Newspaper seedling pot form

Over the weekend I also got some seedlings started indoors. Rather than going out and buying a bunch of those recycled paper pulp mini seedling pots I decided to make my own. Not only are the store-bought ones kind of expensive for what they are - I've never had much luck with them. The roots grow out of them slightly, but they don't come apart well if you try to plant the seedlings in the pots, but the roots grow into the sides enough that you hurt them trying to peel the pot off. It's a mess I didn't care to repeat this year.

I remembered seeing a little gadget in a catalog once for making seedling pots out of newspapers. It was just a wooden block with a round hole in it, and a plunger that fit into that hole. I figured it probably worked by wrapping newspaper around the plunger and sticking it in the hole. I also figured I didn't have to spend $25 on a piece of wood when I've got more pieces of wood than I know what to do with in a pile in my yard - not to mention the tools to turn them into just such a contraption.

Building it
So I took a hole saw (2-1/8" I think, whatever size is right for door knobs) and cut out the middle of an old 2x4, saving the plug that came out. Then I glued and screwed a flat piece of laminated plywood to the bottom of the block. The last step was cutting a piece off the end of an old mop handle and gluing and screwing it to the top of the plunger, giving myself a nice handle.

Using it
Using it is super easy. Just take a strip of newspaper about 3 inches wide, and at least 17 inches or so long, and wrap it around the plunger so that there's enough hanging over the bottom to fold down around it. Then stick it in the block and press down pretty hard. Turning the plunger helps, and you'll find that depending on which way you wrapped it, turning it the other way will loosen the paper's grip on the plunger, and press it against the inside of the block a little, making the next step easier.

Then pull the plunger out, but try to keep the paper in the block. This way you can stuff soil into it and it will keep its shape. Make sure to get your soil pretty moist first, as the moisture of the soil will help set the newspaper and keep the whole thing from unraveling when you pull it out.

And then you're done! Have a blast making your own seedling pots, and these will be even better than those crappy ones you buy in stores.

I made the thing itself and then constructed and planted 25 pots in under two hours, so I'm going to call it a massive win for frugal gardening.