After this week’s two nights of freezing temps, I’m on Garden 2013 v3.0. There were new leaves popping out on the mater stems that something had chewed on and now this, grrr. I’ve started yet ANOTHER batch of tomatoes and peppers inside so they’ll be waaaaay late. Squash is coming up in one area but the other nothing so need to do that again. I knew it was early but really wanted to get a jump on those squash bugs this year. I had gotten mad at the Burpee teeny tiny pots I had to buy (nothing else at Home Depot) because I ended up destroying the plants trying to get them out so I just dumped a mess of cukes. It looked like they were quite happy and growning in the pile but think they’re gone now, too. And squirrels are still digging holes everywhere.
Results of this year’s starter containers:
The Burpee teeny tiny starter trays are spawns of the devil so don’t waste your money. It’s impossible to get your plants out of them. Yeah, I know, stupid me. I had wanted larger peat pots but couldn’t find anything but these and they came with a cover so I figured it’d keep the cat out. Never again.
Homemade newspaper pots worked ok inside though they dried out quickly so I had to watch them more closely. When put outside in the garden, they all immediately died. Some I left intact, others I loosened the sides and bottom for the roots but all died just the same. I don’t know if the newspaper attracted the whatever that ate the plants or what, but no more newspaper containers for me.
Plastic Meow Mix cat food containers with holes punched (ice pick) in the bottoms worked the best. They are large enough to stay moist and the plants grew better. The plants came out very easily - position fingers around plant, turn upside down, give the bottom a whop and everything comes out intact. Reuse for next year.
Your results are exactly why I am so lazy when it comes to starting seeds indoors. This year I am going to start some stuff in various small and mid-size flower pots and when the weather is nice, just set them on the retaining wall to grow. I may or may not transplant them once all danger of frost is past.
“The Burpee teeny tiny starter trays are spawns of the devil so don’t waste your money...Homemade newspaper pots worked ok inside though they dried out quickly so I had to watch them more closely...”
I haven’t put them outside yet, but so far my method of using the cut-up cardboard egg crates seems to be working well.
I cut up one of those nice and cushiony cardboard egg cartons into individual cups. We have a bunch of those plastic apple sauce cups saved up. I put an egg carton section into an apple sauce cup.
Then I place the soil into the egg carton cup. I’ve been using a half of a soil pellet as my soil, and moisten it.(But compost or whatever you use as potting soil would be appropriate.) Then, I put the seed into the soil and water.
If there is too much water, the apple sauce cup catches it and I can either drain it off or let it sit to evaporate or keep the soil moistened. In either case, because the plastic cups are transparent/translucent, I can see what’s going on and adjust accordingly.
I will generally keep the soil moist with a tablespoon or so of water each day per cup.
When it is time to set out, I plan to take the egg crate cup out of the applesauce cup and plant that.
We shall see how happy my seedlings are with that experiment. They may turn out like your newspaper pot experiment.
I love your idea about the meow mix cans....but we don’t have catz...perhaps tuna cans might work. However if we don’t rinse them off real well, we might find ourselves with some catz!
Did you harden off your seedlings?