How to Grow Seedlings in Paper Towel Tubes

Rather than buy those specialty biodegradable planting cups for transplanting seedlings into your garden, just use those paper towel and toilet paper tubes you usually throw away. They make it easy to grow seedlings indoors, and the tubes degrade quickly once they've been moved outside and buried. You'll save a few bucks, skip a trip to the nursery and lighten your ecological footprint -- all in one small effort.

Things You'll Need

• Empty paper towel and toilet paper tubes
• Scissors
• Aluminum foil
• Sewing needle
• Wire cooling rack
• Shallow dish
• Potting soil
• Seeds
• Water

Instructions

1. Gather your empty cardboard tubes and cut them into smaller lengths using scissors. You can cut them to any lengths you like, but 1.5" to 2" is usually ideal for most seedlings.

2. Tear off several squares of aluminum foil that are about the size of your hand. Stand a piece of cardboard tube in the center of an aluminum foil square and fold the sides up, creating a solid bottom for the tube. Repeat this on all of your cardboard tubes.

3. Use a sewing needle to poke several drainage holes in the aluminum foil bottoms of each tube.

4. Set a wire cooling rack into a shallow dish. Set the cardboard and foil pots on the cooling rack so that they will be able to drain when watered.

5. Fill each tube about three-fourths of the way full with potting soil. Add a seed to each tube, and then give each one a little water.

6. Keep the dish full of miniature pots indoors in a place where they will remain cool throughout the day but will still receive plenty of sunlight. Lightly water the tubes each day until they all begin to sprout.

7. Dig a small hole in your outdoor garden for every seedling you wish to transplant. Bring the tubes outside, set them in the holes and peel away the aluminum foil on each one. Leave the cardboard tubes and seedlings in the ground, cover each one lightly with soil, and give them some more water.

8. Water and care for the plants regularly to keep them healthy.

Tips & Warnings

• Look up specific care and watering instructions for the specific types of seeds you want to grow. This method will allow you to start virtually any type of seedling, but different plants require different amounts of water, sunlight and care.

• It's important to make sure that water is able to drain all the way through the miniature cardboard pots. Pooling water may lead to mold or mildew development.