Options for Winter Sowing in Ontario
Here we are, second week in February.
What’s next?
The Pepper Project seed planting is going to continue through to mid-March. I’ll give you updates as we go with germination, potting up, and pruning as we get to those points.
I didn’t think that I’d have much to do this week other than the second batch of Pepper Project: Planting seeds.
I was looking at my 2021 Garden spreadsheet and noticed that there’s not a lot to do in February.
Until I saw a note I had made for the onions. They can be direct sown April or May, or started indoors February to mid-March.
So I started looking up best practices for sowing onions indoors.
Onions in point of fact are rather interesting!
Many people buy sets or transplants assuming that they are the easiest option. The larger the set however, the more developed it already is from being planted in the ground last summer, therefore it won’t grow very big in your garden when you plant it. Smaller sets produce larger onions because they grow longer in your garden. WIth sets you don’t have many options to choose from and they may not be best suited to your location.
Onions are divided into 3 categories based on bulbs formed when daylight hours are a certain amount.
Short day onions: Form bulbs when daylight reaches 10-12 hours long.
Long day onions: Form bulbs when daylight readhes 14 hours long.
Day neutral varieties: Form bulbs when days reach 12-14 hours long.
Why does this matter?
Short day onions are meant for Southern gardens below the 35th parallel. Their days are slightly shorter through the growing season - very different from ours. The bulbs will start growing when the days reach 10-12 hours long, but interestingly, will stop growing with the longer daylight hours reaching our typical summer growing days. This means small bulbs quickly turn to producing flowers.
Long day onions were developed for us because of our specific growing conditions. Long day onions won’t even produce a bulb if planted below the 35th parallel because the daylight hours never get long enough for them to start growing.
So now that we know what onions we need what is the best way to plant them?
Seeds can be sown in the typical fashion in starter trays. This takes up a lot of space and can actually mess up your onions if you are using grow lights for the amount of hours to simulate summer. It makes the seed think that it missed all that time in spring as the daylight hours increased and all of a sudden it's summer and even though I’m tiny I have to make a bulb right now or I’ll die.
So if you’re using starter trays, don’t put the onions in “summer hours” light conditions. Also watch that they don't get too warm because “summer heat” can also confuse them. They are a cool season crop and need that lead up of cool weather in spring to grow properly.
Last year I planted my seeds out too late so it got warm too fast for them to properly develop. Lots of small onions that didn’t get the right conditions to grow.
So if starting them indoors takes up valuable space and may not be the right conditions, what do we do?
I came across winter sowing and this seems to be a brilliant fit. After all, it is exactly what naturally occurs. Why mess with that?
The term “winter sowing” has been attributed to Trudi Davidoff. She didn’t have enough space in the house to sow all of her seeds so she thought about what naturally occurs for so many seeds that need to be cold stratified to develop properly. She sowed her seeds in containers with drainage holes. The lids made a mini greenhouse environment that allowed the seeds to experience the cold of winter but also be protected. As the temperature warms up in spring the seeds will naturally germinate at exactly the right time based on weather conditions in her garden.
How exactly am I going to do it?
You can recycle anything for this. Many people use take out containers, plastic jugs, anything that can survive the freeze, thaw, freeze environment of winter and spring.
I have a couple plastic containers with lids that we drilled holes it that should work perfectly.
Whatever you use, the container must have drainage holes in the bottom, to remove excess water, and vent holes in the top to allow moisture to escape when the sun heats it up. The vents can be small to begin with and widened in spring.
3-5 inches of soil is the preferred depth of growing medium to give the seeds some insulation and not have them forced to the surface with the freeze/thaw environment outside.
The varieties that do best with winter sowing are naturally self seeders making them tenacious growers. Some will direct sow these seeds in fall or even very early spring instead of using containers. I’ve read that many people have success with broccoli in the spring if they actually plant the seeds in the fall and let them overwinter. It’s your choice.
The main thing to remember is to place your container where interested animals, or chickens can't get into them to eat your seeds, or try to have a dust bath. It’s also best to put them in a shady spot so the sun can’t warm the “greenhouse” up prematurely.
What are your options for winter sowing?
December/January
Flowers
Catmint
Chinese Lanterns
Chrysanthemum
Clematis
Flax
Heather
Jack-in-the-Pulpit
Primrose
Shasta Daisy
January/February
Vegetables
Herbs
Agrimony
Basil
Cilantro
Oregano
Sage
Thyme
Valerian
Flowers
Alyssum
Bachelor Buttons
Balloon Flower
Bellflower
Butterfly weed
Chocolate Flower
Columbine
Evening Primrose
Foxglove (Wild)
Hollyhock
Larkspur
Lupine
Monkshood
February/March
Vegetables
Bok Choy
Carrots
Lettuce (numerous varieties)
Herbs
Basil
Parsley
Flowers
Coreopsis
Cosmos
Impatiens
Petunias
Zinnia
April
Have you tried winter sowing before?
Let me know your success stories below. It may spur other gardeners on to try it out this year.