those big chestnuts that you roast on an open fire?
I hope yours come up for you. You might want to try the pot buried out all winter with a few chestnuts in it. At least you'd know if they came up and where they were.
Northern Virginia, Zone 7A.
Northern Virginia, Zone 7A.
(post #11891, reply #13 of 25)
Good point Abbie - I should throw a few in a pot. I don't know if they'll even sprout, but it would be cool if they did!
As a kid we used to tie chestnuts on a string and play "chestnuts" with them every recess. You'd dig a pit with your heel, and lay one chestnut in th epit then the other kid would hit it as hard as he could with his chestnut, alternating turns until someone's chestnut broke to pieces. I forget all the nuances of the game, but it was always vitally important to have a spare shoelace just in case you came across a really good chestnut.
Just found how they play it in England. They have a different take on it I guess... http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/customs/conkers.html
If it can die, I can kill it.
Certified Brown Thumb, 4th degree
Edited 10/23/2009 10:00 am ET by Dagwood
If it can die, I can kill it.
Certified Brown Thumb, 4th degree
(post #11891, reply #20 of 25)
Dagwood, you're a fund of fascinating information. I had never heard of conkers, though I wish I'd known of them in my childhood where our neighborhood was well planted with horse chestnuts. I don't think we had the sense to use them as athletic equipment, though some of the boys probably found them to be handy weapons upon occasion.
I hope your trees grow well.
Northern Virginia, Zone 7A.
Northern Virginia, Zone 7A.
(post #11891, reply #14 of 25)
Unless there are no squirrels in your woods I wouldn't be expecting to see too many trees popping up in there. You might want to actually bury a few of those random chestnuts. We have two nice young chestnut trees that came up in pots we just left out over winter with a few nuts buried in them.
(post #11891, reply #15 of 25)
What kind of chestnuts are you all talking about? I recently met someone locally with a large, mature American chestnut tree (Castanea dentata) on their property, but I thought that was fairly uncommon these days. I got a couple of chestnuts from them that I'm going to plant this fall. Probably won't see any fruit in my lifetime even if they make it, but maybe I'll have a grandchild who'll appreciate my effort.
North Carolina - zone 7
North Carolina - zone 7
(post #11891, reply #16 of 25)
Ruth Lively once gave me some chestnuts c. dentata. which I said that I would plant. She said that they had been in the freezer and wouldn't germinate but she could try to get me some from the American Chestnut Asso. Sadly, I didn't follow up on it. Apparently the c dentata was superior to the European variety. Vast quantitis were shipped to England. Right now I've got a bunch of the Chinese chestnuts in my fridge. I cross score them with a chestnut knife and nuke them for a few seconds. The shell curls back and the inner parchment comes loose. Makes a great snack.
BJ
(post #11891, reply #17 of 25)
In the area where I live there are a very few American chestnuts that somehow escaped the blight that killed most of them many years ago. A friend of mine had one out behind their house and would give us a bag of chestnuts every fall when they could get them before the squirrels. They weren't quite as large as the chestnuts you can buy at the store, but so good roasted. Sadly they sold their house and moved closer to town so I no longer get any nuts, but hope eventually mine will produce something. The biggest one is now 10 feet tall, the others smaller, and I don't know how big or old they have to get before they produce nuts. There is a nursery somewhere up here that is trying to produce these trees commercially but I don't know if they are selling any yet.
(post #11891, reply #18 of 25)
Did you plant yours from your friend's chestnuts? How long did it take to get to 10'? I've read that of the mature American chestnuts still living, a fair number are in Michigan.
North Carolina - zone 7
North Carolina - zone 7
(post #11891, reply #19 of 25)
Yes, they were from my friend's tree, and I don't remember how old they are. I'll try to remember to ask dh when he gets home and let you know. I think the ones that survived up here were on remote homesteads and were far enough from other trees that the blight did not reach them from the wind.
(post #11891, reply #21 of 25)
"of the mature American chestnuts still living, a fair number are in Michigan."
There was a magnificant American chestnut in a field across the road from the home Mom and Dad retired to. Mom was a gardener and would start as many seeds as possible to try to spread the trees around since there are so few of them.
She began planting them in the early 80's, I think it was, and some of the trees at the time of her death fifteen years later had gotten to be fifteen to twenty feet high. They were also in good shape and showed no signs of the blight
Northern Virginia, Zone 7A.
Northern Virginia, Zone 7A.
(post #11891, reply #22 of 25)
what area of Michigan did she live in?
(post #11891, reply #23 of 25)
I realized when I read my message online that I had forgotten to say that she lived on the Leelanau Peninsula near Traverse City. There are supposed to be chestnuts there which were missed by the blight.
Northern Virginia, Zone 7A.
Northern Virginia, Zone 7A.
(post #11891, reply #24 of 25)
That's not terribly far from where I am, and I have seen a couple of trees in the wild about halfway between here and there. And what a beautiful place they picked to retire in.
(post #11891, reply #25 of 25)
Yes, they loved it.
Northern Virginia, Zone 7A.
Northern Virginia, Zone 7A.
(post #11891, reply #7 of 25)
That's a great idea. I hope to do that with my seeds from the American Primrose Society this next winter/spring, instead of waiting to sow them until late April/May.
(post #11891, reply #11 of 25)
My unheated greenhouse bed is starting to sprout, no true leaves yet, but it looks as if I hit a good time to get them started.
I mixed together all the left over salad/hardy greens seeds I had and they are sprouting fine. I hope to have a good crop ready for picking small salads pretty soon.
New Mexico home organic gardener
Adopt the pace of nature; her secret is patience. Emerson