Look what I created last week: homemade jiffy pots made out of 100% recycled paper.
I needed some little pots for pre-sprouting and as I´m not very found of thee little green plastic ones from the super market I started experimenting with newspaper by wrapping some newspaper around this “thing”. I really don’t know what it’s called in English – it’s not to find in my dictionary. However, it’s a kitchen tool – a zinc cylinder with a hole in the bottom and a wooden part that fit’s into the cylinder. Traditionally used for making balls or dumplings for the soup – and to form dough into vanilla cookies. But now it’s also a gardener’s tool!
Anyway, this is what how to do it, it´s very simple: You wrap the paper around the wooden part, sprinkle the paper with water, squeezed it a little, removed the “thing” – and voila: a nice little jiffy pot for pre-sprouting made out of 100 % recycled materials!
And the recycling goes on: so one day when your pre-sprouted plants are ready to set out, you just dig a whole in the soil and place your plant, jiffy pot included. Don’t bother to remove the pot – the roots of the plant will easily penetrate the paper, and at the same time the paper will disintegrate and vanish into the soil.
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We made jiffy pots last year using the same method at a gardening workshop I attended, only we used soda cans.
Thanks for the reminder!
That’s such an awesome idea! I was just about to put mini pots on my shopping list…
You may want to check to see what inks your local newspaper uses – some are toxic and shouldn’t be let into the watertable.
I have something like that- it’s an extruder, I think.
I found an interesting link – http://permaculture.org.au/2006/04/22/compost-miracles/ – that talks about newspaper inks and composting. Composting seems to break down a lot of the harmful chemicals. But it says beware of glossy and color pages, the composting process doesn’t seem to break down the chemicals used very well.
Apart from that a lot of the media coverage in the US seems to be about ink that gets into the water table from the production process, and storage, rather than the final product.
I guess I would rather use newspaper than one-ff plastic.
i’ve only ever known them as ‘paper planter makers’, but they are a fabulous idea. i’ve also heard similar things about glossy paper and composting.
happy seedling growing to you!
I’ve tried these. They don’t work that well. Decomposition does not keep up with root growth, so roots can girdle and strangle the plant.
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This is how my grandad used to make little pots, too. Lovely to see them again.
I think Martha Stewart got the same idea, I saw it on her show about 2-3 weeks ago.
start planting!
worms love the newspaper and once planted in the garden the newspaper will be eaten through and promote healthy soil.
i bet that toilet paper tubes and paper towel tubes cut into smaller tubes would work well also. super idea!
Do not use colored papers or glossy. Also it is a good idea to gently open up the bottom before you plant them. Sometimes the rootballs do bind up if you dont.
Go to the nearest newspaper printer. Ask for “end rolls”. These are rolls of newsprint with no ink. Like the last few sheets of toilet paper on a roll, they are too short for the high speed machinery to use and are otherwise recycled or discarded. They often have a few hundred feet of pristine paper. Oh, and they come on some really stout cardboard tubes- useful for all kinds of things. Cheers!
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