Learn how to make your own simple biodegradable seedling starter pots that can be planted directly in the garden. Start you plants indoors and transfer seedlings effortlessly without disturbing the tender young roots.
Not only is this a great re-purposing of a commonly tossed household item, these little seedling starters make it so much easier to plant in homemade upside down planters because they slide right into the hole without damaging the young roots.
You’ll Need:
Old Newspaper
Empty Paper Towel Center or Toilet Paper Center or the cardboard tube center from wrapping paper
Scissors
Potting Soil
Seedlings
Spice or tincture bottle that will fit inside the cardboard tube
First, cut small squares about 2″x2″ out of the newspaper. Cut the cardboard roll about every 2 1/2 inches, making several out of a single tube. (A note, normally you would want newspaper that is only black and white, rather than colors and definitely do NOT use Glossy Ads.
Place a piece of newspaper over the paper towel tube like so:
Using a spice or tincture bottle gently push the newspaper down to the bottom of the piece of tube.
This is how the bottom looks. This prevents the soil from falling out when you get ready to plant your seedling or during watering.
Next, fill it with soil (a spoon works well for this!) and plant your seeds, whatever kind you like.
Place it down on a tray and water them all thoroughly. Be sure to check them daily as they need to be kept moist in order for the seeds to germinate properly. This is a great project to do with little kids as it creates very little mess.
These can be planted directly in the garden once they’ve sprouted.
See Also : Homemade Newspaper Seedling Pots
brilliant. love the recycling and the concept. i may do this with lettuce seeds and stagger the planting dates so i’ll always have fresh lettuce.
i am going to try this with my freshman biology class next year. we had a green house donated to our district, and we need to fill it, but are on a tight budget. first day of break and i find school stuff to do!
You might also check with local nurseries to see if they have anything (chipped pots, bags of fertilizer, mulch, potting soil… with holes in it, etc…) they can’t sell that they would be willing to donate or sell at a steep discount…
this is pretty cute. i decided to see if the egg cartons i get would degrade when wet, and they seem to. i’m saving them for next year.
if anyone has had experience with the kind of egg carton that seems to be made of something similar to papier mache, i’d be interested in hearing how it worked out.
i save all of my empty toilet paper rollers along with my paper towel’s. works like a charm. 🙂
bought coir pots to start seeds in this winter. wish i had read this article sooner! terrific idea!
thanks!
this is a great idea. other than using these for small kiddo “telescopes” and starting fires, i had not much use for these.
i’ve been wondering what to do with all my paper towel and toilet paper rolls, my granddaughter has made enough bird feeders for a lifetime and we all have desk top organizers with the tubes and shoeboxes. this is great.
absolutely a great idea. can’t wait to try it this season.
just starting to plan my garden for this growing season now will not have to buy starter containers.
this sounds great need to get started
i attempted to do this for this years growing season and i have to say i need to re-think this if i ever do this again. in my case i used tp cores, setting them up in old bread pans. well, upon attempting to remove them for planting, the cores fell apart!!
the litterally unwound grrrrr
so what then do you do, or how do you go about, keeping the cores from doing this, rubberbands? :dunno: the seeds *must be watered, therefore, impossible to prevent them from coming unglued…
any suggestions?
Awesome idea! I’m definitely going to try this!:p