Shop Products
Houzz Logo Print
kathy2_gw

Winter sowing vegetables -- Anyone have any success?

kathy2
19 years ago

This will be my first attempt at winter sowing so any advice from all of you upstate New Yorkers is WELCOME! I'm not sure if I'm zone 5 or 6 but I'm in Wayne County which is located half way between Monroe County (Rochester) and Onondaga County (Syracuse). I'm about 55 miles east of Rochester.

ANYWAY, let's get to the point... Has anyone winter sowed vegetable seeds in this area with success and if so, which ones and when did you put your pots outside.

As you all know, so far it's been up and down with the temps so I assume we don't put the pots out until it gets cold and says that way, correct?

Thank you for any and all input that you can send my way!

Kathy

Comments (8)

  • kareen
    19 years ago

    Yes,
    I have done okra, peppers and tomatoes(which technically isn't a vegetable). I wait and start them in mid to late March though. I have had success with the tomatoes and okra but not great with the peppers. The peppers may have been a problem due to weather and not WS though so I will try again.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Our pond and gardens

  • mad_gallica (z5 Eastern NY)
    19 years ago

    Get a shoplight and start the peppers around the first of March. They grow slowly and do much better if they are a reasonable size by the time they are planted out. Peppers do quite well in pots. Bells are generally tough - they want a longer, warmer growing season than we have - but NuMex, jalapenos, cayennes (the ultimate cold climate pepper) and others will do well if started early enough.

    BTW, once you have the lights, the tomatoes and everything can start out life there also.

  • penny1947
    19 years ago

    No luck with peppers but I had more tomato plants last year than I could possibly plant.

    Penny

  • shimla
    19 years ago

    Good Morning, Kathy -

    My WS list from last year is on 'my page'. It's in alpha order. I believe I started most of my veggies later in the season Feb/March because I spent a good part of the early winter planting all those flowers.

    Unfortunately, I didn't yield a high rate of fruit because the trees around my veggie garden have grown considerably! The rabbit-loving lettuce and spinach went on the deck in full sun and just thrived.

    From all the advice I've read over in WS'ing, as a rule of thumb, it's best to start your annuals later in the season. I'm not sure what to make of this crazy weather we have been having!! I've read a lot of reports about sprouts already that I don't recall reading last year. I recorded the plant date and what did/did not germinate. When I went though it, it appeared that the things that I sowed in Dec had a lower success rate. However, when I compared my data to other folks' lists, there didn't seem to be any correlation to the plant date. I held off through the holiday season and just started putting my pots out now. IÂm doing my perennials first.

  • kathy2
    Original Author
    19 years ago

    Thank you everyone for your responses. I'm definitely going to give the tomatoes a try toward the end of February. Shimla, your info was great. I agree. Strange winter .. but, I'LL TAKE IT!!! Keep the veggie info coming!!!

  • kathy2
    Original Author
    19 years ago

    Hi,

    "Trudi" the expert from the Winter-sowing forum says we can winter sow tomatoes and she even sent me some samples. I can't wait!

  • penny1947
    19 years ago

    Kathy I think that shimla is right about starting tender annuals and vegetables a bit later after perennials and hardy annuals. I haven't started my tomatoes yet either...probably sometime next month. I have mostly done perennials so far with the exception of my garden balsam. I may do some of my snapdragons now also as those did well early sowing last year. if you want to try other seeds let me know as I think I still have some extra. Let me know what you would like to try and if I have it I will be happy to share.

    penny

  • kathy2
    Original Author
    19 years ago

    Hi Penny,

    How kind of you to offer me some of your seeds. I've always had a vegetable garden using the same type of seeds year after year (from Wal-mart) and not really having time to expand because I had three step-sons and then two little boys of my own. My little guys are now 6 and 9 and the youngest step-son is now 18 so things have FINALLY become easier at home. Now I can think about flowers. I don't know the name of many of them. I like short flowers like impatiens, petunias and the dwarf marigolds. That's all I've tried. If you have seeds for something similar that I could give a try, that would be GREAT! My e-mail is: kittenfox1@yahoo.com and we can go from there as far as exchanging addresses.

Sponsored
Iris Design Associates
Average rating: 5 out of 5 stars22 Reviews
Northern Virginia Landscape Architect - 13x Best of Houzz Winner!