How to Make Inexpensive Peat Pots and Start Plants Indoors

Do you love gardening and can't wait for spring? Get a headstart on your garden and start your plants indoors in these inexpensive, biodegradeable peat pots. You'll be recycling at the same time!

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• toilet tissue tubes
• potting soil

1. 

   Cut four equally spaced slits at one end of a toilet tissue tube. You can use the stripes on the tube to make sure your cuts are the same length. One tube makes a nice sized peat pot.

2. 

   Fold each flap in to make a closed bottom for your peat pot.

3. Fill the peat pot with potting soil and water before you plant your seeds. For plants that will grow large (like pumpkins), I only place 1 seed in each peat pots. For smaller plants (like many flowers), I place 3 or 4 seeds in each peat pot. Don't worry if your peat pot doesn't stand up straight at first; once you add soil and water, the weight will hold the peat pot flat.

4. When the weather turns warm, simply unfold the bottom and put your young plant in the ground, peat pot and all!

Tips & Warnings

• Keep an eye on the soil because you will need to water these peat pots more frequently than plastic peat pots.

Resources

• Garden Web
• Swallowtail Garden Seeds

[elyria]

on 2/28/2009 Great information and very helpful! 5*

[Elander]

on 2/28/2009 Great frugal idea.

[camellia]

on 2/27/2009 To amyva, you probably want to stick with something tall and thin, rather than short and wide. You want to encourage the seedlings roots to grow downward, rather than outward, because once planted outdoors with roots going downward, they will be better able to withstand a little drying out at the surface of the soil.

[georgelarson]

on 2/27/2009 Very creative. Good gardening information. Thanks.

[amyva]

on 2/27/2009 I had no idea you could use regular potting soil...could you do the same thing in small paper bowls or something of the sort? 5* :)