4 Resourceful Ideas for DIY Seed Starter Pots

4 Ways to Make Your Own Seed Starter Pots

One of my favorite things about “Make Your Own” projects is that they are so often born of a resourceful spirit.  Rather than just accepting the traditional way, or the money-spending way, the resourceful folk of the world start looking around and think . . .

 . . .How can I use what I have, to make what I need?

Not only does this resourceful type of thinking almost always save you money, but it gives you a chance to nurture your creative  side too, something that is so often missing in our modern life.

And I love that!

So in the spirit of that same type of resourcefulness, I thought I would share some of these DIY strategies for making your own seed starter pots for those of you getting ready to plan your summer gardens. Any of these methods use items easily found in most households – AND – they’re items you were probably going to throw out anyway, so why not put them to good use?

All of these methods use materials that are biodegradable too so potentially you can just put the container and all right in the ground when it’s time to plant your seedlings.

I had fun playing around with a couple of these ideas and hopefully I’ll get a chance to do some planting too.  The link to the article with full instructions is included with each idea.

Let’s take a look:

 

make seed pots from newspaper

1.    Newspaper

Instructions — > Origami Newspaper Pots @ Oh, The Things We’ll Make

If you’ve got some newspaper laying around you can put it to good use to create these little origami newspaper pots for planting seeds.  The article in the link above also includes a video, which is super helpful for figuring out exactly how to make all the folds.  In fact, I paused the video after every fold so I could keep up and figure out what I was doing!  But when you’re finally done with all the folds, it’s almost magical how you open it up and viola! You’ve got a little pot.  🙂

how to make a seed starter pot from newspaper

A few of my my hints:   I needed to cut about 5″ off the bottom of my sheet of newspaper to get a rectangle the right size for these pots.  This gave me a rectangle of newspaper that was 16″ x 10-3/4″ which worked well.  The finished pots will also have a couple of flaps on each side at the top. I stapled the flaps down to the sides which I thought made the finished pot feel a little sturdier.  The staples could easily be taken out when it comes time to put the pots in the ground.

 

 

Make seed pots from toilet paper tubes

2.  Toilet Paper Tubes

Instructions — > Pots from Toilet Paper Rolls @ The Harried Homemaker

The cardboard tubes from your empty rolls of toilet paper can be repurposed into little pots for your seedlings too without much more effort than a few snips of the scissors and a tiny bit of folding.  You can just as easily use the rolls from paper toweling too and just cut them into the size needed.  This method uses a few slits cut in the bottom of the tube to form flaps, that you then fold to make a bottom for your container.

How to make seed starter pots from toilet paper tubes

A few of my hints:   I did not cut my tube in half as the instructions in the link above suggested.  I used the whole tube, and made slits that were 1″.  This gave me a pot about 3″ tall.  I also needed to put a bit of tape on the bottom to keep my flaps secure.

 

Those are the two ideas I played around with.  Here are a couple more ideas that I didn’t try, but are just as resourceful:

make seed pots from shredded paper

3.   Shredded Paper

Instructions – – > Shredded Paper Pulp Pots @ 365 Days of DIY

This idea has you using paper from your shredder, and then mixing it in a blender with some warm water to form a pulp.  The pulp is then put in muffin tins to dry to create little pots.  The author notes that you may need to put them in a 220 degree oven for an hour to help with the final drying.  If you don’t have a paper shredder, any paper that you’ve ripped into pieces can be used in the blender for this project.

 

make seed pots from eggshells

4.  Eggshells

Instructions — > Planting Seeds In Eggshells @ My New Old School

Make yourself a batch of scrambled eggs, and then save the shells for planting your seeds!  You’ll have to be a little careful cracking your shells so that you have a large enough intact piece, or as the article in the link above does, use a knife to carefully cut the shell.  This method for sure lets you just put the container and its contents right in the ground when it comes time to transfer your seedlings outdoors as the eggshells are certainly compostable.

 

make seed tape from toilet paper

*Bonus Idea*

5.  Toilet Paper

Instructions – – > Toilet Paper Seed Tape @ Learning and Yearning

Finally, here’s one more bonus idea that isn’t a pot, but instead is a way to make your own seed tape using a length of toilet paper.  The seeds are held in place every couple of inches with a mixture of flour paste.  The length of toilet paper is then folded in half length-wise, with the seeds inside.  It can then be rolled up and stored until you’re ready to roll it out for planting.

 

So remember – you don’t always have to head out to the store to buy what you need.  Sometimes you can just use the newspapers, eggshells, shredded paper, or the toilet paper and toilet paper tubes that are laying around and just Make Your Own creations to solve your problems instead!

 

 

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3 Comments

  1. Great ideas! Last few years I make my seed starters from cut in half soda bottles. That makes great self-watering starters. I like the idea of using egg shells, they’re so cute little seed starter “pots”. Greets!

  2. I’m not sure I want to use my eggshells to start my plants. Here’s why: Broken eggshells make excellent organic slug repellant. They won’t crawl over the broken eggshells, thus, protecting your seedlings and plants from slugs (and snails). Plus, you don’t have to keep reapplying slug/snail bait every time it rains, since it takes a long time for the eggshells to break down in the soil. At the end of the season, you just turn the eggshells that are still on the surface of the soil into the soil when you’re preparing the soil for winter. The eggshells will then break down and add calcium to your soil. Most of your vegetables appreciate the calcium that’s added to the soil, so this is a win-win for you.

    You’ll still have to combat other pests with other organic methods over the season, but saving eggshells and asking your non-gardening friends to save their egg shells during the time of the year when most of us can’t do any gardening, is a great way to have plenty on hand during the growing season.

    Then, too, chicken eggs aren’t really all that big when considering the size needed for some starts. It depends a lot on how big you want your starts to be.