Ângelo Dias

I'm particularly enamored with the idea of seed balls, perhaps next year when I try a wildflower meadow I will keep that idea in mind and it seems like an activity the kids could get involved in.

I'm gonna stick to winter sowing in milk jugs, since I really want them to succeed and so far that seems like the option that will yield the most success.

Does the milk jug winter sowing method work for every plant?

Hi, I'm in Eastern Portugal.
Over the past year I have gathered over one hundred varieties of seed from various sources like gardens, fruit and vegetables I bought and from harvesting local wildflowers, plus all the seed packets I must have access to over one hundred different plant seeds.

However I made a mistake by not labelling and sorting everything, with most of the seeds being foraged, and me not being a great botanist, there's no way of ID'ing some of them - I don't know their requirements or when it's the right time to set everything up and how it should be done, to ensure that most seeds germinate.

I think that I should do winter sowing in jugs to make sure most of the stuff grows, my logic being that the seeds that require stratification will germinate after going through winter, and the stuff that doesn't will germinate when the temperature warms up.

Q1: Could I winter sow in plastic containers ensuring everything grows?

Q2: When should I start winter sowing?

Q3: Is there any way to get rid of pre existing seeds that come in the dirt used in the container, I don't want to have my seedings smothered by nettles and amaranth, I don't want to have to buy the dirt unless there's no other way.