How to Winter Sow WITHOUT Milk Jugs! 

One suggestion: for the drain holes on the bottom, drill the holes 1/2 to 1/4 of an inch from the bottom on the sides of your container. Don’t drill the holes on the bottom. You are using the biodegradable cups which are about 3 inches tall and which will allow the water to drain away from your plants. By drilling the drain holes on the sides, you will have a small reserve of water in your container. The side drain holes will allow your container to drain, so your container will not fill up with water and overflow. And, you will have to water less due to the water reserve.

FYI she posted a follow up that it is best to use plastic pots instead of the jiffy. Great technique 😍

What a sweet husband omg. She actually was very knowledgeable. I learned a lot.

She did a great job!!! And I can't wait to see the results! This definitely looks better than the milk jugs. Ugh, they are such a pain! You planted a lot of things I have never seen, and I can't believe about the palm trees! That would be so cool to grow one! Love the blooper footage! 🤣

This is the first of your videos that I have seen. I had no idea that the young woman presenting was not the usual host. Well done! This will be my first 'winter sowing' adventure, as soon as I gather my seed test subjects, and I am excited to see what happens. Thank you.

Nice job. The good thing about the containers is they can be reused over and over and easier to store. Also you can use them as large pots.

Awesome job! Liked the unique seed varieties and the Amazon light & hellebores !

Great video, great demostration.....keep them coming !!

Only a few minutes in and comments ... I live in a country with cold and wet winters. I've tried plastic "totes" and they don't last. They literally disintegrate after no time outside. I use 4 pint (c2.7l) milk jugs. Easy to rinse out and, using scissors to cut around the middle and a soldering iron to melt drainage holes in the bottom (you can also just snip into the base if you only have scissors), it's quite quick to do a dozen or so at a time. I re-use them. I've stopped trying to pull the Duck tape off and use a sharp knife to slice through the Duck tape join, just taping the top of that next time. I have also found it hard to get plants out of the milk jugs without damaging them, so now I use pots or the base of juice cartons, which you can also cut with scissors, in the base of the milk containers and they just come right out. Pots can be cleaned and re-used year after year (I also keep large yoghurt pots), but juice cartons bases are just thrown away. I recommend keeping the lids in case of really hard frosts (or keep some kind of insulation covering handy) or heavy rain that might flood the cartons. The milk jugs massively outlive plastic totes and win hands-down because they're totally free and would only be recycled anyway. I also use them for storing blood, fish and bone, lime and anything else that comes in a cardboard box or plastic bag. I upgrade to large, strong fabric conditioner jugs to store rock salt in a black, lidded, outdoor bin, but you could perhaps use those for winter sowing if they're not too opaque. I don't know how well they stand up to direct sun, wind and rain - they may be brittle, like the "totes". The only issue I have with all of these things, is that they don't stack, so you have to have somewhere to store them until you need them the following year. Another suggestion I have is to use old, discarded fridge and freezer drawers, which can be covered with fridge and freezer, clear shelving (place a couple of cobbles on top to hold them in place - I kept granite from our old fireplace and the flat strips, broken or not, are great for holding things in place) - pop-up cold frames, if you will. I haven't put drainage holes in them yet, but I would think the soldering iron will go through those too. None of these things look lovely, but much of our garden is not visible to passers-by and can be kept together in raised beds that are otherwise empty for the winter.

Love this video! Thank you!

Great video! This is my third year winter sowing.

Northwest Pennsylvania zone five here! Great video! I’m going to give this try this year for the first time

Well done!

GREAT JOB!

Great instructions! Thank you.

I enjoyed that, thank you

Great video! You have some fun ones there. I've never heard of the gas plant but I love trying new things. I love wisteria!

I am about to try different methods if Winter Sowing. This video is helpful

I really enjoyed your video!! I would try your method!!! Thank you very much👍👍🙏🙏🙏❤️❤️❤️

Great idea! I did a video on my winter sowing too.

Good job!

Thank you !

This is helpful

Great ❤❤❤❤

Very well presented. I'm going to try this method too. I didn't have much luck with the milk jugs last year. This year i tried sowing at home weeks before last frost date; they germinated, but then not enough light to grow strong, and they died before last frost date. This method seems easier.

Hmmmm I think I’m going to give this a go with large soil blocks. I had problems with my larkspur and bells of Ireland last year and this may very well be the ticket for me (5B)

Peat pots will not decompose in the alkaline soils in my region of the country (Colorado). So I would have to peel off the pot prior to planting in the garden. Not a big deal but necessary for the plant roots to spread out and establish into the soil.

Great video!!! Very informative! You did a GREAT job!

I plan to try this, and would like to do the containers, but I already have a TON of empty gallon jugs, bcuz we keep humidifiers going during the winter. So i'm going to use the jugs since I have them, and if I like doing this then I'll invest in some nice containers to make it easier for next winter.

Let's watch their growth process!

Great lesson. What zone are you in? I am in 6b. Thanks.

Where do you buy all your seeds I like it

Do the seedlings have room to grow taller?

What are the size of the peat pots?

Three questions, please. One, we want to have swaths of plants running through our perennial border. Would we be creating a germination risk if we used smaller Jiffy pots? They make 2", round pots and 1.75" squares that are similar to seed starting trays. Two, is there a germination risk if we mix companion seeds in a jify pot in order to have plants already intermingled when they are transplanted? Three, why couldn't you just put the pots on the ground and cover them with the bottom of a large clear storage container or a water or milk jug with the bottom cut off? Thanks for your help.

Does the top need to be clear?

The jiffy sucked the water out of the soil as the season moved towards spring and I lost many seedlings. The watering became an issue for me.

Good and useful info up until about halfway through the video, but watching you sow seeds for 15 minutes was a bit long. One or two different seeds would have been adequate.

Was there an update to this video?

Has the toxic plume affected your garden plans?