A Great Way To Start Seeds

By sherrilosee
September 20, 2012

Noticing that the deep plugs many plants are sold in grow vigorously due to their well developed root system, I decided to start seeds in pots modeled after these plugs: long, narrow, tubular containers with good drainage.

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Sep 20, 2012 9:39 AM CST
Name: Lin Vosbury
Sebastian, Florida (Zone 10a)

Region: Ukraine Region: United States of America Bird Bath, Fountain and Waterfall Region: Florida Charter ATP Member I was one of the first 300 contributors to the plant database!
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Oh, thank you for the link Sherri ... $3.25 for a package of 8 is very reasonable!
~ I'm an old gal who still loves playing in the dirt!
~ Playing in the dirt is my therapy ... and I'm in therapy a lot!


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Sep 20, 2012 12:22 PM CST
Name: woofie
NE WA (Zone 5a)
Charter ATP Member Garden Procrastinator Greenhouse Dragonflies Plays in the sandbox I was one of the first 300 contributors to the plant database!
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I love the way one good tip always seems to generate more! Thumbs up
Confidence is that feeling you have right before you do something really stupid.
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Sep 20, 2012 12:44 PM CST
Name: Susan
Virginia (Zone 8a)
God is the only thing that matters.
I was one of the first 300 contributors to the plant database! Garden Ideas: Level 1 Avid Green Pages Reviewer Hibiscus Dragonflies Daylilies
Bee Lover Dahlias Butterflies Hostas Birds Lilies
Thanks for the link and tips! I tip my hat to you.
Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Mat.6:28-29
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Sep 20, 2012 1:42 PM CST
Name: Sherri Losee
Bloomington, IN (Zone 6a)
Birds Sedums Plays in the sandbox Lover of wildlife (Raccoon badge) Orchids Region: Indiana
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You're welcome! I tip my hat to you.
We are stardust, we are golden;
and we've got to get ourselves back to the garden. ~ Joni Mitchell ~
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Sep 20, 2012 7:44 PM CST
Name: Critter (Jill)
Frederick, MD (Zone 6b)
Charter ATP Member Million Pollinator Garden Challenge Critters Allowed Butterflies Hummingbirder Cat Lover
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Nice!

I like deeper containers, also... found some 16 oz cups that are a little taller/narrower than the usual plastic "party" cups (plus they're translucent, like the solo cups)... and for 36 cell trays, I always go with the "deep" 606 inserts.

I've been using half gallon milk jugs for winter sowing for years, and for that purpose I usually cut them halfway up... but last spring I used a few for shrub cuttings in early spring, cutting the jug so I could put a good 8 inches of soil in the bottom part (for winter sowing seeds, I usually use just 4 inches of potting mix). That worked so well, I'll be saving more half gallon jugs to use that way. (The half gallon ones are shaped so that they have taller straight sides than gallon milk jugs... I basically cut the jugs about where the handle starts, and I don't cut all the way through so that the handle forms a "hinge" between the upper and lower parts of the jug.)

I also rooted a few cuttings in the sturdy cardboard cylinders that coffee beans come in... they're maybe 4 inches across and deeper/taller than a gallon nursery pot.

I agree that these tubes would be great for rooting a bunch of coleus cuttings or starting seeds... you could get a whole lot of plants going in a little bit of space, without resorting to those shallow 72 count trays!

good tip on bottom watering with these tubes, too.

Thanks!!
We're all learners, doers, teachers.
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Sep 20, 2012 8:48 PM CST
Name: Rick Corey
Everett WA 98204 (Zone 8a)
Sunset Zone 5. Koppen Csb. Eco 2f
Frugal Gardener Garden Procrastinator I helped beta test the first seed swap Plant and/or Seed Trader Seed Starter Region: Pacific Northwest
Photo Contest Winner: 2014 Avid Green Pages Reviewer Garden Ideas: Master Level Garden Sages I was one of the first 300 contributors to the plant database! I helped plan and beta test the plant database.
I've been saving empty soda bottles from work for next Spring. Two liter bottles will make big flowerpot with very straight sides, but that's not for seed-starting, that's for giving away plants. And they will be tippy! (I'll cut off the top and b urn or drill holes in the base.)

I'm also saving 20-ounce plastic soda bottles (2 3/4" diameter and 5 1/2" tall). These are still biggish for starting seeds, but good for potting up seedlings that I started in a 72-cell-tray of 6-pack inserts, or a 128-cell propagation tray.

The problem is that few soda bottles have straight sides. I save "Sobe" and "Vitamin Water" because they are mostly straight with small indentations. I'm hoping that root balls will still come out. They should, unless I let them get too root-bound. And if they are root-bound and circling , I need to spread those roots out anyway! That's what I'm telling myself, but I'll find out next spring.

Very rarely, someone at work will throw away a tall, narrow straight-sided water bottle. I forget the brand name, but they are cloest to your straight-sided lab-tubes.

My main design consideration is simple: the price is right.

I save paper coffee cups whenever I get one. My thoguht there was that, if I gave someone local a seedling in a PAPER cup, they will HAVE to plant it out or pot it up before the paper disintegrates. Is that too fiendish?
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Sep 20, 2012 8:54 PM CST
Name: Rick Corey
Everett WA 98204 (Zone 8a)
Sunset Zone 5. Koppen Csb. Eco 2f
Frugal Gardener Garden Procrastinator I helped beta test the first seed swap Plant and/or Seed Trader Seed Starter Region: Pacific Northwest
Photo Contest Winner: 2014 Avid Green Pages Reviewer Garden Ideas: Master Level Garden Sages I was one of the first 300 contributors to the plant database! I helped plan and beta test the plant database.
>> "deep" 606 inserts

I always wanted to try "deep" inserts, but when I tried mailorder, they were always out.

But I found a local wholsalke place for nursery/greenhouse supplies (Steuber's Distributing). They have some very deep (like 4 + inches) 50-cell propagation trays. They seem slightly sturdier than some other prop tyary, and of course much sturdier than tear-apart "insert" trays.

I think it was $3 for the tray. That makes each cell only 6 cents, but when you go to push each seedling out of the tray, it is less handy than single tubes. Being able to b uy them locally saves S&H, which can be as much as the cost of the trays.

Usually I cut prop trays up into 3-4 rows of cells when I want to turn them upside down to shake seedling root balls out. The 50-c ell trays divide into 3 sections: 15 cells or 20 cells. Since I sldom fill a whole tray with one variety, that works out OK for me.

(Cutting them down to just two rows is possible, but then they are tippy.)
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Sep 21, 2012 5:07 AM CST
Name: Karen
Valencia, Pa (Zone 6a)
I was one of the first 300 contributors to the plant database! Cut Flowers Winter Sowing Charter ATP Member Seed Starter Echinacea
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I use mostly milk jugs for wintersowing, but 2 liters work well too. And they're good for cuttings
Thumb of 2012-09-21/kqcrna/282468

I also use yogurt cups for seeds and cuttings, and sometimes styrofoam cups.

Karen
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Sep 21, 2012 5:49 AM CST
Name: Susan
Virginia (Zone 8a)
God is the only thing that matters.
I was one of the first 300 contributors to the plant database! Garden Ideas: Level 1 Avid Green Pages Reviewer Hibiscus Dragonflies Daylilies
Bee Lover Dahlias Butterflies Hostas Birds Lilies
Great ideas everybody! I found these cylinders and I could not help but notice the item above it looks like a littler box and I have purchased cheep litter boxes for 2.99 from Walmart and drilled holes in the bottom for seed starting. The ones they have are only 1.00 and you can purchase several and use them over and over.

I also found some fun things, like the coffee cup shaped like a toilet. Great gag gift for a co-worker that spends too much time in the bathroom I think. Green Grin! Rolling on the floor laughing
Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Mat.6:28-29
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Sep 25, 2012 4:02 PM CST
Name: Critter (Jill)
Frederick, MD (Zone 6b)
Charter ATP Member Million Pollinator Garden Challenge Critters Allowed Butterflies Hummingbirder Cat Lover
Bee Lover Region: Mid-Atlantic Cottage Gardener Garden Photography Tropicals Hibiscus
That 4 inch deep 50 cell tray sounds terrific!

2 liter bottles that Coke, etc. comes in have straight enough sides... main thing is that they don't have any part of the side that curves inward... even a little indented ring (like you see on many water bottles) can make it really hard to get roots out without cutting the bottle.
We're all learners, doers, teachers.
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Sep 25, 2012 5:52 PM CST
Name: Rick Corey
Everett WA 98204 (Zone 8a)
Sunset Zone 5. Koppen Csb. Eco 2f
Frugal Gardener Garden Procrastinator I helped beta test the first seed swap Plant and/or Seed Trader Seed Starter Region: Pacific Northwest
Photo Contest Winner: 2014 Avid Green Pages Reviewer Garden Ideas: Master Level Garden Sages I was one of the first 300 contributors to the plant database! I helped plan and beta test the plant database.
>> even a little indented ring (like you see on many water bottles) can make it really hard to get roots out without cutting the bottle.

I am afraid of that. I'm hoping it will motivate me to plant out before they get too root-bound.
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Sep 25, 2012 5:59 PM CST
Name: Ann ~Heat zn 9, Sunset
North Fl. (Zone 8b)
Garden Sages Region: Ukraine Native Plants and Wildflowers Xeriscape Organic Gardener I was one of the first 300 contributors to the plant database!
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I just recently had a devil of a time getting some plants out of a bottle like you speak of Rick. So make sure you don't wait too long. I won't be making that mistake again any time soon!
I am a strong believer in the simple fact is that what matters in this life is how we treat others. I think that's what living is all about. Not what I've done in my life but how I've treated others. ~~ Sharon Brown
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Sep 25, 2012 6:20 PM CST
Name: Rick Corey
Everett WA 98204 (Zone 8a)
Sunset Zone 5. Koppen Csb. Eco 2f
Frugal Gardener Garden Procrastinator I helped beta test the first seed swap Plant and/or Seed Trader Seed Starter Region: Pacific Northwest
Photo Contest Winner: 2014 Avid Green Pages Reviewer Garden Ideas: Master Level Garden Sages I was one of the first 300 contributors to the plant database! I helped plan and beta test the plant database.
Sigh. I now have three big garbage bags full of plastic soda bottles, many more 24 ounce than 2 liter. I guess I'll make a small test at first.
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Sep 25, 2012 6:30 PM CST
Name: Ann ~Heat zn 9, Sunset
North Fl. (Zone 8b)
Garden Sages Region: Ukraine Native Plants and Wildflowers Xeriscape Organic Gardener I was one of the first 300 contributors to the plant database!
Garden Ideas: Master Level Butterflies Charter ATP Member Plant Identifier Million Pollinator Garden Challenge Dog Lover
I got a knife out & tried running it all the way around the inside of the bottle & STILL it was tricky. I really sort of ended up having no choice but to manhandle/shake, rattle & roll & dump the whole contents out. Thank goodness it was rain lilys I had in it so it was easy to find the little bulbs in the mess that was the result of getting them out of the bottle.
I am a strong believer in the simple fact is that what matters in this life is how we treat others. I think that's what living is all about. Not what I've done in my life but how I've treated others. ~~ Sharon Brown
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Oct 10, 2012 7:59 AM CST
Name: Critter (Jill)
Frederick, MD (Zone 6b)
Charter ATP Member Million Pollinator Garden Challenge Critters Allowed Butterflies Hummingbirder Cat Lover
Bee Lover Region: Mid-Atlantic Cottage Gardener Garden Photography Tropicals Hibiscus
If you've got a Dremel or other rotary tool, that might be the way to cut open a quantity of soda bottles if needed... find a way to wedge the bottle in place as you work so the cutting disc doesn't slip! (If a vice isn't an option, I've put things between a couple of fireplace logs to hold them still.)
We're all learners, doers, teachers.
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Oct 10, 2012 4:33 PM CST
Name: Rick Corey
Everett WA 98204 (Zone 8a)
Sunset Zone 5. Koppen Csb. Eco 2f
Frugal Gardener Garden Procrastinator I helped beta test the first seed swap Plant and/or Seed Trader Seed Starter Region: Pacific Northwest
Photo Contest Winner: 2014 Avid Green Pages Reviewer Garden Ideas: Master Level Garden Sages I was one of the first 300 contributors to the plant database! I helped plan and beta test the plant database.
It might be an application for the "hot stretched wire" I saw someone make.

Nichrome wire, with resistance such that a 1-foot length gave enough Ohms that the wire only heated up and glowed red, not white.

Stretched between two 2x4 uprights braced ~ 12" apart.

AN ON-OFF switch

Heat the tight-stretched wire, roll the plastic bottle along it, and only singe some roots while cutting the indented part off clean.


Maybe a deluxe model with a fuse or variable transformer like a large toy railroad set might have, designed to avoid home fires.

The web site that sold many different Nichrome wire types had some designed to heat up gently like heating pads, others designed to get REAL hot like clothes driers, and others designed to flash into vapor and INTENTIONALLY ignite anything close to them. Kind of like a primer charge for small solid rocket motors.


Or a "gun" style soldering iron plus a steady hand might let me melt a narrow line..

I'm just hoping that my indented grooves are shallow enough that I can bang out the root ball and re-use the plastic pot. If the root ball is really wound up tiogght, I WANT to unravel and disrupt it before planting.

I may be dreaming!
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Oct 27, 2012 7:53 PM CST
Name: Critter (Jill)
Frederick, MD (Zone 6b)
Charter ATP Member Million Pollinator Garden Challenge Critters Allowed Butterflies Hummingbirder Cat Lover
Bee Lover Region: Mid-Atlantic Cottage Gardener Garden Photography Tropicals Hibiscus
I find that most of my plastic bottles & jugs (indented groove or not) end up being single-use as winter sowing containers. The plastic often gets brittle after a season out in the sun. When I'm done with the container, I just put it in the recycling bin (where it would have gone in the first place if it hadn't been re-used for plants). I often cut my containers not-quite-around so there's a "hinge" between top & bottom... when I'm hardening off plants, that hinge gets cut, and i've found it's easier to use a new container after that if I need it to have a top. Old ones do get pressed into use for up-potting smaller seedlings or HOS before they get planted out.

I hope you won't need anything quite as complex as your described system above for getting your WS plants out of their containers!
We're all learners, doers, teachers.
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Oct 29, 2012 5:32 PM CST
Name: Rick Corey
Everett WA 98204 (Zone 8a)
Sunset Zone 5. Koppen Csb. Eco 2f
Frugal Gardener Garden Procrastinator I helped beta test the first seed swap Plant and/or Seed Trader Seed Starter Region: Pacific Northwest
Photo Contest Winner: 2014 Avid Green Pages Reviewer Garden Ideas: Master Level Garden Sages I was one of the first 300 contributors to the plant database! I helped plan and beta test the plant database.
>> I hope you won't need anything quite as complex as your described system above for getting your WS plants out of their containers!

Me too, thoguh I am only thinking of using them for potting-up, not WS. The only ridge I have to worry about is very shallow, and very near the bottom. I am hoping that it will be no problem after banging the inverted bottle really hard on its rim. An d if it disruopts roots circlin g the bottom of the bottle, good. I'm often timid about doing that as I plant out, but I know I should unrtavel those cicrcling rolots, or even c ut them off.

The worst part will be if I give them away to people who are reluctant to WHACK a plastic pot against something to get the plant out.

My hope is to nevfer have plants in these pots long enough for them to get a lot of UV. 3-5 weeks would get them pretty root-b ound, and I plan for most of that to be occuring ine arly sprin g. MAYBE in a cold frame, if I get around to that next year.

I only tried WS once, and then I used 4" square pots for each variety, and used a big translucent plastic tub as the humidity-container. A HoS the size of a milk jug would be WAY too many seedlings of one variety for me. Actually 4" square is bigger than I would really want for that. If 6-pack-inserts from 72-cell-trays were packed together more tightly, those are about the size I would rather WS, if I were trying WS again.

My "Winter" is more like cold spring anway, and if the tub was out in partial sun during the winter, its interior would be warm enough to sprout many times (and many weeks) before the last hard frost. I think my climate lends itself more to a very-well-vented cold frame, and starting seeds 4-8 weeks before the last frost, mostly inside, then moving seedlings into the cold frame or under plastic in their final beds.
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Oct 31, 2012 12:48 PM CST
Name: Critter (Jill)
Frederick, MD (Zone 6b)
Charter ATP Member Million Pollinator Garden Challenge Critters Allowed Butterflies Hummingbirder Cat Lover
Bee Lover Region: Mid-Atlantic Cottage Gardener Garden Photography Tropicals Hibiscus
Rick, I use half gallon jugs too, as well as 2 liter and 1 liter plastic bottles for WS... If you get a big mass of seedlings in your container, no problem, you just divide it up into however many plants you want... the seedlings will "duke it out," and in the case of clump-forming perennials, you'll end up with a nice full looking plant much sooner (if multiple seedlings win the contest for survival). Guess what I'm saying is -- give it a try sometime when you're running out of inside space. Smiling
We're all learners, doers, teachers.
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Oct 31, 2012 2:37 PM CST
Name: Susan
Virginia (Zone 8a)
God is the only thing that matters.
I was one of the first 300 contributors to the plant database! Garden Ideas: Level 1 Avid Green Pages Reviewer Hibiscus Dragonflies Daylilies
Bee Lover Dahlias Butterflies Hostas Birds Lilies
I've done that Jill, I think it is called the 'Hunk of seedling method', just use a plastic spoon and scoop up a spoonful and put in each pot. If you end up with too many plants you could give a few away. Everybody loves plants, right? Make someone happy! Green Grin!
Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Mat.6:28-29

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