Carol Kauffman

January 25, 2025 – at the Montgomery County Government Center (755 Roanoke St, Christiansburg, VA 24073), mark your calendars for the NRVMGA winter milk jug sowing class AND seed swap. Come swap your left over or saved seeds and then the winter milk jug sowing class will begin (and you can either use the new seeds you acquired, or we’ll have packaged seeds available for this project).

• From: Winter Sowing In Milk Jugs – Plant for Success – Winter Sowing Seeds in Milk Jugs is a great way to start vegetables, and flowers in the middle of winter. Of all the seed starting methods, this is one of the easiest and most budget friendly. 

Anyone that’s ever tried other methods of seed starting such as Starting Seeds Indoors has probably realized at some point there are problems that come up: Seedlings flopping over, damping off disease, and fungus gnats can all make starting seeds indoors difficult. But winter sowing in milk jugs avoids a lot of these problems and instead has many benefits:

• Natural Cold Treatment-  A lot of seeds need to go through a period of cold stratification, or vernalization, in order to germinate, or flower successfully.

• No Hardening Off- For those that have started seeds indoors, or in greenhouses, you are probably aware that hardening off seedlings is a huge pain. Winter sowing in milk jugs eliminates the need to harden off seedlings.

• Overall Less Labor- With winter sowing in milk jugs there’s less labor than other seed starting methods. No worrying about filling trays with water. No setting up lights, fans, or shelves. No bringing seedlings inside during the night and back out during the day.  Overall, it’s much less labor.

• Stronger Plants- Seedlings grown indoors can be leggy as they tend to stretch towards the light. There’s no replacement for sunlight. Seedlings will be stronger, thicker, and overall healthier if grown in real sunlight vs an artificial setup.

Contact us to sign up so we know how many tables we need for the seed swap and how many supplies to have ready for the jug sowing (and start saving your milk jugs/plastic containers!).