How to make your own peat pots. Peat pots. Features, application and types of peat pots. Making cups from plastic bottles

Containers intended for growing seedlings are presented by manufacturers in a huge assortment. But why spend money if you can use containers that we usually throw away. Today we’ll talk about how to make cups for seedlings yourself.

Disposable plastic cups

They are ideal for growing seedlings. The main thing is to ensure drainage so that the water does not stagnate. To do this, just make several punctures in the bottom of the container with a thick needle. It is also important to consider the needs of the plant’s root system.

Cans

Beer and lemonade cans are another one. good option. Just carefully cut off the top and make a hole in the bottom drainage holes. To avoid cutting yourself when replanting, sand the edges.

Milk or juice cartons

Containers lined with foil on the inside are best.

- Take the box and trim it around the perimeter on three sides. Fold back the top. This will create a kind of box with a reflective surface. The foil will reflect Sun rays, transferring heat to young plants.
- You will need two liter bags. Cut off about ¼ of the entire height. In such a container the plant will develop very quickly.
- Take a milk or juice box. The volume does not matter (small ones will not fit) and again make a “box” out of it. Pour soil for seedlings, and using the side part cut into strips, divide it into small squares. Plant one plant in each, burying them in the ground. Later, as development progressed, root system will entwine the earth. And the plant is very easy to replant without damaging the fragile roots.

Soda bottles

Plastic bottles from any drinks should also not be thrown away.
- For small containers, a little more than 1/4 of the entire height is cut off, and drainage holes are made in the bottom. This will allow excess water to drain into the pan. Once it's time to plant the plant permanent place, the glass is simply carefully removed.
- But 6 - liter bottles cut lengthwise. It is best to use rectangular canisters. The resulting containers can be used for growing seedlings and for transplanting plants that already need picking.

Next consumables- plastic containers. Here you can use cake lids, ice cream or sour cream cups. They are used as separate containers for plants.

- Small containers can be used for planting small seeds, or the growth of seedlings until picking.
- In deep ones, if you follow the recommendations, you can grow plants until they are planted in a permanent place.

The cake lid can be used as a cover. So you will get a homemade mini greenhouse.

Cups from toilet paper

Enough interesting solution. You will need:
- roll of toilet paper;
- plastic cup;
- spray;
- scotch.

Wrap the glass in several layers of toilet paper. The more, the denser the container will be.
Then we move the paper down, about 4 cm, and thoroughly moisten it with water. After this, we manually form the bottom of the glass and leave it until completely dry.
After this, we secure the bottom with tape.

Shoe box

If inner surface covered with polyethylene, then the container can be used for:
- germination of dahlia tubers;
- planting plants that subsequently do not require picking.

In addition, it can simply serve as a container for plastic cups.

Pots made from plastic bottles

We have already considered options for using them. But in this case, you will get square containers.
- Cut out the central part of the bottle (the neck and bottom go to waste).
- We fold the resulting cylinder twice so that it looks like a box without a bottom.
- The next step is to make cuts on each side in depth equal to ½ its length and fold the box.

As you can see, with a little imagination and patience, the seedling containers will be ready.

Tagged

With the onset of the new calendar year, every lover of growing vegetables in their own garden bed is again concerned about searching for containers for sowing. Almost all gardeners have given up the habit of growing seedlings on the windowsill in bulky wooden boxes - they are too inconvenient to transport to the dacha. In addition, tender young seedlings have time to grow into the roots of neighboring plants. The optimal solution When choosing a container for sowing, use a seedling cup.

Should I buy it in a store or make it myself?

Of course production technologies do not stand still, and every hypermarket that respects its customers keeps in its assortment convenient containers for seedlings made of peat, which not only will not damage the root system of the young plant, but will simply dissolve in the soil. Why build your own cups when you can buy ready-made ones? The answer to this question is extremely simple. Experienced gardeners We are used to planting dozens or even hundreds of seeds of various vegetable and flower crops. Can you imagine how much money you will need to invest to stock up on containers for all the seeds? Therefore, we will save money and make peat cups for seedlings ourselves. In the meantime, let’s determine if there are any available materials that could become a container for seedlings.

Simple solutions from scrap materials

Even during the winter, those who like to cultivate garden beds collect plastic cylinders, juice boxes, milk cartons, and sour cream containers. Literally everything is used: from paper to thick greenhouse film. And the imagination of gardeners knows no bounds. The film is stitched with thread, cleaved with a stapler, and wound in several layers. There is another simplest way to design containers. Two-liter beverage cylinders are cut into required height and turns into a container for planting. Plastic cups for seedlings, made like this in a simple way, have one small minus. However, when replanting, the root system will have to be disturbed a little. Only the removal of those plants that, during the time spent on the windowsill, did not have time to acquire long and strong roots, occurs painlessly.

Making paper cups for seedlings

Some plants are so capricious that they cannot withstand transplantation, get sick for a long time and do not take root well. As a result, while the seedling is acclimatizing in a new place, the precious time allotted for growth will be lost. Therefore, we will make paper cups for seedlings. During the winter, you can collect unwanted newspapers. Pressed cellulose obtained from recycled materials is used to print publications. It will easily rot in the garden, serving as food for omnivores.

We cut the newspapers into pieces of 10x30 cm. The newspaper sheets are quite thin, and in order for the process to go faster, you can fold them in half or three. We take an ordinary glass and wrap it with the resulting blanks in several layers. We leave a small protrusion, which will later be needed to form the bottom. Now dip the bottom edge of the paper in a small amount of glue and crush it thoroughly, forming a bottom and tightly fixing it at the bottom of the glass. Press down the newspaper blank with a glass and let the glue dry. We repeat this simple manipulation as many times as we plan to receive blanks. Paper cups for seedlings are ready! Now they can be put away in the pantry until the sowing time.

Peat container for planting

If we are not sure about the density of newspaper sheets, we can use more sophisticated technology production of landing container. A peat glass will bring more more benefit painlessly transplanted plant. After all, when it dissolves in the soil, it actually becomes good fertilizer. You can make peat containers to your own order. We will determine it ourselves required sizes cups and fit a conical steel blank under them. We take into account the fact that in order to obtain more early harvest It is necessary to sow the seeds in a large, spacious container. The root system in it will develop well, the transplant will be painless, and the plant will immediately be able to begin bearing fruit.

To make a peat cup for seedlings, we will need:

steel conical shape of the required size;
blank for forming cups;
circle with a rod.

Composition of the nutritional mixture

Having found all the components of the mold for constructing future cups, we move on to making the peat base. We will need the following proportions: 50% peat, 40% cow manure and 10% black soil. Instead of black soil, you can use any other rich soil. Mix well and add azotobacterin, phosphorobacterin and water. The mixture should be quite thick in consistency.

Responsible stage of production

To begin, lower a circle with a pin to the bottom of a steel glass and fill it with the prepared peat mixture to a thickness of 2 cm. We thoroughly compact the future bottom with a blank. Now, without removing it, we will pour the solution along the edges, filling the entire gap between the steel glass and the blank. The seedling cup will not dry out if the mixture is immediately compacted when pouring. The blank can be immediately removed as soon as the peat composition fills the voids right up to the very top. It’s okay if the liner is difficult to remove; you can slightly rock it from side to side. Now all that remains is to carefully pull the rod and remove the finished glass.

Time to experiment

Not everyone gets peat cups for seedlings of perfect quality the first time. Sometimes homemade containers can disintegrate and dry out - perhaps this is because the mixture is not thick enough. Sometimes the resulting products are too dense and hard, which are difficult to dissolve in the ground when planted. The necessary skill and instinct will definitely come, even if it takes multiple repetitions.

A glass for seedlings made of polyethylene

To make a container 10 cm high and 7 cm in diameter, you will need a piece of thick film measuring 33x15 cm. Find or cut out a rectangular block to fit the size of the future cup. In the two edges of the block responsible for the bottom, we make grooves in such a way that a stapler can be placed in them. We cut the polyethylene blanks and begin to design the planting containers. Then we wrap the film blank around and secure it with a stapler and 5 staples. We fix two of them on top and bottom side edge, and with the rest we form the bottom, folding the ends of the film into an envelope. It's okay if more staples go on the bottom. This way you can model cups of various sizes.

Conclusion

We learned a lot about how to make seedling cups. Of course, peat or paper containers are seen the best solution compared to homemade polyethylene glasses. The idea of planting plants in the ground along with a natural glass that dissolves with water in the soil was revolutionary at one time. But only gardeners can decide which of the presented methods for making containers for seedlings is most acceptable for them. After all, not everyone can find steel billets for peat glasses, and not everyone has enough time and patience for hard work with glue and paper. Therefore, making cups for seedlings is a purely individual matter.

Perhaps you will use a proven method and sow the seeds in disposable plastic containers, besides, they clearly show the condition of the root system and the degree of soil spillage. And such containers can be reused many times. Whatever container you choose for sowing seeds, we wish you a rich harvest!

Cans

Beer and lemonade cans are another good option. Just carefully cut off the top and make drainage holes in the bottom. To avoid cutting yourself when replanting, sand the edges.

Milk or juice cartons

Containers lined with foil on the inside are best.

- Take the box and trim it around the perimeter on three sides. Fold back the top. This will create a kind of box with a reflective surface. The foil will reflect the sun's rays, transferring heat to the young plants.
- You will need two liter bags. Cut off about ¼ of the entire height. In such a container the plant will develop very quickly.
- Take a milk or juice box. The volume does not matter (small ones will not fit) and again make a “box” out of it. Pour in, and using the side part cut into strips, divide it into small squares. Plant one plant in each, burying them in the ground. Later, as it develops, the root system will entwine the ground. And the plant is very easy to replant without damaging the fragile roots.

Soda bottles

Plastic bottles from any drinks should also not be thrown away.
- For small containers, a little more than 1/4 of the entire height is cut off, and drainage holes are made in the bottom. This will allow excess water to drain into the pan. Once it’s time to plant the plant in a permanent place, the cup is simply carefully removed.
- But 6-liter bottles are cut lengthwise. It is best to use rectangular canisters. The resulting containers can be used for growing seedlings and for transplanting plants that already need picking.

The next consumable item is plastic containers. Here you can use cake lids, ice cream or sour cream cups. They are used as separate containers for plants.

- Small containers can be used for planting small seeds or growing seedlings until picking.
- In deep ones, if you follow the recommendations, you can grow plants until they are planted in a permanent place.

The cake lid can be used as a cover. So you will get a homemade mini greenhouse.

Toilet paper cups

Quite an interesting solution. You will need:
- roll of toilet paper;
- plastic cup;
- spray;
- scotch.

Shoe box

If the inner surface is covered with polyethylene, then the container can be used for:
- germination of dahlia tubers;
- planting plants that subsequently do not require picking.

In addition, it can simply serve as a container for plastic cups.

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 enough to be born and grow up in a wonderful country, where most people were smart and had “golden” hands - it would have been difficult to survive in an era of total shortage otherwise. 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 big choice 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 various onions that can be grown without picking, 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 comes 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 the 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 is no way to remove the seedlings from the pot, and the tray can be called a tray, the pots are not secured on it in any way, they 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 about them is the 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 charm: natural material, you can plant seedlings directly with pots in the ground, no 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!

I always grow seedlings myself. I have a lot of it, so I have to save on cups. I heard that you can use paper for this. Tell me how to make pots for seedlings from newspaper with your own hands?

February is the beginning of a busy time for gardeners and flower growers. After all, right now is the best time the right time start such an important task as growing seedlings. After purchasing seeds and nutrient substrate, the question arises - where to sow them? The choice of containers for growing seedlings is simply huge: these include special trays, and disposable cups. However, everything requires financial investment. In cases where you need to obtain a large number of seedlings, the issue of saving money plays an important role.

And here craftsmen come to the rescue with their ideas for using improvised means, such as newspapers. You can make convenient, practical and cheap cups from paper material, since in every home there are unnecessary booklets, catalogs, etc. All you need is old newspapers, a little time and patience. So, how to make seedling pots from newspaper with your own hands?

Step-by-step instructions for preparing pots

First of all, newspapers should be folded (or cut) into strips of the required width, depending on the height of the future pot-cup. To do this, bend the sheet in half twice. The number of paper layers in a cup depends on the quality of the paper - thin newspaper must be wrapped several times.

For paper cups, it is better not to use colored newspapers or glossy magazines, as they release dye when wet.

In addition, you will need a base to give the cup its shape. For these purposes, you can use a glass beaker or tin can, but it’s better to refuse - it is springy, and it will be inconvenient to wind the paper.

To prevent the cup from unfolding, you can choose from two options:

at the stage when the newspaper is wound on the base, tie it with thread;
Before you start wrapping the paper around the base, fold the newspaper strip with an edge from the top edge, and when the cup is ready, slightly unfold the edge on one side and overlap it on the other side.

Paper cups are not stable enough, so you need to choose a suitable container (2/3 higher than the height of the cups) and place them tightly next to each other. You can tie them together with a rope after the soil has been poured. It is important not to overwater the seedlings in paper pots, otherwise they will quickly get wet and fall apart.

When transplanting seedlings, the seedlings can be quite easily removed from the cup, or they can be planted with it - over the course of the season, the paper will have time to decompose in the ground.