At your garden center they often have discarded flower trays and pots that are free for the asking.These trays are great for seed starting for all season long plantings. They have sections that are perfect for keeping them separate, without extra cost.
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I find that egg cartons and pudding snack containers do not provide enough space for proper root formation of indoor seedlings. I make my own containers with no more than pages from an old phone book and masking tape.
If you have access to phone books, the pages are the perfect size for seedling pots. Without any cutting, and depending the size of your form and how the page is folded, you can make pots in a variety of sizes.
For many planting zones, it is close to time to start your seedlings indoors. Be creative-you don't need the expensive jiffy pots.
I had so much fun with this one rainy day late in March! I found that the plastic helps retain moisture better than my plantable pots. You can use this project to help kids learn about the value of recycling and creating something from nothing.
I have been using ice cream tubs as window sill propagators I have larger ones but these work OK for a small number of seeds. I also use lollipop sticks to label my plants with.
My little gardeners call these "banana pots." Cut the top off a 2-liter bottle and toss or save for another project. Punch 2-3 small holes in the bottom for drainage. Make four vertical cuts to splay the bottle.
A great way to recycle toilet paper tubes is to use them as containers to start vegetable and flower seeds for garden plants. This is a page about toilet paper tube seedling pots.
Toilet paper rolls and paper take out food drink trays make excellent containers for starting your seeds. This page explains using recycled cardboard for starting seeds.
Many plastic containers work quite well for starting your seeds prior to spring planting. This is a page about reuse plastic containers for seedlings.
Although they are fast becoming a thing of the past phone books are still distributed in many areas. Their pages can be formed into very good seedling pots.
ThriftyFun is one of the longest running frugal living communities on the Internet. These are archives of older discussions.
When I am starting to grow plants indoors, I drill a couple of holes in an empty yogurt or juicy juice container and use them as the pots.
