Starting seeds indoors ?? what kind of containers

For those that start seeds indoors I'm curious to know what kind of containers you use.

I've used those 'self watering styrofoam seed starter kits' before....and also the 'peat pellets'. My SIL uses an aluminum tray and just sort of throws some seeds in to start...then later transplants those to a bigger plastic cups.

ANYWAY...just fishing for some creative ideas for containers... perhaps something that we already have around the house.

I have used Jiffy peat pellet trays with the plastic dome (which I reuse every year and buy more pellets). This year I bought a 36 cell (4 individual 9 cell black plastic packs) seed started kit with a waterproof tray for them to sit in and a plastic dome top. However with seed starting in mind, I also use whatever I’ve collected over the winter: sour cream and cottage cheese containers, small and large Country Crock containers, individual pudding cups, Trix cups, yogurt containers of all sizes, Folgers coffee cans (plastic) and take a nail and hammer and put drainage holes in the bottom. I use the lids as saucers or trays. They all work for me. I cover them with plastic wrap, secure with a rubber band and put them on a heating pad.

It depends on what I'm starting. If it is something like alyssum, I sometimes just fill the big tray with seed starting mix and sprinkle the seeds over it all. When I plant it out, I just scoop out hunks of seedlings and plant each hunk, rather than trying to separate out individual plants.

However, since this is the beginner vegetable forum, you are probably more interested in hearing about veggies. I like to start cukes and melons in cow pots, which can just be directly planted without disturbing the roots. They are made of sanitized cow manure, so they fertilize as they break down, and aren't as tough as peat pots, which sometimes still haven't broken down by the end of the season.

For tomatoes and peppers, I sometimes use the cells filled with seed starting mix, and sometimes the peat pellets, though I have more trouble with damping off using the peat. I use a heat mat underneath for the peppers, which really increases germination. For tomatoes, I often transplant up into 16 oz Solo cups--you can drill drainage holes through a stack of 4-6 at a time. When I have 2-3 pairs of true leaves, I plant them up to the bottom of the first set of leaves in a cup, with just a few inches of soil in it. As they grow, I keep adding more soil, so they will develop roots all along the stem. I get much sturdier, tougher plants that way!

I also sometimes use the wintersowing method, where you plant the seeds in the dead of winter in recycled containers (often milk jugs), put them outside, and let Mother Nature determine when they should sprout. I've had very good success with that in years past, but never found time this year! There is a great wintersowing forum here on DG, if you aren't familiar with that method. I've heard people plant their tomatoes that way, with great success, as you then don't have to worry about hardening them off to outside weather conditions.

Angie

I like the 3oz plastic Solo cups - I poke some holes in the bottom and then several holes around the pot about 1/3rd up. I put one seed per pot and leave the seedlings until a good root ball has formed. Then I transplant directly outside where they will grow, or if the weather is not quite "right" I'll transplant to a one gallon pot.

Used a wallpaper tray. Filled pots ¼ inch from top with potting mix, put water in tray just past holes in cups, made divot in center, set seed with tweezers, filled divot with vermiculite, re-filled tray up to holes in cups, tapped down soil. Set under lights 16 hours per day.

Hey thanks for the ideas -- appreciate the responses.

Newspaper pots!

Dave made a video showing how to do it, but I can't find the link.

After seeing the jiffy tray with the clear plastic top, I realized that I had seen something similar in the grocery store or even the dollar store sometimes -- a foil roasting pan with a clear top. I bought one and because it's taller than the jiffy top I can fit more types of containers (newspaper pots, small yogurt, re-use the plastic containers that nursery-bought seedlings come in, etc) than the shorter jiffy pot. It served the same purpose and worked great!

They all work!!!! Basically it depends on how nice you want your window sills to look for a few weeks while you start your seedlings. If your using heat mats and grow lights anything goes! Peace

I use alot of "repurposed" containers. Yogurt cups are my favorite, large or small, the dirt seems to slide out easily. I reuse any container at least 2, 2.5 inches deep that I can sterilize with a bleach solution and poke holes in the bottom for drainage. I use styrofoam trays from meat or some vegetable purchases, again sterilize with the bleach, for drainage trays. I tried to use egg cartons once- they are too shallow. Old nursery pots,sterilize! I like those styrofoam leftover boxes from restaurants to start seeds i plan on graduating to a bigger pot before going out, like tomatoes. Use your imagination- just be sure to make good drainage holes and sterilize. I also have accumulated a few 6" clay pots for the bigger transplants over the years. i shop the late fall clearance every year and have friends help save yogurt containers.

I am new to starting seeds indoors. My husband made me a beautiful plant light stand for Christmas. I want to grow spinach indoors, but so far only 2 sprouts have come up out of 50. I have them on top of the stand, no light, in peat pellets and covered. I think they need more heat. Can I use a heating pad instead of a plant heating mat?

I'm using a heating pad. It seems to work.

I start seeds in newspaper pots. Also use those clamshells that strawberries come in.

I tried newspaper pots a couple of years ago, but found it too time consuming. The things I did like: you can leave the paper on and it will break-down quickly. The newspaper leaves a little collar around the transplants which deters cutworms.

I like the newspaper pots idea, and was going to use it until I heard of the self-watering system. From Life on the Balcony:
"The other thing that makes a big difference for me is watering from the bottom. By this I mean I put my pot (with a hole in the bottom) in a tray of water. The soil wicks the water up through the hole and stays evenly moist. This solves two problems: (1) forgetting to water thus allowing the soil to dry out, and (2) knocking over seedlings with a stream of water when you try and water them from the top."

So I figured, if my pots are sitting in water all the time, the newspaper will disintegrate. I think for potting up I will use newspaper, but for starting from seed I will try the plastic solo cups or get some yogurt!. I'm on a crazy small budget, and would rather put my $$ toward raspberry plants than fancy seed trays. I'm glad this thread exists! Now all I need are some sort of lights and possibly a heat mat!

Also, a great article on how to make newspaper pots is here: http://www.hipchickdigs.com/2008/02/newspaper-seed-pots/
And an instructable here: http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-make-organic-planting-pots-using-old-newspa/

The Daves Garden video is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8qPAV-LDnM

Kindlekat - Even though I water from the bottom, the soil still gets a little dry on top because of heat from the tubes. I use a turkey baster to water from the top when this happens. I suck up water from the tray, and squirt it into the top of the cups. If you're careful, the seedlings won't be disturbed.

There goes that genius again! A turkey baster! Did you put this on the 'TIPS' thread?

This message was edited Jan 12, 2011 12:37 PM

Like HoneybeeNC I was thinking to use 3 oz cups, but I have the paper Dixie bathroom cups. Anyone tried these? Would they disintegrate too soon? They are sort of waxy so I was hoping they'd last until time to move the seedlings to the next thing. I'm not planning to plant the cup like some do with the newspaper pots, I just want them to hold dirt until time to plant out.

LiseP - I can't remember if I've tried paper cups. I like the 3 oz plastic ones because they last for many years. You might try putting some damp soil in a paper cup and let it sit for awhile to see what happens.

I'm glad you said that about the plastic ones being re-usable, that makes them a doubly good choice.

I have some of the larger solo cups, so they'll get anything that needs to be potted up a bit, and I might cut a few of those down for seeds. I'll try a few of the paper cups, just to see -- I'm thinking they will continue to hold soil for as long as needed, but might be very squishy to try to pick up, which could damage some roots perhaps. We'll see!

Hmmm, planted a few of the paper bathroom cups (turned out to be 5oz) with soil-less mix. Add water to the tray ... watch 'em float! And tip! Errgh. Next time, I'll put a rock in the bottom of each.

Lise, if I remember, my waxy Dixie cups got moldy. I've had better luck with the plastic cups. I stack up 4 or 5, drill holes through the whole batch, and line them up in a tray. They are easy to throw in a sink of bleach water after they're empty, and stack to store easily while not in use. I also like the shorter, wider cups. They are less tippy. I even scavenged all those plastic cups that kids' drinks come in at so many restaurants now, and drilled holes in a dozen or so of those. The nice thing about the taller Solo cups is that you can fill them only about 1/2 full and plant tomato seedlings in them, and then add more soil to bury part of the stem up to the first set of leaves after they've grown on a bit. :)

LiseP if you put wet soil in the cups first, they won't tip over. Even the plastic ones will tip if the soil isn't wet first.

Bookerc1 I've done just about everything you mentioned, too.

I used to live in an apartment. I saved the plastic cups that were thrown out every day in the gym. They are a nice size to pot-up seedlings if the weather isn't warm enough to set the seedlings outside. Another cup I use is the 9 oz plastic Solo cups. They are little more difficult to poke holes in, though!

You can also use a spray bottle to water, or use an old water bottle. Just poke several holes in the lid so that it makes a gentle shower. Fill your bottle, turn it upside down and water!

Thanks, HoneybeeNC, yes, I didn't have the soil wet enough. Once water wicked up through the bottom they stopped floating and behaved. I'll know to moisten the soil more next time!

Bookerc1, thanks for your experience on the Dixie cups. Moldy, huh? Yuck. Since I already have them done, I'll leve them, just to see, but I've now done a second batch using larger plastic Solo cups. I drilled holes by heating up a meat fork and poking through a stack at a time. The cups are bigger than I would have liked, I think, but I had them handly.

I found plastic shoe boxes with lids (99 cents at Home Depot) that are a good fit for our window sills, so the Solo cups are now sitting in those. I'm using older seed, so put 3-4 seeds in each cup, in case the germination rate isn't wonderful. But I'm already girding myself for the prospect of having two or three perfectly nice little seedlings competing for space. And then what? Well, cross that bridge when I come to it.

And lastly, my outdoor mini-greenhouse is ready for after the seeds sprout. I had moved an old baker's rack to the sunny side of the house, and yesterday bought a clear vinyl shower curtain liner for $2.36 and a set of shower curtain rings for $1.19. I could have done it without the rings, but this makes it easy to hang the curtain around the baker's rack, hanging the rings on various knobs and protrustions. I'm pleased to have the whole thing done for under $4 and I hope it works.

Hi LiseP, I'm interested in your minigreenhouse. I tried something similar with an old unused dog kennel in the yard. Wrapped it with 10 ft. by 20 ft. sheet of plastic, like wrapping a gift! Then moved 5 tomato plants in buckets into the "greenhouse." This was last Oct/Nov. It would have worked if we'd not had the first of many nights of temps in the teens and low 20's, very unusual for this far south in GA. Anyway, I lost everything. Was wondering about the temps where you are. Is there a danger of the very low temps like we have had across the deep south this fall/winter?

LiseP - too, am intrigued by your shower curtain set-up. Any chance of sharing a photo with us?

HoneybeeNC, I took a pic yesterday with the idea of sharing it with y'all, but my USB port is not working, will have to see if hubby can figure out a work-around. I'll upload it as soon as I can.

milesdt, I'm in San Antonio, TX and it's pretty mild here. That said, I'm going to keep my seedlings in trays so that if we get temps in the 20s I can still bring them back in the house if I need to. My garden area is small, so none of this is on a very large scale.

I have my lettace seedlings growing/ they are about 4 inches from the light, which is under my kitchen cabinet. The seedlings are still tall & skinny. Do I need to move them to about 2 inches from the light, or what to do.

Black Krim tomatoes sprouted Sunday between 9:15am and 1:30pm. I know. I checked before I left for church. There was NOTHING up at 9:15.

Oops. Forgot the pic. This Is the baby Spinach container from Sam's CLub. No drainage holes cause I'm not over watering and the potting mix was still moist up til today when I added a bit of water.

They're under fluorescents from 7a to 7p daily, and are 2" from the lights in a cool room. These seedlings are growing very fast!

Mmmm, Black Krim. Thanks, Gymgirl, now my mouth is watering. :)

Now, now, Bookerc1,
With as many scrumptious pictures as you have posted over these years that have just had me shaking my head...and saying, I sure wish he lived next door...

Do you have any type of heat source under them?

HoneybeeNC, here's a pic of my "mini-greenhouse" made with baker's rack and a clear vinyl shower curtain liner (and rings). The liner goes pretty close to all the way to the ground, but of course it's vented at the top. Not sure how effective it will be, but probably will give a little protection. I still need to rustle up a couple more clothespins or clips to keep the liner securely in place.

The seeds I planted in Solo cups are starting to come up -- I have lettuce, red romaine and kohlrabi so far so I just put them in the greenhouse (might have to take them in tonight though, there's a cold wind blowing today). The other seeds are still in the house.

Lise

Lise, try using big binder clips (the black ones with the silver metal "wings") from an office supply store.

EX-cellent recycle greenhouse!

Steph,
No bottom heat. I actually had them sitting on an electric lap blanket that worked perfectly on my lap all last year, but seems to have mysteriously stopped the minute I sat the seedling trays on it...

The trays are on my cement block shelf with 4 shop lights under each shelf. The lights are running from 7a-7p daily. Off for the night. The room stays on the cool side, too...Turn the thermostat down during the daytime.

And with the big chill headed our way, it should be a cool 50-65 degrees in there by the time I get home...

Lise - that's very nifty! I was wondering how the rings would work, but your photo has answered that question.

So they are getting some kind of heat from the bottom to stimulate them. Mark's in the process of setting up our grow lights. I'm trying to get him motivated, but I'm not having much success. He'd rather sit on the computer all day long looking for a truck for me! Go figure!

Yesterday I said to him, "Would you please work on getting the light structure up today?" Ten minutes later he's running the vacuum. What part of what I said included the work "vacuum"?!?

stephanietx - the trick is to ask "them" to do something they really hate doing! Then your grow-light project will seem "pleasant" in comparison.

Or, better stills, make some motions like you're about to start setting it up without him, and watch what happens.