Hobby Greenhouse question...

Being environmentally conscious and educating our kids the same way, we are all wondering about the practicality of using the newspaper pots you make yourself in our greenhouse. Anyone know if they will hold up to the watering, etc. or will they start to fall apart too soon...

The BassetDaughter really wants to do this...

they work ok i use to do them when i first started dabbling with seed growing-now i just to the cell packs!

its a fun project-they will hold up for awhile!

If you want to try them, they are fun and a great way to recycle! Don't bother with the pot maker though. You can just use a veggie can. I wrapped mine with half the width on the can and half hanging off. Then you just smack the can on a hard surface to close the bottom and pull the pot off. The only drawback I found with them is that they wanted to mold. If you used an open flat, the kind that has all the wholes in it to set your pots in, you might do better. The closed in flats like to hold water. I think the increased air circulation you might be alright.

If your youngster is really eco-conscious, you might want to explain good care of plastic cell pots, they are completely reusable and less mold or no mold on your plants means less or no chemicals to keep them healthy. :)

Thanks for the tips! We do reuse all our cell packs and gather all our neighbors' plastic pots when they do their spring and fall planting for our use, too. They know to give them all to us and we usually give some back with plants the next season. We use some newspaper for our worm factory but she thought this would be a good idea. I think we'll try some with the open trays...

I have used the potmaker to make 2 inch paper pots for several years now. I have also used an empty 4 inch butane gas cylinder to make larger pots.

They work great for starting cole crops, but after a bunch of trial and error I figured out the newspaper was depleting the soil of nitrogen as it was broken down by the soil microbes. This negatively impacted the early growth of peppers, tomatos and so forth.

Reusing the plastic containers purchased with plants is faster and easier, the downside though is they tend to be too small and they disturb the roots during transplanting. I liked the paper pots because you can just throw the whole thing in the ground.

Last year I had a "light bulb" experience. Instead of using paper to make the pots, I used black plastic sheeting. It is commonly found in farm/ranch stores. Unlike paper, I only made one and a half revolutions around the cylinder instead of three, then ran a strip of packing tape down the seam. After a while I realized I really didn't need the pot maker and could make the "container" any size I wanted depending on the cut size of the plastic sheeting. The bottom of the plastic tube was folded in to create a "floor", but it still drained nicely.

This was really nice since I could make huge or long pots depending upon what I was growing. When it was time to transplant into the garden, I place the plant and container on it's side, peeled off the tape, and exposed the roots without disturbing them. Then I realized I could do the whole operation right inside the hole dug for the plant - slipping the plastic right out from under the plant without moving it further.

I was able to reuse the plastic sheet squares with the only disposable item being the packing tape. The plastic sheeting used much less room for storage than the plastic pots, but are still more of a hassle to prep for new plants. No nitrogen deficiency problems either.

Hmmm... very interesting. Only problem is that, for us, it defeats the "recycling" aspect of using the newspaper.

I agree. And Cabbage, Kohlrabi and other cole crops work well in them since they don't seem to have a problem with the apparent nitrogen deficiency. The same thing happens when mulching with a high carbon content mulch like wood chips - the bacteria in the soil start muching on the wood fiber which is low in nitrogen, and so they in turn take away available nitrogen in the soil to help break down the wood fiber. This creates the nitrogen deficiency which can be a problem. Perhaps spraying the newspaper with a soluble fertilizer high in nitrogen after you have the plants potted up, or bottom watering the plants with a weak fertilizer solution high in nitrogen would be a better solution.

I apparently need to fertilize more...:)

The paper pots work well with bottom watering as they naturally wick up the moisture. I have used double trays with wicking mats and they have been trouble free in terms of watering (The lower tray holds the water, the upper tray holds the mat with the mat folded down through a slot in the upper tray down into the water in the lower tray) I haven't tried using plastic sheeting containers on a wicking mat, but I doubt it would work very well. Paper unfortunately doesn't work well with extremely large containers like plastic does (it can tear when wet), but the two are nicely complimentary.

Have fun experimenting:)

I use a weak solution of "worm tea" from our worm factory on my plants in the greenhouse. I wonder if this would do the trick.

This would be for potting up seedlings (the newspaper pots) so size wouldn't be a problem. Maybe we'll give it a try. I'll check out the additional fertilizer, too.