Make Starting Seeds Easier With A Simple Starter Pot DIY

If you're looking to create a bustling, thriving garden overflowing with flowers or produce, you may want to consider starting your garden from seeds. Starting your seeds indoors before the planting season can help create a healthy garden, especially for flowers like petunias that many gardeners struggle to grow from seeds directly outdoors. However, growing seeds indoors requires additional materials, such as starting trays. Thankfully, you can easily make your own seed starting with this simple DIY using materials you likely already have around your home.

To make this DIY biodegradable plant pot, you'll need water, flour, coffee grounds, an oven-safe flower pot (metal or clay), non-stick spray, as well as a butter knife and measuring cups. You'll also need access to an oven to bake your plant pot. Though you can't use pots that melt for this hack, they don't have to go to waste: You can create an adorable DIY birdhouse out of an extra plastic nursery pot. Because this DIY pot uses only natural materials, it's safe to plant directly in the ground where it will break down over time — nurturing your budding plant while also preventing the need to buy new seed starting trays.

After you've gathered the needed supplies, you'll want to make your DIY starter pot by creating a dough using the flour, coffee grounds, and water. Coffee grounds can be dry or still moist, but should be free of any mold or mildew. First, measure out and combine equal parts flour and coffee grounds in a mixing bowl. Then, slowly add a half-part of water, mixing thoroughly as you pour. Add water a little at a time as needed, but avoid using too much: If the mixture is soupy, the dough won't form or set correctly (you want a clay dough or thick mud texture).

With your dough prepared, you can focus on the shaping process. Start by coating the inside of your pre-existing pot with non-stick spray. Place your dough into the flower pot and begin pinching and molding it to replicate the shape. You want to make sure the bottom of your DIY pot is thick enough to support the soil and seeds, while saving enough of the mixture to create thick sides so they don't crack.

To bake, place the entire flower pot into an oven at a low heat (about 220 degrees Fahrenheit) so your mixture keeps its shape. After your pot bakes for 30 to 40 minutes and cools, you can use the butter knife to carefully remove your new biodegradable pot from its mold and begin planting. If this is your first time starting with seeds, you may want to use additional resources like this handy pencil eraser hack to make sowing a breeze.

Once your seeds grow into thriving, healthy seedlings, it's time to transplant them to their forever homes. Depending on what you're planting, this may be directly into the earth, or into a larger pot.

Regardless of where you choose to relocate your seedlings, transplanting can be a stressful process. And nobody wants their seedlings to fail due to transplant shock after they've put in so much work. Thankfully, these DIY biodegradable starting pots take away much of the hassle of transplanting. Instead of needing to uproot your seedling and replant it, you can plant these biodegradable pots directly in the ground. Depending on what you're planting, you may want to take the time to harden off your new plants gradually so you can successfully move your seedlings outside for even better chances of success. 

As your plant grows and you continue to water it, the coffee grounds and flour will break down into the soil, freeing up your plant's roots and even providing helpful nutrients as it grows. This helps your seedling slowly acclimate to its new home, reducing the chances of a failed transplant. If you find the pots aren't breaking down quickly enough and tangling roots or preventing drainage, consider breaking them up a little bit before replanting. And if you need smaller starting pots, use a large muffin tin to create multiple pots at once.