Don't Throw Away Your Newspapers: Hack Them Into The Perfect Seedling Starters

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Starting plants from seeds is one way to save money versus buying seedlings (or simply to use up the seeds your plants offer up each season). It's also a fun way to ensure future plants have a fair chance to grow, since you can control their environment better than when sowing seeds directly into the ground. In fact, there are a number of seeds that do well started indoors during winter, before spring begins. Instead of spending money on pre-made peat pots, make your own from newspaper pages. 

Repurposing newspaper into starting pots keeps it out of the recycle bin. Also, newsprint breaks down easily once set in the hole in the ground with your young seedlings (something your local earthworms will love). The paper is thin enough for roots to poke their way out with ease, compared with cardboard egg carton-style starting trays. 

Since you'll likely have enough paper to make a number of pots, make a series all at once to start all sorts of seeds. It's also a kid-worthy project, as it involves rolling paper strips around a can or water bottle, then folding the ends in to make a paper bottom. Instead of a soda can, you can buy a dedicated mold like the newspaper pot maker from Carrot Design. You'll also need a pair of scissors to cut the paper into strips, and some seed-starting soil mix. If you have more newspaper than you need for this project, it also makes a nice alternative to landscaping fabric around trees.

Stack two folded sheets of newspaper so you have four pages stacked (or fold a single sheet into thirds longways). Cut the stack lengthwise into three or four fairly equal strips. Each stack-strip makes one seed-starting pot. However you do this project, you want the width of your strips to be an inch or two longer than your cup, bottle, or mold. This overhang will make the base.

Wrap one strip-stack around a soda can, drinking glass, soup can, or other narrow, solid cylinder. What you choose determines the diameter of your plant pot. Wrap a little loosely so you can pull the cylinder out afterwards. Once you've removed the cylinder, fold one end of the newspaper down to make a bottom, working all the way around your tube. The goal is a solid base made of paper. 

After you've made a few pots, set them in a plastic tub or tray so it'll be less messy when filling and watering them. Fill them with seed starting mix, then press the seeds in based on the packet's recommendations. They're ready to plant in a few weeks, once they're somewhat tall and strong, or as recommended on the seed packets. The newspaper will likely have already started decaying, but you can put the whole thing in the ground, without disturbing the plant's roots.

If you're feeling particularly creative, you can make cube-shaped starting pots out of newspaper pages using an origami-like folding technique. These are perfect when combined with soil blocks, which are a space-saving soil trick for starting seeds. And if you're fresh out of newspaper, no problem: Make simple seed-starting pots from empty toilet paper tubes instead.