What do you like to plant seeds in?

This is one of those things I'm constantly changing my mind about. Probably because I haven't found a great option.
I think I have the first part down. For seeds I start inside I like to use 3/4" soil blocks.
As soon as the seed sprouts I up pot the seedlings into a 2" pot usually 3 to 5 seedlings. This part is working well, but I do wish I could eliminate it. Potting up once the seedlings get 2 sets of true leaves is a pain. But I do it because I can start a lot of seedlings in a small space.
Next is the part I'm really struggling with.  I bought a kit from epic gardening. It's 8 deep 4 packs, and a shallow bottom tray. I think this is going to be great for the plants I intend to keep. It seems sturdy, and seems like enough soil, without taking up to much space. But even on sale it was not something I could afford to buy several of. And I enjoy growing and giving away extra tomatoes and peppers, and a few other things. It definitely won't work for that. I bought sturdy 3" pots, but they are kind of short, and again the cost was not to bad, but more than I can just give away. So it's the 12 for 1.25 pots that are terribly thin and no way they will last more than a year. The party cups. I have tried large and medium size. If you don't leave these in the sun you can get more than one year out of them, and they are pretty cheap, but I hate the bottom is smaller than the top because they fall over very easy. If you fill them they take a good amount of soil.
I've tried a larger soil block, but I'm just not a fan no matter how much I want to be.  Peat pots don't break down in our climate so they aren't a good option. Cow pots work pretty good, but again on the expensive side. I'm thinking about paper pots. My son is addicted to Amazon, so we get lots of plain brown paper. The hard part with this one is how time consuming it will be. I would love to get away from plastic. This year is a mix of using the dollar tree pots I already had, and using the dreaded cups I'm sure to be frustrated with soon.
If you have any tip, tricks, or out of the box ideas, or even if you don't, I look forward to hearing what you use.

I came up with one I hadn’t seen before - literally potting up.

This works with indeterminate tomatoes (and probably other vining plants of that nature).

Build a narrow wooden planter box with the “ends” really tall and the “sides” a lot shorter.
Plant seeds and wait.
As the plants grow, about once every few weeks, add “side” boards and gently backfill with soil up to the top few leaves of the plant.
Repeat until you reach the height of the end boards.

Last year I successfully planted out and grew tomatoes which I accidentally sprouted in November.

That's a great idea Clay!
We have a lot of scrap wood just begging to be used up...are you nailing or screwing things together?

I'm happy with my wooden flats for seed starting except for the potting up as I'm  still using up plastic pots🙄

When I lived in 9a, I would just direct sow into my container garden and I would sow all throughout the year as needed. Harvested radishes? OK plant some more.  Squirrels ate the peas? OK, plant some more. The growing season was so long it really didn't matter.
Now I'm in 6a and I started plants indoors for the first time. I bought a 10-pack of small pot trays. Each tray has 40 pots about 1.25" square by 1.5" deep.



They came with these nifty humidity domes and LED grow lights with a timer.



As the plants grew, I up potted them into larger pot trays (3' square by 2.5" deep) that fit into standard 1020 trays.



As this is my first try at seed starting indoors, I have been trying different transplanting times. Some get transplanted when they sprout, others after they have grown quite a bit. It's a learning process and the tomatoes don't seem to like being up potted at all. Ever.

If you want to get away from the plastic pots, I suggest saving all your toilet paper and paper towel rolls to use as seed starting pots. I may try this one for next year.
Just Google "toilet paper rolls as seed starters" and you will get a dozen short videos on how to use them for seed starting pots. The real beauty of that method is you do not disturb the roots when you up pot. You just take the whole thing and plant it in the new pot, bed, or wherever.

Here is one short video: https://youtu.be/dWNdkqOmjjk?si=9Doi43T15T37Xxhg

Clay that's great 😃 I've seen something similar for potatoes, but never thought of it for anything else.I imagine if you wanted to do it outside it could be wrapped in a heavy plastic ( just can't seem to eliminate plastic). Very cool thanks for sharing

I'm in zone 8b and I like to plant outdoors from the start, in the pots that I intend for things to grow in on my balcony.  I like to limit transplanting as much as phesible.

I dumpster dive for small flower pots.  I normally have about 100 or so around.

I second the toilet paper tubes.  You can cut a paper towel tube in thirds as well.  

I put them in half-gallon milk cartons that have one side cut out, so they hold water.  I don't buy plastic milk cartons, just the carboard ones.  A little water in the bottom soaks up into the cardboard and the soil.  Plant the whole thing, no roots disturbed.

I feel too guilty to use peat moss, so I buy cactus mix in bags.  I put 1/3 at the bottom of my clay soil, because I want the roots to recognize it when they are transplanted.  The middle third is compost, and the top third the cactus mix.  

I don't fold the bottom of the tube up at all.  The milk carton keeps the soil in, and when the roots fill the tube the soil doesn't fall out.

It doesn't hurt to slice up the sides of the cardboard a little before planting, but chances are, if it has stayed damp, it will be starting to fall apart anyway.

I learned during the lockdown when there was a shortage of toilet paper, and the only stuff left on the shelf was the expensive stuff, that those tubes don't break down at all!!  Don't know why they are different, but they just didn't work for this application.

My best seedlings have come from winter sowing in buss tubs, the kind they use in restaurants.
I pack it with potting soil, 50/50 peat and compost cow manure, then I space the seeds all at once using a dibbler I made .
One corner is scooped out and I add a 1 gallon plastic pickle jar, inverted, with a hole in the lid for watering.
This reservoir bottom waters the seedlings and extends the time between watering.
After seeding, I top the whole thing with a second, translucent white bus tub.
When they start to crowd the inside of the tub, I use an old spatula to cut out servings of seedlings and plant them out.

I haven't done a single tub this year 😔, but I hope to get back to it.
I'd like to get away from peat, I'm thinking of using sand or pine bark fines and my own compost instead.
My compost is food scraps, chicken feed, chicken poop and lots of leaves.
It holds water well, and the tubs have been too wet in the past , so amending for drainage might be the move.

I've used gutter mesh to make ~4" air pruning pots , but to work, they need more space than a tub with the same number of seedlings.
They use plastic or aluminum, and are kinda wonky, so buying actual  hydroponic cups might be a better choice anyway.

If you don't care about air pruning but you do want to keep seedlings separated, a steel or aluminium can, with both ends cut off, might work.
Sections of downspout, plastic or aluminum, sheet flashing , PVC pipe or corrugated black pipe can all be used for planting pots.

I bet soil cement, especially if reinforced with natural fibers, would make an excellent plant pot.
Break it and discard it anywhere, with no fear of adding plastic pollution to the soil.

The same sort of  thing could be made of pallet wood and deck screws(reusable after the wood fails), or staples(cheap and rust away into nothing).
Compost or combust the rotting wood.

I think cylinders made of wine cap mycelium would be my ideal plant pot.

I think some one mentioned solo cups being top heavy.
I've had good results planting in inverted yogurt  containers in , by poking holes in the lids and holesawing out the bottoms.

You could do this with solo cups, cut off the bottom and invert it.
I don't think you will really need a bottom, but some aluminum foil might work if you do.
McDonald's cups could be used the same way.
The advantage they have over cylinders is they can stack inside each other for storage  and you don't need to make them.
Solo also makes cups in aluminum now.
They cost more but should last forever.

Another way to avoid the tippy cups is to crowd them into a container like in the attached photo.

Jen Fulkerson wrote:This is one of those things I'm constantly changing my mind about. Probably because I haven't found a great option.
I think I have the first part down. For seeds I start inside I like to use 3/4" soil blocks.
As soon as the seed sprouts I up pot the seedlings into a 2" pot usually 3 to 5 seedlings. This part is working well, but I do wish I could eliminate it. Potting up once the seedlings get 2 sets of true leaves is a pain. But I do it because I can start a lot of seedlings in a small space.
Next is the part I'm really struggling with.  I bought a kit from epic gardening. It's 8 deep 4 packs, and a shallow bottom tray. I think this is going to be great for the plants I intend to keep. It seems sturdy, and seems like enough soil, without taking up to much space. But even on sale it was not something I could afford to buy several of. And I enjoy growing and giving away extra tomatoes and peppers, and a few other things. It definitely won't work for that. I bought sturdy 3" pots, but they are kind of short, and again the cost was not to bad, but more than I can just give away. So it's the 12 for 1.25 pots that are terribly thin and no way they will last more than a year. The party cups. I have tried large and medium size. If you don't leave these in the sun you can get more than one year out of them, and they are pretty cheap, but I hate the bottom is smaller than the top because they fall over very easy. If you fill them they take a good amount of soil.
I've tried a larger soil block, but I'm just not a fan no matter how much I want to be.  Peat pots don't break down in our climate so they aren't a good option. Cow pots work pretty good, but again on the expensive side. I'm thinking about paper pots. My son is addicted to Amazon, so we get lots of plain brown paper. The hard part with this one is how time consuming it will be. I would love to get away from plastic. This year is a mix of using the dollar tree pots I already had, and using the dreaded cups I'm sure to be frustrated with soon.
If you have any tip, tricks, or out of the box ideas, or even if you don't, I look forward to hearing what you use.

Paper pots could be a great eco-friendly choice, especially with all that Amazon packaging. Have you considered repurposing yogurt cups or other sturdy containers? They’re free and last longer than thin plastic pots!