What do you start seeds IN?

Hi! First post here, excited to have found this site.

My Q: what do you start your seeds IN?

Brief backstory: been WWOOF’ing for 8 years, or working and living on other people’s farms, with my husband and then our kids. In less than a year we’ll be heading to land that he inherited in southeastern Arkansas to start our own thang. In the past, the places we’ve been have either a) bought all new seed trays and plugs (expensive) or b) got lucky and salvaged a bunch from rich people who were throwing them away.

If we don’t get lucky like plan B, what are some cheap, sustainable ideas for starting seeds? I am especially thinking about the stage where they’re in between being seeds and actually going in the ground. Like when they need their own little space that’s not, uh, the earth. XD

Am I making sense? I did warn you, this is my first post, and my first real go at thinking about these things for myself.

Thanks xx

NP

Welcome Nora!
I make boxes of scrap wood for sowing bunches of plants, and often prick them out into plastic containers that held flats of flower starts I bought, or into other boxes of scrap wood, as they grow. I also use whatever kind of disposable container I can find (milk cartons, yogurt containers, what have you). Depending on how often you plan to move them around you may want to go bigger or smaller. People are always giving me plants so I have a LOT of planting flats!

I got the wood box idea from watching Justin Rhodes, who used them with tools to make compressed soil blocks. I've never seen soil block makers here, but found I had just as good results just throwing potting mix in the boxes, and digging the baby plants out carefully when it's time for a move.

If you're moving, you won't have piles of um, resources (crap?) sitting around like I do, but there are some great tutorials about making pots out of scrap paper or newspaper.

Hi Nora!  I save tp and paper towel cardboard tubes and fill them with sifted compost or seed mix. I stand them up in my roasting pans or old cow lick tubs or an old cat box etc, and plant like that.   Sometimes I make the seed mix or if I am not on top of things, I buy some if I can.  The whole tube can be planted.  Our office goes through a lot of TP and paper towels so I try to remind everyone to save them for me.  So far I have about 40 so I have a good start on the season.  Have a blast on your new land!  None of my family members had/left land to anyone, so I am a half-acre homesteader for now!  It is perfect for 'such a time as this'.  Remelle

I just wanted to add that this year is a bigger planting year for me since I finally got a third, and larger, 'greenhouse' or poly tunnel to set up (10x26 for under $200).  I plan to start my very large volume plants in cake pan-mode, or just plant in 2 inch spacing in a flat of medium and cutting out seedlings like a piece of cake, sort of like the soil blocks method without the tools.  I want to see if this will work.  I have many of the bottom trays from those flimsy plastic starting trays, but I want to try my extra glass cake pans that I find at thrift stores or garage sales so I can cut them with a sharp knife.  I cannot remember where I got that idea.  Hopefully they don't swamp with only a shallow layer of fish tank gravel at the bottom for drainage, but the clear glass may allow me to see what is going on in the soil a little better.  Originally I wanted to buy the tall reusable plastic starter pots that I see being used on You Tube videos but spending money on that is not in the plan. I have to take down some more elms trees this spring instead.  Anyway, I think I have what I need in the tubes and flats.  Good luck and Have fun!!

Old meat and veg trays. My seedlings don't get potted on before being planted out (tomatoes are the only exception) so I only use seed trays as it were. I have not had to buy a tray ever, the reused trays last many years as well so it's not as if they need replacing every season.
You could also look at soil blocks, but you would still need some form of tray to stand them on.

Paper pots and toilet rolls are just a no go for me, they might work fine if you're only doing a few seeds but I find them way to much work for the several thousand seeds I start each year.

Welcome, Nora!  So glad you found the forum.

I have found for me I use the wet paper towel method then when the seeds sprout I put the tiny seedling into the pot I plan to have them live in.

For my hanging baskets, I usually just dump a seed packet into the basket and sprinkle with some shifted starter mix the depth being what was on the seed packet.

Dear hubby uses the seed trays and plugs.

The method that I was taught and used for many years was egg cartons and cotton balls.

Last year I made newspaper pots by folding newspaper sheet in half or thirds lengthwise and rolling around a can of food. Leave a couple inches on the bottom, fold in towards center on the can bottom, then stand the can up and use its weight to smush the bottom flat. Remove can and crimp the top edge down. Once filled with damp self soil it keeps it shape well enough as long s you don't handle it too much and is easy to plant.

I've tried most of the methods mentioned above and they all work decently (except the toilet paper rolls got moldy for me). I've also  started seeds in eggshells, which is super cute but rather impractical.

It is important to consider the scale you plant to do this on, as some of the methods are more time consuming/don't scale up well. For larger scale production, as well as sustainability, I do think soil blocks are a great way to go. There is an initial investment in the soil block makers, but once you have those they can last for decades. I will continue to use a few different methods for my urban garden scale seed starting but I am trying to move away from plastic so have been trying to use more seed blocks (currently with metal trays but I'd also like to build some wood trays for them). I will say there is a bit of a learning curve if you haven't made soil blocks before - not all potting mixes work (needs to be fairly fine with not too many lumps/sticks/etc) and you have to get a feel for the right moisture level that will hold the blocks together - and I find watering them also takes a bit of adjustment from watering trays so the blocks have enough moisture but don't turn into mush and fall apart. Some people also claim there are benefits from a seedling health perspective as air pruning of roots (which occurs naturally in soil blocks) can potentially reduce transplant shock but I haven't done it enough to tell.

My soil block makers are hand-me-downs but I believe originally came from Johnny's Seeds, which has more info on soil block making here:
Video - https://www.johnnyseeds.com/growers-library/methods-tools-supplies/seed-starting-transplanting/video-v31.html
Article - https://www.johnnyseeds.com/growers-library/methods-tools-supplies/seed-starting-transplanting/soil-block-makers-eliot-coleman.html

If you do plan to use some plastic trays or pots, I have a lot of luck going around my city on garbage/recycling night in May and June and a ton of people are tossing once used, great condition flats, trays, and pots of various sizes (mostly plastic but I've gotten a good amount of terracotta over the years too). I collected too many and had to give some away!

Best of luck!

Thank you so much everybody for your help thus far. I totally forgot soil blocks were a thing. I’ll have to meet my neighbors right away when we move down there and implore them to save their yogurt containers for us I’m a pack rat but I doubt my husband will let me bring my growing collections of little containers in the moving truck. Maybe I can sneak em on last minute and pretend they were meant for the trash.

After winging it for over a decade with a lot of cheap stuff that I mostly hated, when we moved cross country, I got rid of anything I didn't love or wouldn't replace with something better given the chance, especially bulky items(through the whole house, not just garden stuff).  Now that I'm starting to set up my garden infrastructure at our new place, I'm not messing around with cheap stuff.  I bought really nice, thick, sturdy solid bottom 1020 trays and perforated 1020 trays, and got a soil blocker.  I haven't used it yet, but the idea of not throwing out garbage plastic trays every spring when i realize how destroyed they are seems worth it.  

Hi All,
I like the idea of soil blocks. I might look into that next year. I would really like to get away from plastic, especially the occasional tarps and sheet plastic in the garden! There has to be a better way.

I've been using solo cups for about 6 years now for a couple of reasons. I just put a few holes in the bottom  with a utility knife.

First, they're pretty cheap. I can get 50 for about $5.50. And I always buy stuff  like this on senior day so I get another 10% off. And I use them for a few years until they fall apart. I usually plant 6 or 12 of each thing so the different colors helps me not to mix them up, especially growing 6-8 different kinds of tomatoes. Don't tell anybody but to me they all look alike, mostly. They are easy to label with some masking tape.

Here, spring only lasts for about 2 weeks and then suddenly the temps go up into the 90s. Any container that is smaller dries out super fast and I seldom remember to go and water then more than once each day.

And there just aren't enough hours in the day, especially at planting time. Some times I just can't get stuff planted out when their ready. I have too many things to plant at once or my winter vegies are still in those beds and their still producing so I hate to pull them out early. And I don't want to take the chance that they will get pot bound before I get to them.

I put them in the plastic trays that I got from a garden center years ago or in cardboard trays. Lots of garden centers just throw the plastic ones away.

I do sow onions and leeks in cut up cardboard boxes. I put a piece of plastic in the bottom before I dump the dirt in it. This helps the box stay pretty solid for 6-8 weeks and then I can just toss the plastic and throw the cardboard in the compost pile when I'm done with it. I can't wait for spring to get here!!

I am a fan of the soil blocks mentioned by someone already. I use the 10x20 trays, but am planning to switch over to wooden trays. I use the 2x2 blocks (I don't bother with the smaller or larger). I used to use a pre-made mix from Johnny's seeds, but tried my hand at making my own mix and it came out pretty good. It's a bit more expensive I think, and it's probably a bit more work, but I like that I can just pick it up, plop it in the ground and not worry about stacks of plastic containers or wondering how fast the biodegradable ones will degrade.

we also like the solo cups. The hardest part was cutting holes in the bottom of them all.
We start seeds in them then grow them out to 8 wks or so with no up-potting.
 I now have very good 162 heavy duty trays for leek, onions, corn etc.. but they are a luxury I have after many years of re-using solo/dixie cups.
We have a soil blocker set but cannot ever get the soil mix just right and don't want to spend money on buying soil mix.
We make our seed starting mix with 1/3 coco-coir, 1/3 coarse playground sand and 1/3 uncle Jim's worm castings.
The cups stack up nice for storing every year and are roomy enough that we can be away from home for several days without the seedling drying up.
They are also deep enough for plants like cilantro with that taproot.

Ralph Sluder wrote:we also like the solo cups. The hardest part was cutting holes in the bottom of them all.
We start seeds in them then grow them out to 8 wks or so with no up-potting.

Grin I use a pair of heavy duty scissors and snip off a '"corner" on each side for my solo cups.  I will do a whole package at a time so becomes an assembly line almost.   LOVE my solo cups and with care they do last for a few years and you can buy them on sale and stock up during the year.  
My plants get started in peat pellets then moved to solo cups until they get planted out which can be as early as May 15 or as late as Jun 15 depending on our weather...

We use pots made of newspaper similar to what was mentioned already.  Super cheap and I don't have to store them between times.

I use paper to go style coffee cups that you can get sleeves of for cheap and I made wooden trays to hold them and move them around in. I like them better than solo cups as they are easier to dispose of when deteriorated beyond use yet still hold up well and could easily do more than 1 season.

Two years ago I switched from the flimsy smaller seed sets (with 6 up to 12 little compartments) to solid seed trays (quickpots) like Charles Dowding uses them. Due to our cold climate I have to start a lot of plants indoors or in the greenhouse, and I have a lot of slug pressure so I need the plants to be somewhat big before planting them out.

I have some seed trays in the original size (like 10 by 7 cells, no idea, I am a mess with numbers), and some I cut in half.
I can sow one sort of veggie into a tray or use only one row for each type. They are so sturdy I expect to use them for many years.

Downside to seed trays, even if cut in half: They are too big for my indoor window sills. So for these I still use the smaller ones, but I can do multi-sowing, even for tomatoes. I only switch to a bigger size when the plant has outgrown the smaller size, thus saving space.

I am gradually replacing the flimsy small seed sets with sturdy seed sets of natural rubber which I get in our Zero Waste shop. After five years or so the flimsy ones fall apart into micro plastic. I am surprised that people buy plastic cups just for starting seedlings. Solo cups or any plastic cups are banned in Germany.

When the plants have outgrown the seed trays and they can't go into the bed directly (like tomatoes, peppers, etc.) I replant them into pots or in the case of tomatoes into milk cartons that I have accumulated over the years (every time we run out of fresh milk we have to open one of our emergency long-shelflike milk cartons). The rectangular shape makes them ideal for stacking into my wooden boxes.