Kirsten's paper pots

[Kirsten]

What does a bored gardener do in a boring class? Invent a glueless-tape-less paper pot, of course.

Last year I made paper pots out of newspaper to start my seeds in and overall they were not at all successful. Without glue or tape a thin pot didn't stay together, and a thick pot wouldn't decompose quickly enough (plus it took me forever to make). So here's my new invention, made out of plain old office paper. Bonus points if you can figure out what that's supposed to be a picture of!

http://i40.tinypic.com/vr8o79.png

http://i43.tinypic.com/n20rdj.png

http://i41.tinypic.com/kbes5z.png

http://i43.tinypic.com/sn02m9.png

Use a spoon to put in some dirt, pop in your seed, and put somewhere warm.

Notes:

1) It WILL stay together even when you water it, but you have to be careful - don't just pour, drizzle carefully if you can.
2) Once wet, you CANNOT move the pot or it will fall apart. I suggest putting them all on a tray and leaving them there (move the whole tray at once if you need to, but not individually) until ready to transplant into larger pots/outside.
3) This method will not work for significantly larger pots (or obviously, big seeds).
4) When you need to move them for transplanting, pick up the whole pot with fingers on either side, from the bottom of the sides - don't pull on the top edges.

Not that I've gotten that far yet - I've only seeded eggplants in six of these things and so far they're holding together pretty well. We'll see how it goes... I think the thin paper should be able to decompose easily though (it's very fragile when wet) and since there's no tape or glue, the whole thing can just go in the soil.

[Foz]

oh wow thats pretty good! :goodpost:

[~Obsidian~]

Great :D

Can you post up a method for your thicker pots too? I'm not looking to make something that'd decompose as easily as the above one.

:goodpost:

[Riz]

very cool kirsten :)

is the picture of a battery ? like duracell !?

[aamirc]

nice pots, i could never be so creative.... Does the delta X have any significance to the diagram? The diagram looks like a picture of a circuit board. I can't remember what I learnt in high school that well, but if my memory serves me right is the squiggly line per chance the symbol of a resistor. I don't know what the cylindrical shape around it is though. Riz could be right that it looks like a battery. But on the hand I am pretty sure that AA batteries don't have resistors in them, if those squiggly lines do represent a resistor that is. Oh well... let us know what it is Kirsten.

Once again nice pots, :D ...... SALAM

[Kirsten]

LOL ok you guys outdid me. I don't actually know what it is except that it's definitely some sort of a circuit (I got it from the recycling bin downstairs - I never take notes on clean paper because I'm the only one who needs it, so I always write on paper that's been printed on one side. I just used a sheet from there to make these :) )

Obsidian - with my newspaper pots, what I did was find a cup/bottom of a mug or something that was roughly the shape and size I wanted to make my newspaper pot. Then I cut lots of strips of newspaper roughly about 1/2 - 3/4 of an inch wide (wait, you guys use cms, yes? umm... roughly 2 cm? lol) and wet them in plain water. When you put on the first layer (on the cup) it sticks because it's wet... and then you just layer on more and more and more until it's roughly the thickness you want. Let dry and when it's done, slide the whole thing off. It should stay together in one piece and did prettywell with watering and stuff.

My complaints in general were that a) it took forever to decompose, and b) the thing took FOREVER to make and was in general just a big mess. I usually had about half a centimeter's layer of papers on there. And once it wouldn't come off the cup I molded it on, but that's another story...anyway, I don't count that one among my brighter inventions but feel free to try it, lol :)

[~Obsidian~]

Ah, paper mache minus the PVA, alright :D thanks

[farah]

hmm what seeds would be the most ideal to start of in the pots.. cucumber seeds?

[Kirsten]

Cucumbers are definitely too big for the size I made them, but I think tomato/basil/eggplant etc should be fine.

I saw two eggplants beginning to sprout this morning!

[farah]

Lol I can't believe people willingly eat eggplants/aubergine they have a strange texture to them, think I might try the tomato seeds tomorrow.. where I work sheets upon sheets of paper get thrown away, with only 1/5th of the sheet having been used because its for ticketing.. most of the sheets thrown have no writing at all.. I've seen a work mate tear up three pieces of blank A4 paper into strips because it calms him.. :eek: I really had to bite my tongue... so someone coming up with an idea like yours is comforting that people think about resources as a finite source

[umm_ibraheem]

would the paper that comes from stores specials make a good biodegradable pot?

[Kirsten]

Is that like the newspapery stuff? I've heard that newspaper is really hard to decompose because it contains lignin. I've never tried to decompose a newspaper pot, but I've shredded it into compost before and in general I've had much better luck getting shredded white paper to decompose. The newspaper tends to all clump together and not break down at all.

[aamirc]

Lol I can't believe people willingly eat eggplants/aubergine they have a strange texture to them, think I might try the tomato seeds tomorrow.. where I work sheets upon sheets of paper get thrown away, with only 1/5th of the sheet having been used because its for ticketing.. most of the sheets thrown have no writing at all.. I've seen a work mate tear up three pieces of blank A4 paper into strips because it calms him.. :eek: I really had to bite my tongue... so someone coming up with an idea like yours is comforting that people think about resources as a finite source

intolerant people sheesh... I always use the back sides of used paper to do uniwork on.... Then I throw it away now I can make pots of them yay.

And how the hell does tearing up paper calm someone down. Nutcase alert. :D I find concentrating on the Prophet's sayings a better method to calm myself down, not that I need calming down often.

[farah]

:GreenThumbs: Going to try and waste less paper at work, maybe write to head office and ask for paper recycling waste bins at least for the ticketing till.. the paper is plain white A4 that's just perforated perfect for use as scrap so it seems irresponsible keeping in mind that so many forests are just disappearing

[aamirc]

In Australia every house and every workplace has recycling bins. Don't they have them in England?

Hey I figured out a way to make paper pots without cutting the paper and without using glue, my pots can be picked up 'carefully' after putting soil in them. My pot's waste zero paper because there is no cutting. I planted rock melon seeds in the pot. I'll show a picture when I take one of it.

[Kirsten]

I can't wait to see them :)

Hey I didn't know canteloupes were called Rock Melons in Australia! I had to google image them to figure out what they were :)

[aamirc]

Well i didn't know than Rock Melons were called canteloupes in 'where plants have to come inside for the winter'. :p You learn something everyday.

[dhakiyya]

could you make little pots out of papier mache? use bits of torn up paper and semolina? they would be biodegradable and the semolina would provide some extra nutrients to the plant. you can make them as thick as you like, just use more paper/semolina for thicker plant pots.

[farah]

In Australia every house and every workplace has recycling bins. Don't they have them in England?

Hey I figured out a way to make paper pots without cutting the paper and without using glue, my pots can be picked up 'carefully' after putting soil in them. My pot's waste zero paper because there is no cutting. I planted rock melon seeds in the pot. I'll show a picture when I take one of it.

We're not as good as Aussies or New Zealanders with environmental issues compared to the UK, in the past ten years every household in my town was provided with paper/plastic and garden waste bins so a definite improvement :). Works as bad as ever with resources however they recycle cardboard. Recycling doesn't seem to be high on many peoples agendas which is a bit :( despite London's water levels slowly but surely rising.

[Pak Bonsai]

here is one more method to make paper pots for seedlings,using newspaper.
they are as good as other pots...please check it.i have use it my self.
http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-biodegradable-seeding-pots/