Newspaper Pots For Seedlings

A good way to extend your vegetable gardening season is to start the seeds inside while the ground is still too cold to plant, before the last frost date in your area. You can buy the little peat pots, or other similar ways to start your seeds, which adds up after awhile. Or you can make your own pots for free out of newspapers!

Most newspapers are made with safe ink now (although you might not want to use the color comics pages), and they are biodegradable. Garden centers and catalogs sell kits for making these pots, but they are upwards of $20. I don't have money like that, so I looked at a picture of one, and how to make the pots was apparent. It is easy and free, and amazingly fast, once you get the hang of it. This is how I do it:

Materials:

• newspapers
• scissors
• something to mold the paper around - I use a small can of tomato paste or sardines.
• good soil - I like seed starting soil.
• seeds

You don't need any glue, tape or any other adhesive - the way you form the pot keeps it held together securely.

Instructions

Take a newspaper with the first fold unfolded and cut it into strips. For seeds that need to be planted deep, like peas and beans, make the strips wider. Other strips can be cut an inch or so narrower. The lines of print help you cut a straight line.

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When you have your strips cut, cut them apart at the middle fold. You need only one thickness of paper.


 

Now wrap one of the strips around the form, leaving about an inch of the paper off the form. This will be folded in to make the bottom of the pot. Wrap the paper fairly tight.


 

Fold the paper in, making sure it covers the entire bottom of the form. It will be stronger this way, and won't lose soil.


 

The next two steps are key to making the pot strong. If you do these two things, they will not fall apart, even when full of soil and being picked up to move them. (Of course, the pot will biodegrade once planted). First, pinch the perimeter of the pot. Pinch it fairly tight around the rim of the form.


 

 

Now take the rim that you made by pinching, fold it down, and pinch it again. This makes a surprisingly sturdy pot.


 

This is a short pot. Now all you have to do is slip it off the form, put soil and seeds in, water it - and wait for your seedlings to pop up! When your seedlings are big and strong enough, plant them!

The seedlings are growing and in the ground!