Sustainable Seed Starting Supplies
Happy Earth Day!
As we headed into another season of gardening, I knew that I wanted to change up my seed starting process. We moved into a new home last August, and I left behind a lot of the farm equipment that I would typically use to start our garden and work in it all season long. This included my plastic plant pots and trays. I only kept a few plastic bottom trays just in case they were needed, but other than that, I wanted to be creative with what I was going to use. In truth, I wanted to look to more historically used items for the garden as well as think outside of the box when it came to what I already had around my house. If you think about it, commercial seed starting supplies would not have existed during the 18th and 19th centuries. People who wanted to grow crops that needed extra time indoors to grow a harvestable crop would need to be creative and use what they had about the home.
I used my experience visiting Colonial Williamsburg as inspiration for what to use to start my garden indoors. To my surprise, this has been my most successful seed starting experience yet! You know, it only took me six years to figure it out - ha! While I cannot say it necessarily correlates with the use of different containers, I can say that having grow lights has improved my success rate tenfold.
sustainable seed starting supplies:
Paper Pots. I was skeptical for years about growing my plants in flimsy newspaper pots. I thought that it would be such a waste, something that would fall apart after a few days from being water logged and leave little space for my plants to grow. To explain it plainly, I thought growing in paper pots was a hopelessly romantic pipe dream. If you feel the same, I am here to tell you that they have completely changed my mind! I absolutely love paper plant pots. They are durable, retain moisture for long periods of time, and my plants really love them. Their roots have grown so much faster, I feel! Perhaps because they have something to cling to. I will say the only downfall is planting lots of starts because they do not like to be packed together in tray, like pictured above. Because they stay so moist, they grow mold quite easily. This can be remedied by transplanting into a new pot and allowing proper air circulation (a fan helps) and sunlight to penetrate the spots where mold can grow. This is the paper pot maker that I use! If you want to learn how to make your own paper pots, click here.
Miniature Clay Pots. I absolutely adored seeing miniature clay pots being used in Colonial Williamsburg for their plant starts. Why hadn’t I thought of that? While these are more of an investment over time and you would need a lot of them if you were planting a large garden, I have been slowly collecting the small sized ones to use to house my seed starts. I love the look of clay pots, so they are really more for aesthetic purposes than the best type of pot based on functionality and cost effectiveness. The really tiny ones, about 1.5 inches, are impossible to find at garden centers. I typically find mine at craft shops, but you can also order them online here.
Casserole Dishes. What is she talking about - casserole dishes?! I am serious! I love to bottom water my plants, it’s one of my most useful tips for starting seeds. I saved a few black plastic plant trays to use this year, the kind without drainage holes, but I quickly ran out. I found that using old casserole dishes I found at the thrift shops were perfect for housing my little plant starts and a great way to bottom water them, too! Plus they look much more beautiful and can be reused again and again. Not to mention that they serve a purpose even after the seed starting season has ended!
Canning Jars. What to do about humidity? It’s often recommended to use a plastic humidity dome or plastic wrap to help seeds retain moisture for better germination. You can buy the entire system for this with commercial plant starting supplies (the bottom tray, plastic inserts, and humidity dome) and it’s pricey, especially after this past year with everyone wanting to garden! I wanted to try to stay away from plastic cling wrap, so I tried using my Ball® Smooth Sided Pint and Half-Pint Jars as humidity covers for my pots. It worked so well! The greenhouse effect was in full swing, and the jars really become nice and condensed inside after being in the sunlight. It’s also so beautiful looking to see on my windowsill!
Popsicle Sticks or Twigs. Another plastic piece you can do without is a plant marker. You can make these quite simply with a popsicle stick or small twig! I like popsicle sticks because they are easy to write on, but a twig can also be painted or have a small section carved out to be written on. Both are compostable and can even be moved to your garden beds for labeling. I have also been using clothespins as plant markers!
Just when I thought that the convenience of plastic seed starting supplies was going to overrule my entire operation, I have found that I really enjoy all of the pieces I’ve collected this spring to start my seeds. I find that I am more invigorated to work on it because it is so beautiful, and it feels old-fashioned and wholesome to me. I love seeing my little clay pots on the sill each morning and tending to them. In many ways, I feel that I have returned to the way that I started this blog, with slower intentions and careful ideas. Somewhere in there, the farming bug took over and I wanted bigger and faster things. I think this year, so far, my mindset has return to “old and slow and simple” and that’s okay.
Do you have any household items that you use for seed starting?
xoxo Kayla
This post is sponsored by @ballcanning
