Monday, April 20, 2009

Making Seedling Pots

The seeds have been doing well under the lights and are in need of transplanting. I make my own re-usable plant pots by drilling drainage holes in 5 oz. plastic cups. In the interest of recycling I decided to try an experiment. In addition to the plastic pots I am gong to make some pots out of recycled newspaper. I want to see how well the newspaper pots hold up, and how well the plants thrive compared to my plastic cup method.

First the plastic cups. I use 5 oz. plastic cups and simply drill holes in the bottom with a Dremel.



For the newspaper pots I purchased a wooden pot making tool. You simply cut newspaper into 3.5" x 10" strips which you wrap around the barrel portion of the tool. I chose to do a double thickness of paper. The bottom of the wrapped paper is folded over and you push it onto the round wheel-shaped form. I gave it a twist and added one staple, just to give it a little extra sturdiness.



The pots felt reasonably sturdy. I appreciated the addition of the staple and the doubling of the paper. I like my pots sturdy. :^)

2 comments:

  1. So clever those newsletter pots! One can plant them, as they will fully solved in soil, don't they?

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  2. Very clever little tool!

    We are not the master gardens like you but things are coming up here...chives are ready to make a big batch of chive biscuits. Chard is looking good. Rhubard is getting big. I hope I can get everyone to try rhubard custard pie this year. It is delicious, very lemony. Most people are a bit freaked out by rhubarb for some reason.

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