Every real summer resident knows that good harvest starts with seeds and seedlings.

We plant the seedlings, pick them up and transplant them into separate containers. We can plant in peat pots, plastic containers or the newfangled peat tablets.

We can also make pots for seedlings with our own hands and make as many of them as needed. Keen gardeners are able to fill literally everything with green sprouts; you can’t stock up on any store-bought containers.

The following can be used as a container for growing seedlings:

• Tea bags
• Tetra Pak bags
• Ice containers
• Waste paper and cardboard
• Citrus peel
• Eggshell
• Egg trays
• Plastic bottles
• Plastic cups
• Filter bags for coffee machines
• Toilet paper rolls

Tea bags

The original method of growing seedlings in used tea bags can compete in efficiency with growing in peat tablets, since tea has a beneficial effect on the development of the plant.

Each bag is cut off top part, then put seedling soil inside with a spoon and sow the seeds. It is better to place such “pots” in a tray, for example, a container with low sides. When disembarking at open ground the bag is not removed.

Eggshell

Egg shells are an excellent option for a homemade container for small seedlings or for growing seedlings before transferring them to larger containers.

Take the shell and make a hole at the bottom. To do this, you can use a pushpin or a thick needle. Fill each shell halfway with soil and sow the seeds.

Place the egg "pots" with seedlings in plastic container for eggs. To create greenhouse effect close the container lid. When the time comes for transplanting or transshipment, plant the grown seedlings along with the shells.

Tetra Pak bags

Probably one of the most popular options among hand-made containers for seedlings is Tetra Pak bags. This multi-component material is distinguished from paper and cardboard bags by its increased strength and durability.

Tetra Pak is used for packaging juice and dairy products; in addition to cardboard, it contains foil and polyethylene. It is very simple to prepare such bags for sowing seedlings - cut them into 2 parts and the cups are ready! You can also make a tray for seedlings by cutting the bag lengthwise rather than crosswise.

Be sure to wash containers thoroughly before use.

Old newspapers can be an excellent material for making a container for seedlings. To do this, you will need newspaper sheets (it is better to give preference to black and white pages), a cylindrical object (a bottle, a narrow tin), flour and water.

We invite you to visit the page with our master class on making cups for seedlings from old newspapers or paper.

You can plant seedlings in a greenhouse or open ground directly in cups, but if you wish, you can cut or tear the “pot”.

Plastic bottles

From a plastic bottle you can make not just a container for seedlings, but a functional pot with an automatic watering system and a greenhouse effect.

Clean plastic bottle cut in half, do not remove the lid, but make several holes in it using the same heated awl, needle or nail. Pull a synthetic cord through the bottom hole (this will be the wick).

Turn the top part with the neck over and insert it into the second half of the bottle. Add soil and sow seeds. Remove half of the bottle with soil from the tray, pour water into bottom part"pot", then insert the half with the plant back into the tray.

Take another bottle of the same size, cut half of it and use it as a lid for such a seedling “pot”.

You can do it another way: from a bottle (great plastic will do bottle square shape with a capacity of 5 l, for example, from drinking water) cut off the side part, and use the remaining large part as a container for seedlings.

Plastic cups

Excellent containers for seedlings are made from yogurt or sour cream cups, disposable plastic and paper coffee cups. To make pots, first thoroughly wash the containers and then cut a hole in the bottom to drain excess water.

If the hole is too large diameter, place a cardboard circle at the bottom of the glass. For convenience, you can write on the cup with a felt-tip pen or marker the name of the crop and variety that you are going to grow.

Place containers with seeds sown in them in a box or on a tray - it’s more convenient to store them this way. The advantage of such homemade pots is the convenient removal of the earthen lump when planting seedlings in open ground - just lightly press on the bottom of the cup and the lump can be easily removed, remaining intact.

Filter bags for coffee machines

If you brew coffee in a coffee maker, don't throw away the used paper filters - they make great cups for seedlings.

Fill each filter bag halfway with soil and place it in plastic box or a tray with high sides to give the “cups” stability. They will stand close to each other, which means they will not fall. Sow the seeds and place a box of coffee “pots” on the windowsill.

Toilet paper rolls

Cardboard tubes left over from toilet paper rolls can be easily converted into biodegradable planting cups. You can also use paper towel rolls.

If you need a short glass, cut the sleeve crosswise into two parts. Next, do the following with each part: fold it lengthwise and use scissors to make cuts approximately 1/3 of the height of the tube so that you get 4 blades.

Then straighten the workpiece and fold the blades one on top of the other, bending them, as is done with cardboard boxes to make the bottom.
On permanent place seedlings can be planted without removing them from the cups, since paper and cardboard are biodegradable materials.

Waste paper and cardboard

To make such pots, you need to mentally return to school years and remember the familiar, but slightly forgotten papier-mâché technology. So, you will need paper or cardboard, water and a mold.

You can use glass glasses as a form, but it is most convenient if you have metal mold for cupcakes with several cells.

Tear the paper into small pieces and place in a container with water, leave to soak. Then stick the resulting mass onto the mold: if you have glasses, then with outside, if the baking dish is from the inside.

The workpiece should be left to dry for a day, after which it should be used as a regular glass for seedlings.

Ice containers

An unnecessary tray (mold) for ice can become an excellent container for growing seedlings before picking and serve in this role for more than one year. Make a drainage hole in each cell (if the plastic is durable, use a drill), take a suitable tray and place the container in it.

Next, fill the cells with soil and sow the seeds. After some time, plant the seedlings in the container larger size. Just as in the case of eggshells, it is better to grow plants with a small root system in such a container, since they may become cramped in small cells.

Egg trays

The egg tray is also used as a container for seedlings. It is convenient to place such containers on windowsills. To begin with, make a hole in the bottom of each container cell (if the tray is plastic, you can heat an awl and pierce it with it). Then the cells are filled with soil and the seeds are sown.

After some time, the roots of the plant will entwine the earthen lump, and for further picking it will be enough to carefully remove the seedling with the lump with a fork.

Citrus peel

If you like to squeeze juice from citrus fruits (orange, grapefruit, lemon, pomelo, etc.) using a juicer, then you probably have a lot of halves of the peel of these fruits left over. Why not use them as seedling cups?

Make a small hole in half of the pulp-free fruit (in the bottom) for moisture to drain out, then fill the peel with soil for seedlings and sow 1-2 seeds per “pot”, depending on the “dimensions” of the future plant and the size of the citrus peel. Subsequently, the seedling can be planted in open ground directly from the “pot”.

If you have moved to live on the land or you have a long-awaited dacha, where you plan not only to indulge in barbecue, but also to have a vegetable garden and even grow seedlings yourself, then, undoubtedly, you will need various containers for growing them: pots for seedlings, seedling boxes, pallets. All this wealth is now sold in abundance in any specialized store - the choice is simply huge! Let's try to figure out which seedling containers will definitely be useful to us, and which ones are not worth buying.

Or maybe not buy it, but make it yourself?

I was lucky to be born and grow up in a wonderful country, where most people were savvy and had “golden” hands - it would have been difficult to survive otherwise in an era of total scarcity. At that time, pots for seedlings were also in short supply, and my dad made them himself wooden boxes and flower pots. They were terribly heavy and constantly leaked, but they WERE there!

Now the situation is completely different on store shelves large selection light and practical plastic containers for growing plants, and I think there is no point in making boxes from boards the old fashioned way.

Although you can still save money! For example, use juice and dairy products bags, yogurt boxes and sour cream glasses as containers for seedlings.

At the beginning of my gardening practice, I did just that, but quickly realized that this was only a temporary replacement: a motley group of pots and yoghurt boxes did not want to fit compactly on my seedling table (their wide necks got in the way), they tended to tilt or turn over ( unstable bottoms), containers made from milk cartons and Tetrapacks gradually became soggy. And how much space all this “good” took up later during storage was simply terrible!

Growing plants is a creative process! And in this process important place occupied by the aesthetic component, in other words, beauty. Maybe this is purely feminine, but for example, I really want my plants to grow in beautiful, comfortable pots that are specially designed for this! And so that later, when these pots are free, they can simply be inserted one into the other and stored compactly.

That's why I made my choice in favor of purchased containers for seedlings! From my point of view, it is more practical, durable and aesthetically pleasing!

Seedling boxes are convenient to use for growing seedlings that tolerate picking (tomatoes, basil, flowers), as well as aromatic and other perennial herbs (mint, lemon balm, sorrel, etc.) and different bows, which can be grown without diving until planting in the ground.

Thanks to the drainage grid, excess water after watering does not accumulate in the lower layers of the soil, which can lead to acidification, but enters the reservoir under the grid. And since seedlings in boxes, most often, are not grown for so long (2-3 weeks before picking), the tank does not have time to be completely filled with water.

Even if you overdo it with watering, you can always drain the excess water by carefully tilting the box. My husband came up with the idea of ​​making a hole at the bottom of the box with a hot nail to drain excess water, but I liked it less: if I slightly tilt the box, water pours out of the hole, and for some reason it always goes right on me!

Boxes - pallets

Boxes made of thick plastic are convenient to use as trays for pots with seedlings. The only thing you should pay attention to is that the pots are tightly adjacent to the walls of the box and to each other, otherwise they will turn over (the most best option, if during the purchase you have the opportunity to try your pots on the box).

Pots with removable bottom

Pots with a removable bottom are suitable for growing any seedlings, but primarily, of course, seedlings that do not tolerate pickling (peppers, eggplants, celery, etc.). They are not cheap, but very comfortable and durable! I’ve had these for nine years now, some have faded, but they’re ready to serve for more than one season, which makes me happy!

One of the disadvantages of these pots is that the bottoms are periodically lost, but I cut out new ones (from plastic yoghurt boxes). Well, it still takes a long time to wash them...

Typically, such pots are sold immediately with trays, and this is a huge plus, because when watering seedlings, water can be poured not into a pot or cell, compacting the top layers of soil, but directly into the tray. The roots themselves absorb moisture, and this is more natural for the plant than surface watering.

The salad set has a very low tray, pots constantly fall out of it. In the black set, the tray is correct, but the round, elongated shape of the pots themselves is very unstable, they constantly strive to tilt and jump out of the tray!

When choosing pots with pallets, you should consider the following:

• Pallet height: it should be at least 4 cm, because you will be pouring water into the pan! In addition, on low pallets the pots are very unstable and constantly fall whenever the pallet is moved.
• Pot shape: choose rectangular pots for seedlings, round ones are unstable! Even if they fit well into the pallet, they still often tip over when moving.
• Pot size: the smallest ones (3.5x3.5cm) are only suitable for flowers or long, non-bushy seedlings such as onions and corn. Medium (5.5x5.5cm) are convenient for growing seedlings of cucumbers and other melons, celery root. Large ones (8x8 cm) are suitable for eggplants, peppers, and early-ripening tomatoes.

By the way, sometimes fakes are sold - pots made of thick plastic on a pallet, looking like real ones, but without a removable bottom. It’s very inconvenient, there’s no way to remove the seedlings from the pot, and the tray can almost be called a tray, the pots are not secured to it in any way and constantly fall. I once bought such a set through carelessness, but don’t buy it and don’t buy it!!!

Collapsible trays

Collapsible trays are quite convenient; the cells in them are not wide, but deep. Peppers can be sown in such cells and grown without picking right before planting in open ground. This size is also suitable for corn, and for leeks. I add basil into the same trays.

To get seedlings out of such a tray, you just need to remove the top plate, very convenient! Collapsible trays are also good because they take up minimal space during storage, which for me, for example, is very important.

The downside is that the cells are stationary, and if suddenly the seed doesn’t sprout, the space will remain empty. You can, of course, annoy, but the surrounding seedlings that sprouted earlier will shade the new shoots. This is why, by the way, I prefer separate pots for seedlings: they can be swapped if necessary.

Thin-walled black polystyrene pots

I also have black thin-walled polystyrene pots in my arsenal, which I would happily replace with something more convenient and environmentally friendly. The only thing that attracts me to them is required volume(9x9 cm is suitable for tall tomatoes). Someone else may be attracted by their cheapness.

Otherwise, these pots are inconvenient: without a removable bottom (it is inconvenient to remove seedlings from them), fragile (in the second year of use, cracks almost always appear, you have to put 2 cracked pots into one so that you can at least somehow use them).

And pallets made of this material generally deteriorate very quickly. Not only are they very thin and cannot withstand pots of soil at all, but they also crack quickly and break at the edges. Overall, this is my worst purchase and I don’t recommend buying it!

Peat pots for seedlings

A few words about peat pots. They are sold everywhere, they are quite cheap, and people are actively buying them. I, too, at the beginning of my “gardening career” fell under their spell: natural material, you can plant seedlings directly with pots in the ground, you don’t need to wash anything...

It turned out that the plants in these pots somehow don’t feel very good, the soil constantly dries out, and if you pour more water, the pots “bloom.” If the seedlings survive to be planted in a permanent place, then after planting in the ground the plant dries out after some time, because the roots cannot overcome the barrier of the peat wall of the pot. Even if the pot has almost crumbled, the roots cannot cope with this obstacle, so the pots must be removed completely!

I will remember the year when I decided to use peat pots for seedlings for a long time! Never before or since have I had to plant the same seedlings twice! Seeing that the planted plants began to dry out after a couple of weeks, I dug up one and realized that I would have to dig everything up and remove these unfortunate pots... Perhaps I was just unlucky and the pots were of poor quality, I don’t know... But since then I have been avoiding peat products side!

A little exotic

And finally, a little exotic. I once read that you can grow seedlings in eggshells. I bought the largest eggs, prepared shells, filled them with soil, and sowed, as I remember now, strawberry seeds and garlic bulbs. The strawberries died a week after germination, the bulbs lasted longer, but they also all rotted. Conclusion: well, there is no need to torment the seedlings, even if you really want something exotic!

Every summer season begins with growing seedlings. Everyone understands why this is done - you can significantly increase the growing season and get not only an earlier, but also a much larger harvest. There are regions in our country in which heat-loving vegetables cannot be grown in any other way.

As the first stage of development passes, so will the subsequent ones - this is the law of nature. To improve plant development, many gardeners and gardeners use peat pots. How to use these little helpers? Is it worth purchasing them for growing seedlings? Let's look at the pros and cons of such cups.

What are they made of?

Before purchasing peat pots for seedlings, find out what they are made of. Such devices are made from peat, to which cardboard or wood is added. Most of all, gardeners praise cups with a ratio of the main substance of 70% and additives of 30%. Beware of low-quality goods; it happens that unscrupulous manufacturers increase the percentage of impurities, or even use only cheap cardboard. Before buying agricultural equipment, read what is written on the packaging.

Environmental justification

Peat products have many advantages over their counterparts made from plastic, paper or ceramics. It will be truly environmentally friendly for the plants. clean house. The peat used to make containers for growing seedlings does not contain pathogenic microflora or weed seeds. Such products contain significantly lower levels of harmful toxic substances, such as heavy metals, benzopyrene residues and pesticides. The concentration of such substances will be several times lower than permissible in agriculture standards for growing plants and crops. Light-weight peat is safe for use; it does not contain pathogens of various diseases of vegetable and flower crops.

When choosing peat pots for growing seedlings, carefully inspect them. For good quality products, the wall thickness should be one to one and a half millimeters. Such walls will be strong enough to last the entire period of plant development, but at the same time the roots of the seedlings will be able to develop unhindered. After planting in the soil, a high-quality pot will begin to quickly disintegrate, thereby facilitating the work of harvesting the fields. The decay period for quality products lasts approximately 27-32 days.

Peat pots for seedlings. Pros of use

1. Due to the porous walls, the best air-water regime of the root layer is ensured. When planted in the ground, plants freely take root through the walls and bottom.
2. Such containers do not contain pathogenic organisms and toxic substances, at the same time they have great mechanical strength in both wet and dry conditions.
3. When planting seedlings together with a pot in the ground, the survival rate reaches almost 100%. Later, when decomposed, the pot will serve as fertilizer.
4. Due to the accelerated establishment of seedlings, more early harvest, this is mainly why seedlings are planted in peat pots.

How to use? General requirements for the use of peat pots

1. The containers are filled with pre-slightly moistened nutrient soil and pressed down a little. After this it begins in peat pots. You can sow bulbs, cuttings or seedlings.
2. Place the prepared cups on pallets, pesos, plastic film, gravel or layer of soil.
3. Seedlings should be watered frequently, keeping the soil moist.
4. Peat pots must not be allowed to dry out. How to use them correctly? Wrap each unit with film - this will help prevent drying out. Otherwise, the salt contained in the soil may crystallize and, in concentrated form, pose a danger to delicate seedlings.
5. When the plants begin to grow, the pots should be spaced more freely to increase light and aeration. In addition, with a more spacious arrangement, the intertwining of the root systems of neighboring plants is prevented.
6. Growing seedlings in peat pots ends with planting them in the ground. There is no need to dig up the plants; plant them directly with the old container.

Seedlings of zucchini, cucumbers, pumpkins, eggplants, squash

Seedlings of these crops do not like transplanting. To ensure that the plants take root, use peat pots for growing. How to use them? Which size would be preferable?

For cucumber seedlings intended for planting in protected soil, pots with a diameter of 11 cm are suitable. The duration of cultivation is approximately 30 days. How to plant in peat pots? One germinated seed is sown in one glass.

If you are going to plant vegetables in open ground, then for seedlings of zucchini, squash and cucumbers you should choose containers with a diameter of 8 cm; for pumpkin, 11 cm is better suited and plant one in each pot. Planting depth is 1 cm. Cucumbers can be planted 2 pieces in one container.

On average, pumpkin seedlings will be ready in 20 days, and other vegetables in a month. You can calculate it yourself optimal timing landings.

The finished pots are placed on trays close to each other, watered thoroughly and left in a warm place where the temperature is maintained at 25-30 degrees until germination. When yellow-green sprouts appear, the temperature should be reduced to 20-22 degrees. Such temperature regime maintained for 2-3 days.

Watering

Should be watered cucumber seedlings warm water, heated to 25-30 degrees. If there is cold watering, the plants may get sick or even die.

Hardening

To prevent plant diseases after transplanting into the ground, they are hardened off - 7-10 days before planting - the rooms are often ventilated, the temperature is reduced to 15 degrees, and watered less often.

Planting in open ground

Prepared plants are planted in the soil directly in pots. Before planting, some gardeners break the cups or take out the seedlings along with a lump of earth. You can do that too. However, gardeners who used peat pots to grow seedlings leave the following reviews about planting - they believe that it is better to first make holes in the containers. As they decompose, the cups will nourish the plant, helping to produce a large harvest.

Cabbage seedlings

In March, cabbage is sown in special boxes. After the seedlings appear, they are picked out and planting in peat pots begins. Cups with a diameter of about 7 cm are suitable. You can use round specimens or peat blocks, which contain 6 cells at once. At the end of April you can begin planting in

Lettuce seedlings

Lettuce seedlings for planting in protected soil are prepared by picking the seedlings into pots. Pots measuring 50x50 mm or, as they are also called, peat cells, are suitable. In about a month, the seedlings will be ready for planting in a greenhouse or greenhouse.

The roots of many plants can penetrate the bottom and walls of peat cups. However, most gardeners do not wait for this - they focus on the size of the above-ground part of the seedlings.

Experienced gardeners say that if you immerse peat pots in water before planting warm water until the discharge stops air bubbles from the walls, then in this case the soaked walls and bottom will not create obstacles and will be easily processed by soil inhabitants.

Disadvantages of peat pots

1. Not all plants tolerate the acidic environment that is inherent in peat. Some manufacturers add special ingredients to their products. mineral fertilizers, as well as lime and chalk, which reduce acidity.
2. Frequent watering is required.
3. Evaporating from the surface of the pots, the water greatly cools the soil, as a result of which the root system develops much worse.
4. Some plants cannot break through the peat walls and have to be removed from their containers when replanting.
5. Often mold appears on low-quality pots and the walls are destroyed
6. The high cost of peat cups, especially when growing large volumes of seedlings.

Unfortunately, some unscrupulous manufacturers produce pots made from ordinary cardboard, for high-quality peat products. Gardeners complain that sometimes in the fall, when digging up a plot, they find undecomposed pots with remnants of roots.

Peat pots for seedlings

Peat pots are considered the best containers for growing seedlings. They have a number of advantages.

The grown cuttings are planted in the ground along with the pot.

Plant roots can easily grow through the walls and bottom.

The pot itself will serve as fertilizer for the plants.

Such containers ensure 100% survival rate of seedlings.

Seedling pots are an empty cone-shaped glass. They are made from dry-formed, pressed peat products. But these pots have their own peculiarity: the plants that grow in them require frequent watering, since peat evaporates water very quickly.

Cups for seedlingswith your own hands

Not all plants tolerate transplantation well. Therefore classic plastic cups sour cream or yogurt can destroy a significant part of the seedlings. In addition to peat pots, quite often gardeners send seeds for seedlings in homemade containers, which decompose in the soil and do not injure the fragile root system. Eco-friendly cups for seedlings can be made very quickly and easily, and the costs will be minimal. There are several ways to make them.

Method No. 1

Seeds for seedlings can be sown in eggshells. This method is especially good for acidified soils. It's simple: fry the eggs and collect the shells. It is better to break the eggs not in the center, but near the spout - then the “cup” will be larger. To prevent the seedlings from rolling away, place them in an egg container. When planting in the ground, the shell should be slightly squeezed with your fingers so that it cracks. In this way we will help the root system to “break through” the shell.

Method number 2

You will need: bottle required diameter, scissors, newspaper, sticky tape paper First you need to cut the newspaper into strips of such length that they can go around the bottle with a margin. Wrap and secure with adhesive tape. It is important to leave a few centimeters of newspaper with an overhang in order to make the bottom. We also secure it with tape. After this, carefully pull out the bottle and admire the resulting glass.

Method number 3

We will use toilet paper, glass and spray bottle. We wrap a fairly thick layer of paper around the cup. Then we move the paper a little down (literally 1 cm) and begin to spray it generously with water. After the paper is completely wet, we form along the contour of the glass paper cup for seedlings. We give it time to dry. Then, using circular movements, release the glass from there.

DIY seedling box

To avoid carrying each cup separately when transporting it to the garden, you will need special boxes for seedlings. They are also not at all difficult to make with your own hands. To be more precise, do not do it, but transform an ordinary box into a highly specialized one. You will need any box, scissors and film. Having measured the length and width of the box, add 20 cm to each side. Place the film in the box along the required sides. You can secure this design with tape for reliability. The seedling box is ready. In this case, the film plays the role of a water tray.