How to Create Seed-Starting Pots From Newspapers

Introduction

Instead of buying expensive peat pots to plant your seeds in, make these spiffy planting pots by rolling recycled newspaper around a glass or jar. The finished pots are sturdy and will break down quickly once they've been planted in the soil.

By: Willi Galloway

Length: 3:21

Comments: 10

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Instructions

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Difficulty: Easy

Tips & Warnings:

Place the pot in a nursery flat and fill it with good-quality potting soil.
Stack the newspaper pots side by side in the flat so that they'll support each other and prevent the sides from collapsing. Plant your chosen seeds; when the seeds have two sets of leaves, tear off the bottom half of the pot and plant - pot and all - into the ground. The pot will break down quickly once in the soil.
Most newspapers these days use soy ink for color printing, which is not harmful to plants. Still, your local paper may use petroleum-based colored ink, which is toxic, so you may want to avoid newspaper with color inks.

Step1

Lay a full sheet of black and white newspaper flat. Don't use shiny, colored paper as it may contain heavy metals.

Step2

Fold the paper in half lengthwise twice to form a long, narrow strip of folded newspaper.

Step3

Lay the glass on its side and place it on one end of the strip of paper. Roll the newspaper around the glass. The glass is used only as a form to roll the paper. About 1/2 of the strip of paper should overlap the open end of the glass.

Step4

Push the ends of the paper into the open end of the glass. This step doesn't have to be neat and tidy; just stuff the overlapping newspaper into the glass.

Step5

Pull the jar out of the newspaper pocket so you have the newspaper pot in your hand.

Step6

Push the bottom of the jar into the newspaper cup, squashing the folded bottom to flatten. This step will seal the bottom of your pot. Once the pot has been filled with soil, the bottom will be secure.

Step7

Pull the jar out and you have a finished paper pot.

Resources

DigginFood

Comments

Tom-S said

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on 8/8/2008 i use a concave bottom can (spray paint) and roll it where I can push in the bottom before I take it off the can.

angelady said

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on 7/24/2008 I just made some of these today. I made them significantly thinner than the ones in the video so that hopefully I will not have to unpot them to put them in the ground. I don't want the pot so tough that the plant can't grow roots well through it. Great idea! It's recycling the paper and composting, too. It's great to know which ink can be used and which can't safely. I was really concerned about that, so I'm glad I found your resource available here.

angelady said

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GypsySunrise said

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on 4/27/2008 That's a great idea! =)

kensykes said

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on 2/26/2008 Brilliant idea. I bought a mould some years ago to make pots from wet newspaper and it gave good service until today. The mould became rough and the wet paper would not slip. I looked in the brochure to buy another and the price was £18.00 GBP. I went on the web to try and find a cheaper one and found your site. THANK YOU.

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