I'm almost done with winter direct sowing in my community garden in Brooklyn and was looking over the grow it build it article trying to decide whether to do some milk jug growing as well when I saw that they use Echinacea as an example for a plant that needs stratification which is not what prairie moon says. But then if you click the link grow it build it seems to recommend Spring planting? I then went to the everwilde site and they say to direct sow in the fall and winter too so now I'm confused. I have big sections for echinacea that I planned to direct sow in the Spring but now I'm not so sure. Any insight?
by KayDillon
3 Comments
Echinacea germination directions are insanely inconsistent for some reason.
direct-sowing them has never worked for me, but i had massive success last winter by simply sowing *Echinacea paradoxa*, *Echinacea pallida*, and *Echinacea angustifolia* seeds in a regular 1020 tray, in regular-ass Wal-Mart Pro-Mix soil, on a cheap heat mat (may or may not be necessary idk) with zero seed scarification/stratification/other preparation
even things that don’t “need” stratification usually benefit from it, in terms of germination rate.
Strategy often depends on how much seed you have. If you have a lot of seed (like you collected a shopping bag full of heads) do not hesitate to toss them about, and you can let seedheads persist on plants for winter interest and birds (unless they eat them all) then toss as late as March. If you have a little packet do milk jug Winter sowing to get the most of it
I recently watched a video where a native gardener in the Midwest tested out direct spring sew vs cold stratification. I believe the findings were both worked with high germination rates but cold stratification had a higher success rate and more consistent growth.