It is a rewarding and exciting experience to start vegetables and annuals from seeds. If you want to start your vegetables or fruits seedlings, purchasing seeds and supplies will make you well ready. What you need is a good seed tray, a sunny and warm windowsill that will bring the sprouts in no time. You can save more by making your own homemade seed-starting trays. In fact, you can make them from just about any type of container that would usually be thrown away. Here are the steps on how to make your own seed trays.
Things that you need:
- Styrofoam or cardboard egg cartons
- Nail
- starting mix
- seeds
- plastic bag
- small gardening scissors
- liquid fertilizer
- eggshells
- needle
- plastic wrap
Steps for egg cartoons:
- First, remove the top of the carton. The top\’s function as a tray for the seedling tray, it also forms like a detachable base on a flowerpot. Using a nail, poke a hole in the middle of each of the cups. Fill each of the cups with moistened starting mix. Put three to five seeds in each of the cup and place the tray in a plastic bag. Make sure to place the carton on a windowsill, avoiding from direct sunlight.
- Cut off the smaller of the seedlings in each cup in two weeks. Avoid pulling them out. Make sure the seedlings are moist. You can start using liquid fertilizer on them at less than one-quarter strength. Increase the fertilizer strength to one-third when the two sets of leaves have come up.
- After six weeks, the seeds have germinated, bring the carton and place them outside for a week. Cut each cup out of the cartoon individually after a week. To release the seedlings, squeeze the cup gently. The contents of the cup will come out easily and the seedlings are ready to be planted in the ground.
Steps for eggshells:
- Break an egg in half carefully and cleanly as possible. Empty the content of the egg. Clean the eggshell with water and allow it to dry.
- Poke a hole in the bottom of the eggshell using a needle. Then, fill the eggshell with three spoonfuls of seed starting mix and a couple of seeds.
- Set up to four shell seed starters on a plate. Cover the plate with plastic wrap. Place them on a windowsill.
- When they are ready to be planted, simply place the eggshell seed starter right in the hole. The eggshell becomes instant compost to your seedlings.
Additional Reading:
http://www.ehow.com/way_5261611_homemade-seedstarting-trays.html
Image Credit:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/photofarmer/2427688914/
