Back in march I posted a photo of my experiment on winter sewing flower seeds using the milk jug greenhouse method. Today I decided to crack them open and see what the results are. Attached are a few photos of the top performers. Some details about my experiment. -I live in usda zone 7b -all seeds were sewn in the same seed starting mix that I make for all seeds -I did my absolute best to follow the packets instructions on planting depth -after their initial watering in, they were all clustered into an uncovered location with afternoon sun exposure -all containers experienced a few hard freezes -all were handled and watered the same (except poor petunia who was tossed by my toddler RIP) -all were sewn rather densely (approx 3-5 seeds per sq in) Here are the results: In the”absolutely zero germination” category we had: -African Daisy -Purple cone flower -Petunia (this one might not be its fault; see toddler comment above) -zinnia -nasturtium -morning glory Very disappointing The “Okay germination” category had a couple to a few germinate, but overall a very poor germination %: -marigold -moon flower -helichrysum -salvia -portulaca And finally in the “very successful” camp we have: -chamomile which not only has a good germination %, but the plants are by far the most developed and healthy looking of the lot -snap dragon -sweet William -and black eye Susan Over all a fun experiment. Would I do it again? Probably not unless it’s to sew one of the top performers. On the plus side it was VERY easy and low maintenance. The down side was it required many plastic milk jugs, it was very much a gamble if it will work, it used up a lot of seeds that didn’t germinate, and it tied up a lot of seedling soil mix. Probably won’t do it again, if I’m honest.

Posted by K-FaF at 2025-05-10 03:19:11 UTC