Origami Newspaper Seed Pots

After reviewing numerous sites for diy newspaper seed pots, I decided I like this one best of all. Because the seed pot is square, I like the way it fits in trays and the only required supply is newspaper. http://www.geocities.com/newspaperpots/

Thanks, ShelfLife! It kept occurring to me to do it this way, and I'm SO glad to get the instructions! I'd almost fallen for the marketing strategy of buying that little wooden mold to make newspaper pots, and then thought... hmmm... why not origami? You could even get kids interested in it, and what a wonderful "trick" for them to learn. IF you have enough newspaper left over from lasagna composting, of course...

This is perfect.

Thanks shelf, I was going to buy one of those wooden molds too.

I've been folding these all morning, now I'm curious about the forms. What are they called? Will these folded ones hold up outside, anybody ? Thanks. This is kind of addicting...

That thickness of newspaper should hold up well, become compost when put in the ground. Hoping they will hold up long enough, but not too long!

The only place I was worried about them holding up is the bottom (that's only two layers of newspaper), but because I'm going to be using them in trays and don't plan to move them until they're ready to go in the ground, I decided it was sufficient.

As to how long they'll hold up in the ground... well, I'll let you know my experience in a year or so. ;)

I only tried newspaper pots once. You can use any kind of veggie can to make them and not have to buy the wood form. Personally I found that they molded easily and it was hard to keep the bottoms up out of the trays which promoted them to rot faster. I'll be watching to see how you guys do with these!

I wonder if setting them on some sort of screen would help. Like that thing you put meat on so it will drip down into the pan. Since I rarely eat meat and almost never cook it, it would be putting it to good use.

Well, a couple months later, they seem to work pretty good. I got the seeds in one of the newbie give-aways. These were labeled 'spider lily' and I thought they might be a hemerocallis/daylily. They're cleomes, and I don't think they'll make it. I might bring a few indoors and see what happens.
In a different tray of newspaper pots, a little mushroom came up one day. I think the pots work better with the little ear-flaps folded down, so they don't shade the seedlings. It might help some seedlings though.

I have a spider lily, or so I've been told. It bloomed earlier this year. I didn't think to look for seeds. Can you tell me if the seeds were orange? I remember the sticky out things on the bloom (can't for the life of me remember what those little things are called) were orange. Were those the seeds?

Collage of my spider lily (as it bloomed) below. I think I also saw something called a Peruvian Daffodil that looked similar too.

Janet

I should have said in the above message that I love the idea of these pots. I sent this link to my sister tonight also. Thank you whoever bumped this thread back up and thanks for sharing your experiences.

I'm going to be a seed saver from heare on out, though Heaven only knows what the heck I'll do with MORE plants! HAHAHAHA

Janet

Not sure what your plant is, I don't think it's hymenocallis. It's beautiful whatever it is! The orange tipped things sticking out of the flower are stamens, where the pollen is. I can't see it on your plant, but there's probably a pistil, the female part, and after it's pollenated the whole thing turns into seeds or a pod. Oversimplified, but that's the short version of my understanding of flower parts. I looked around for your plant, couldn't find it. I'm better at identifying critters!
What mine are is Cleome, sometimes called spider plant
http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/6/index.html

The cleome seeds looked like small peppercorns. I think every single seed sprouted, pretty quickly too. The plants are fine, I just don't think there's enough warm weather left for them to live long enough to bloom, being annuals.
The newspaper pots worked fine. They were out in the rain a few times and didn't fall apart. I used double thickness newspaper, seemed like a good idea. They fit nursery flats perfectly, otherwise they'd probably fall apart. I'll probably make some more next spring.

Thanks for explaining. It may sound like it, but I'm not new to plants, just new to trying to identify plants and plant parts so someone else knows what I'm refering to. :-) Here in Texas, "sticky out things" is a perfectly acceptable term for what I was refering to. (just kidding, of course!)

Your plants look great. I like those paper pots and saved the link provided at the top of this thread for future reference. I'm glad to know that they held up well. I'll most likely double mine too.... just to be safe.

I've learned so many neat tricks and things since joining Dave's. Thanks!

Janet

UniQueTreasures, your spider lily does look like Hymenocallis caroliniana, the stamens do look like that. there are several that look similar, but this one is quite hardy and has very distinctive long stamens. The corolla is quite small too, perhaps you could compare the open flower to these pics

http://davesgarden.com/pf/showimage/33060/

This is the whole plant.

Thanks for the link Wallaby. To me, it looks like my plant. I thought I should post some larger photos than what was in the collage. Here is a closer shot of the blooms on my plant. I believe it was my mother's friend who identified it for me last year.

Janet

The heart-shaped leaves threw me off in your first picture...that's my story and I'm sticking to it! UniQue, that's beatiful!!!

Oh yes it is so beautiful!

It's those long green filaments that suggest H caroliniana, some others do look similar in other respects. You need to compare the shape of the corolla edge, it's size, the petals, but I feel certain that is the one.

claypa we forgive you, the collage wasn't easy to see!

Claypa, I'm sorry those leaves threw you off. That is a potato vine leaf.

I dug several of those up last year from a friend's house when she was moving. She took all of the plants she wanted and told us we could have whatever we wanted because she knew her grandson would let them all die before the house sold.

The collage was made to show one day's progression on that plant. I was flabbergasted at how quickly it bloomed. The plant shown is pretty good size.

There are no blooms at this time to be able to compare things to. I'll know better to look closer in the future. Thanks for your input on it.

My apologies for hi-jacking the orgami pot thread. That wasn't my intention.

Janet