How to use cups from under. All about homemade and store-bought seedling cups

IN large quantities, quickly and with a minimum of effort? What is the most efficient way?

Do-it-yourself seedling cups: blanks in winter

The easiest way is to collect half-liter and liter milk bags (kefir, curdled milk, yogurt, etc.). Thin will allow the seedlings to develop well for a long time (about two months). When transporting to the country, the cups will not fall apart. They can be placed tightly on the windowsill, the container under them does not require a large height (unlike paper ones), there are enough containers from frozen foods. Minimum effort: cut the top to desired height, wash thoroughly detergent, dry. Before filling with earth, pierce several holes for draining with an awl or a hot nail (pierce the nail through

DIY seedling cups can be made by buying a package of plastic cups (sold in wholesale markets or packaging stores). Glasses of 100 ml are packed in 100 pieces. They cost a maximum of 100 rubles (you can buy cheaper). You need to make holes in them for draining. If used cups are used, they must be washed. Otherwise, mold may appear.

Newspaper cups for seedlings: the most economical option

In our mailboxes loads of free newspapers are downloaded. It's easy to make cups out of them. All you need is an empty tin can and patience at first. The newspaper sheet must be folded in half, folded on one side with a piping, then wrapped around the can.

Form the bottom by bending the sheet without edging, compact by pressing. Take out the bank.

The piping at the junction on one side must be unfolded, then the second side must be fixed with it.

When making cups for seedlings from a newspaper with your own hands, you need to remember the nuances:

the newspaper gets wet quickly enough, so watering should be moderate;
containers in this case should be high enough (2/3 of the height of the cup) to keep the shape;
cups from the newspaper should be tried to be placed as densely as possible, it is advisable to choose the optimal size container for them.

Seedlings in paper cups take root very easily: the roots are not damaged during transplantation, the newspaper itself completely decomposes over the summer.

Cups from packing bags

Packing (from 700 to 1000 pieces) of packaging bags measuring 10 x 27 (maybe another usually costs no more than 100 rubles. By installing bags filled with soil in cardboard box and putting them in a plastic container to collect moisture, suitable in size, you can get wonderful seedling cups. At the bottom of the packages you need to pierce (you can use an awl or a thick needle), taking several pieces at once. It is better to tuck the top edge of the packages - so they are more stable.

Transplanting from such cups will require skill: they must be carefully cut. In such packages, it is desirable to grow seedlings with a large root system - tomatoes, you can germinate corms - begonias, lilies, daylilies.

Thin cardboard and heavy covers

Do-it-yourself seedling cups can be made from old paper, pieces of unused wallpaper, covers of glossy magazines. In this case, you will have to draw a drawing of the box, then to fold the bottom, and fix one edge with either tape, or glue, or a stapler. Then make holes for drainage. The option is convenient in terms of choice optimal sizes(packing on containers) and then easy transportation. The roots of plants make their way into the ground after planting, first into the holes in the bottom, then the cups soak and decompose without interfering with the plant.

As seedling cups, you can use food waste, unnecessary plastic container and much more. This will not only save money, but also significantly reduce the amount of garbage thrown out. Here are some options:

The peel of an orange

As a cup for seedlings, you can use the peel from an orange or lemon, grapefruit, in general, any citrus. In the lower part of the half of the peel, a hole should be made for drainage, and the peel itself should be filled with soil. The advantage of such a pot is that the plant can be planted in the soil with it.

Eggshell

Another environmentally friendly clean option, which is well suited for growing small seedlings - eggshell. Just like citrus peel, it can be placed in the ground along with seedlings. For stability, pots made of eggshell put in a container.

egg tray

Another option for making cups for seedlings with your own hands is to use a plastic egg tray. In its lower part, it is necessary to make holes for the drainage of water. Such a tray is thrown away after use, and not buried in the soil. The use of cardboard trays is not recommended, as they can get wet when watering.

ice tray

The ice tray is used for small plants in the same way as the egg tray.

Plastic bottle

Consider several design options. The first is to simply cut off half of the bottle and fill it with soil. In the second case, the cap is not removed from the upper half of the cut bottle, a hole is made in it and a cord of synthetic material is inserted.

Seedlings are planted in the half with a lid, and water is poured into the lower half, after which the upper part is inserted into the lower one. Thus, you get not just a cup for seedlings, but a whole automatic watering system.

Disposable plastic cup

A disposable plastic cup can easily be turned into a container for growing seedlings. To do this, it must be thoroughly washed if before that it contained coffee or, for example, yogurt, and then make a hole in the lower part to drain the water.

Filter for coffee machine

A filter for a coffee machine, not surprisingly, can also be a good cup for seedlings. By itself, it cannot boast of stability, so several of these filters should be placed in a box or pallet with high sides, so the filters with seedlings will support each other and not fall.

tea bags

Another option for planting plants with a small root system is to use tea bags. When planting seedlings in the ground, the bag does not need to be removed, it easily disintegrates in the soil.

Toilet paper or paper towel roll

The same scheme is used as with a newspaper or paper cylinder, the lower part is bent so that the bottom is obtained.

Newspaper or any old papers

A newspaper rolled into a cylinder or any old paper will serve as a good glass for germinating seeds, but in the soil this decomposes in a maximum of a couple of months.

Milk or juice cartons

Seedling cups can also be made from empty milk or juice cartons. Moreover, they can not only be used as is, but improved by pre-cutting the package at all four corners and wrapping the sides of the package halfway down. Then the usual "money" elastic band is put on the bag - it holds the wrapped walls well. And as the seedlings grow, the walls of the package unfold to the height necessary for adding soil.

An easier way to use cardboard bags is to simply cut them in half, after which you can plant seedlings in them. The main thing is to wash them thoroughly before use.

If you do not want to spend time making cups with your own hands, use traditional seedling or peat cassettes, which are convenient because each of their cells can be broken off and planted in the ground along with the seedlings grown in it.

Of course, you do not have to use only the methods and materials described above, you can safely improvise and use any unnecessary containers and food waste if they are suitable for planting seedlings.

Do-it-yourself box constructor for seedlings

Work with seedlings is in full swing, and it's time to talk about containers for her. It's amazing how many simple, easy, fast - and most importantly, effective - ways to make seedling containers are offered by readers. Read and choose, friends!

For over 10 years I have been using plastic glasses from under mineral water, drinks or beer for growing seedlings. I take plastic bottle(for example, 1.5 l), I cut off the upper and lower parts with a sharp knife (Fig. 1). The cut out part of the bottle should be smooth, without protrusions and annular recesses.

I put this workpiece on the table, squeeze it in diameter, and along the edges with pressure I draw several times with the knife handle along the entire length to get a clear line on both sides of the workpiece (Fig. 2). I combine the clear lines of the workpiece against each other along the entire length and again with the handle of the knife I draw several times along the workpiece along the entire length (Fig. 3). The result is a square glass (Fig. 4) approximately 7 cm x 7 cm from the long, flat part of the bottle.

Then I put the glasses close to each other in a rectangular box with dimensions that are multiples of 7 cm (Fig. 5). Since square glasses have sufficient rigidity, the height of the sides of the box can be made half the length of the glass.

When growing seedlings of tomatoes, I plant the sprout at the very bottom, as it grows, I pour the earth from above, while the seedlings are obtained with a powerful root system.

You can water both from above and to the bottom of a waterproof box lined with cellophane film. After use, I store the washed glasses in a flattened form, inserting several of them into the same flattened blanks from 2-liter bottles. In this form, they do not take up much space.

Do-it-yourself universal pallet for seedlings

I want to suggest the following: take a tray of any size or make your own from glass, plastic or other material. We put a stencil on it with dimensions of 4 × 4 cm or 5 × 5 cm and a height of 4-5 cm or 6 cm. The material is one that is convenient to saw.

I personally made it out of plastic: length 42 cm, width 27 cm. I sawed it exactly half - 5 cm. The longitudinal plates can be of any size, multiples of 5 cm, and at the ends + 1.5-2 cm for a bunch of cells. On this tray, 21 (7 × 3) cells with dimensions of 5 × 5 cm are placed. I fill the cells with the ground prepared in the fall (a little more than half), and sow the seeds. As the seedlings grow, I pour the earth. I plant, when the time comes, in greenhouses, and from there - to open ground.

I take out the seedlings from the cells by removing one of the plates - for example, the transverse one. To do this, I made a device: aluminum pipe 0 TOO mm or 120 mm. Bottom part– like the teeth of a crosscut saw, slightly bent inward to hold the ground, and on top – wooden handle. The cut in the upper part of the pipe was bent with the letter "G". A handle is attached to them. Three or four turns - the earth is inside, we take it out - and the hole is ready. We plant together - we are pensioners with experience.

Pour 1.5-2 liters of water into the hole, about 1/2 tsp. nitrogen fertilizer, ash. We mix the earth and plant seedlings, slightly compacting the earth. We don't look back for a long time after that. Then weeding, watering, etc. We always have a harvest, but we moved here from the Murmansk region.

From personal experience

I do landings with early age. Peppers and eggplants do not like transplanting. Therefore, I plant them in cups, sow them in mid-April, soak them slightly, as soon as they peck, plant them in cups in a slightly deepened hole. I fill the earth up to half, so that later it can be poured. I water the hole, and then I put the seed and cover it with earth.

And I sow tomatoes in any container. When the first leaves appear (not cotyledons!), I transplant into what I have. In tomatoes, you can pinch the tips of the roots, but not in peppers and eggplants. And one more thing: raspberries are not a hindrance to an apple tree, I have raspberries growing under an apple tree, they are friends. But strawberries and raspberries are not neighbors. They have the same disease. Weevil loves both.

Sewing on a pattern

Seedling cups can be made from old oilcloth, unusable plastic bag, milk bags, salt, pieces of unnecessary film ... From thick paper I make a template according to the attached drawing. With its help, I prepare a pattern and, stepping back 10 mm from the edge, I sew with large stitches from top to bottom, and then from bottom to top, following the same traces, I return back and tie the ends of the thread. It turns out dense reliable seam. One condition: the threads must be made of synthetic yarn, as they do not rot, which ensures the durability of the cups.

Now I lower the glass on a solid plane and pour a handful of simple garden moist earth, compact it with my hand, and it turns out a bottom 1-1.5 cm thick. I rearrange the glass on a used tin lid, fill it with prepared soil to the top.

In each cup, I plant one pecked grain, water it, put it on a rack and cover it with a piece of film. When cotyledon leaves appear on the surface of the soil, I remove the film. I germinate seeds at a temperature of 20-25 °.

But seeds, especially pumpkin seeds, germinate best if you warm them with your body. My cups are durable, take up little space, and I have accumulated several hundred of them. I grow all vegetables in cups, except for root crops (potatoes, beets, carrots). Seedlings do not get sick, they can be left unattended in the country for several days.

Popular today peat cups for seedlings. Pros: strong, non-toxic, porous walls allow air and water to pass through (therefore, the roots do not turn sour), transplantation is carried out directly with a pot (the root system is not injured), decaying peat serves as fertilizer. But there are also disadvantages: not all cups in stores are different good quality, such containers are not cheap, they have a tendency to soak, they can become moldy. In such cups, the soil dries out faster, which means that you need to constantly monitor the humidity, preventing drying out.

Ready-made free containers for seedlings

Walking past a pile of empty plastic beer bottles one day different color, I suddenly realized how to use them in the country. I think that there are more summer residents than beer lovers, it is possible to partially solve the issue of recycling these same bottles.

When sowing vegetable seeds, in order not to confuse the varieties, you can choose your own bottle color for each variety. Moreover, any bottles are used both in shape and in color. Dark - for sowing seeds and picking, if you cut off the upper part and pierce holes in the bottom with a sharp object so that water does not accumulate during irrigation. And light bottles, if you cut off the bottom, can be used by covering dived seedlings. With this method of growing seedlings, it is very convenient to grow them on the windowsill in the apartment, put them in bags and take them to the dacha. It will be protected from accidental damage. For the convenience of planting seedlings in the holes, so that the clod of earth does not crumble when the bottle is removed, I saw the bottom with a hacksaw before sowing. In this case, a narrow gap is formed, the earth does not pass through it during irrigation, excess water flows out. I cut a centimeter and a half along the vertical walls. And when planting with a sharp knife in the hole, I cut the cuts upwards on both sides and take out both halves of the bottles in turn.

The upper parts of the light bottles can be used to cover the seedlings at night, and the lower parts of the dark bottles can be used for the next year, having previously glued the sides with tape.

Several problems are being solved at once: fewer empty containers are lying along the roads, in the forest, on the streets. And the most important thing for a summer resident is the opportunity to get containers for seedlings of any shape and any color for free.

"Quick" cups for seedlings

On a cup with a diameter of 7 cm, it is enough to take a sheet of paper or harsh cellophane measuring 30 × 18 cm. We bend one side of the sheet (30 cm) and make an incision 5 cm long on the folded edge, stepping back from the edge also 5 cm (see Fig.).

Then we bend the tongue and wind the sheet with the bent edge inside the glass (it is more convenient to twist the cups on the bottle). We crush the bottom, remove the product from the bottle and bend the tongue inside the glass. When filling the soil, the tongue will not allow the cup to turn around.

It is better to iron the folded side and the bottom of the cellophane with a hot iron through the paper. We have been making these cups for over 20 years.

We make our own "seedling" glasses

So, you need a thick film. From it I cut strips 30 cm long, 20 cm wide. On a long On the side I make four cuts of 6 cm each, it turns out 5 strips of 6 cm wide. That's all - the glass is ready. No gluing or bonding required. Any size can be made. In such cups, I grow seedlings of pepper and eggplant without picking, sow directly in them. Before sowing, I fill the cups with earth and put them in boxes in two rows. I cover the bottom of the boxes with a film and pour expanded clay. And the cups are easy to make. I take a strip from the film in left hand, and with the right I put the extreme strips one on top of the other. It turns out four strips, I bend them - the bottom is ready. I put it on my palm, hold it with my fingers and pour the earth up to half a cup.

I carefully put it in the box with a cut in the middle, then put the second cut to the cut to it. Cups should be placed tightly together so that they do not fall apart. When I put everything, then I fill up the earth.

And planting in the ground is simple: I unfold the film and plant the seedlings in the hole with a lump. The roots are not damaged, the seedlings are not sick. I wash my strips and store them until the next planting, they serve me for many years.

Two in one

Take note!

I offer a container for seedlings, which I have been using for more than 30 years. These are plastic cups for sour cream, yogurt and other products. The container consists of two glasses: an outer one with a hole in the bottom for water drainage and an inner one - cut along and to the center of the bottom. When transshipping into a large container or when planting in the ground, you need to water the seedlings and, carefully pulling out the inner glass, push the sides of the glass upside down on the palm, carefully remove the seedlings with a clod of earth and plant them in the ground. Wash the glasses, dry them and use them for many years. I'll add a couple of tips:

Shovel for a pensioner (lighten the shovel - cut out part of the canvas) (see fig.).

Vertical bed:

1 - a box of any material (board, metal, plastic, h = 250 mm);

2 - a pipe made of any material, perforated from below;

3 - before backfilling with soil in the form of a cone, lay compost (grass, kitchen waste, cardboard, paper, sawdust, manure), water through a pipe.

moving bottom

I bought plastic transparent disposable cups for drinking kvass and various drinks. One hundred pcs. with a capacity of 200 and 500 ml. I take a glass and make an incision at the bottom, but I do not completely cut the bottom, leaving 2 cm uncut.

Then I take newsprint, fold it neatly in several layers and make a circle on it a little more than the bottom of the cup. I immediately cut out a batch of circles and notches (see fig.). Holding the glass in my left hand, I insert two paper circles inside the glass, holding its half-cut bottom. Then I pour the earth and put it in plastic boxes, water it. The earth does not spill out of the glass, because the bottom is made of newspaper in two layers.

I plant one seed. When transplanting seedlings into open ground, I water the glass well. I move the bottom to the side (it is attached to the glass by 2 cm), with a wooden pusher I gently push up the half-ripe paper circle - the seedlings easily come out of the glass with a clod of earth. Now I lower it into pre-prepared holes.

This is how I plant tomatoes without diving. Having planted seedlings of tomatoes, I put the cups in a large box, and at the first opportunity I wash them with a brush in a solution of potassium permanganate. Dry in the sun and clean until the next season. Piece seedlings are easier to transport and plant.

For cucumbers I take cups with a capacity of 500 ml. The bottom processing technology is the same as for tomatoes. But when transplanting seedlings of cucumbers into the ground, I bend the bottom to the side and put the seedlings in a glass in the hole, and press the bottom, pushed aside, with the ground. And I put the cups so that when watering, the water does not touch the stem of the plant. Cucumbers do not like transplants. In the autumn I dig cups out of the ground, wash them and store them until the next season.

Micro-chamber for seedlings

Experienced many ways to grow seedlings of tomatoes and peppers. IN Lately I use cake box lids. I take two covers: one is smaller, the other is larger. In one of them I make holes for draining excess water. I fall asleep with pre-prepared earth for 1/2 volume. I sow seeds in the grooves, and on the walls I stick price tags with the name of the variety: each variety has its own color. I cover it with a larger lid on top - it turns out a micro-chamber with light walls.

I put these double covers in the third, even larger (so that water does not flow out). I install it on the battery, laying foam rubber to avoid overheating of the earth. As a result, you can always see how the seeds germinate, and if there is a threat of dampness due to condensate, then by tilting the cap, I rid the seedlings of excess moisture. The temperature is always the same.

Top 7 cheap seedling containers

You can save on seedling cups if you use no less convenient improvised containers instead of purchased ones ...

Cut off packages from under milk, kefir, juice. Plastic cups from under yogurt and sour cream are also suitable. Wash and dry it all.
Place the toilet paper rolls in the pan and fill with soil (photo 1).
Around a can (bottle, glass, etc.) wrap a thick sheet of paper or newspaper folded into several sheets (photo 2, 3, 4). Fasten with tape or paper clips, place in a tray and fill with soil.
Cut out rectangles 20 cm long and 10 cm wide from black film. Fold them in half to make a square. Solder the edges with an iron or 1 “fasten with a stapler.
Cut 1.5 liter plastic bottles in half. Lower the upper part with the neck down into the lower one, which will serve as a reservoir for water (photo 5).
Wash the eggshells with the tops neatly broken off, place in an egg carton and fill with soil. Use to grow seedlings to pick.
For the same purpose, cut off the top of used tea bags, rinse them and dry them.

Spring for gardening lovers is a hot time, which primarily involves working with seeds. Modern stores offer gardeners a whole range of various containers for seedlings, but for the sake of economy, most gardeners prefer to make do with improvised means and materials. There are many ways to make DIY seed growing cups, and below we will talk about the easiest and cheapest of them.

Glasses from metal and plastic jars

The classic version is a container made of metal cans from canned foods. Several holes should be drilled in the bottom (preferably from the inside), and in order to make it easier to remove the seedlings from the container, several cuts are made on its walls. If the cups are supposed to be used more than once, it is better not to cut them, but simply put a strip of thick paper or polyethylene on the bottom - in order to get an earthen ball and not damage the roots, you just need to pull it. In a similar way, you can use beer cans cut off at the top, as well as plastic bottles and toilet paper rolls.

Plastic yogurt cups can serve as a container for seedlings of vegetables and flowers. First you need to cut out the bottom of the jar, and instead put a circle of tin or cardboard of a suitable size.

When the shoots need to be planted, it will be enough to press on the improvised bottom with a stick. It is important to note that transparent disposable cups are the worst for seedlings, since the roots in such containers do not receive enough light and shoot growth slows down.

Cups made of paper or newspaper

A container for seedlings made of paper or newspapers is made in several ways. For the first, you need a suitable cylinder (you can use a plastic bottle or tin can, cut off at the top) as a base, as well as strips of paper of a suitable width. If the paper is thick enough, three strips will be enough to make one cup, and if it is thin, it is better to add 2-3 more. Paper strips must be applied to the base so that they protrude beyond its edge by at least 5-6 cm (depending on the radius), then wrap it in paper (not too tightly so that the cylinder or jar can be easily removed) . The protruding edges must be pressed well, thus forming the bottom of the cup. After that, the base can be removed, and seedlings can be planted in the resulting container.

Seedling cups can also be made according to the papier-mâché principle. This will require several glass glasses, a bowl of water and old newspapers or even toilet paper. Soak the newspapers well and form a future container on a regular glass. If toilet paper will be used to make cups, instead of a bowl of water, you need to take a spray bottle. toilet paper wrapped around the mold, after which it is well moistened from the spray gun and pressed well against the walls of the glass. The workpiece is dried for 24 hours, after which it is removed in a circular motion.

Paper or newspaper cups are convenient primarily because the seedlings are subsequently very convenient to plant in the ground. You can simply tear the paper and throw it away, or even plant the shoots along with the container (the paper will collapse over time natural way), without damaging even the smallest roots.

Film cups

To make seedling cups from polyethylene film it is best to take a film that is used for greenhouses. In addition, you need a base suitable form and an ordinary stationery stapler. The film is cut into strips, wrapped around the base and fastened with staples, after which a square cup is obtained. An easier option is to make tubes out of the film, bend the top edges for rigidity, install them in a box or pallet and fill them with earth. In this case, the most important thing is that the film is dense enough, otherwise it will simply lose its shape.

If a lot of packages have accumulated at home from under fermented milk products, they can be put under seedlings. The bags are tucked up, seeds are planted in them, after which the edges are turned off and poured required amount land as the shoots grow. The only disadvantage of this method is that the packages are quite unstable and require additional support. For greater rigidity, it is recommended to strengthen their edges around the perimeter with cardboard strips.

In which cups is it better to plant seedlings?

It is quite difficult to answer the question of which cups are best used for seedlings, since it depends on the characteristics of the crop that is planned to be grown and other factors. Today in gardening stores you can buy different containers for growing plants: peat cups and tablets, as well as plastic containers. different forms and sizes.

Peat tanks

Pressed peat containers have a number of very valuable advantages. Firstly, they provide maximum survival of young plants, since they can be planted directly into the ground with a container without injuring even the smallest roots. This is especially valuable when growing delicate crops that "do not like" transplanting to a new place. Secondly, the material from which the container is made does not just break down in a natural way, but turns into a nutritious fertilizer.

Peat cups are both round and square - the latter are very convenient, as they do not take up much space on the windowsill.

When buying such containers, it is important to remember that in order to reduce costs, some manufacturers add cardboard to the material, and such containers are not suitable for growing seedlings - when planted in the ground, shoot roots do not pass well through a thick cardboard layer, which is why the plants begin to grow poorly . In addition, planting seeds in peat pots requires knowledge of some rules:

containers must be placed on expanded clay or sand;
the earth must constantly be moistened, since the water from such pots quickly evaporates, as a result of which the seedlings will grow poorly (although excess moisture can lead to the appearance of a tribe on the walls of the cups);
as the shoots grow, they need to be moved away from each other so that the roots of young plants do not intertwine with each other.

There are also peat humus tablets on sale, which are no less convenient for planting seedlings - when wet, they can significantly increase in size. If it is not possible to buy such tablets, they can be replaced with nutritious self-made nutritional cubes.

DIY food cubes

To make cubes you will need:

humus (5 parts);
sod land (1 part).

peat (3 parts);
humus (1 part).

The components must be mixed together, after which, for each kilogram of the mixture obtained, add 15 g of ammonium nitrate, the same amount of potassium sulfate, 50 grams of superphosphate and water so that the mass has the consistency of thick sour cream. It must be laid out in a pan with a layer of 8-10 cm, and then cut into cubes with a sharp knife required size. For convenience, the cubes are slightly moved away from each other and seeds are planted.

Video - Do-it-yourself pills, cubes for seedlings

plastic containers

Plastic containers for growing seeds can be of two types: ordinary pots and cassette containers, which look like cells fastened together. Pots are more suitable for domestic plants, since it is rather difficult to transplant shoots from them - the roots are very tightly intertwined with each other, as a result of which they are severely damaged. If the seedlings are to be grown in plastic containers it is very important to choose the right size.

Cellular, or cassette containers are small pots fastened together, in each of which one plant is planted. They are made of high-quality smooth plastic, so it is very easy to get an earthen ball without damaging the roots. When purchasing such containers, it is better to choose containers with a pallet, otherwise you will have to make it yourself.

The disadvantage of this method of growing seedlings is that as the shoots grow, they begin to crowd each other. That is, such a container is not suitable for seedlings that need to be grown for a long time, but it can be used for plants that do not gain a large mass of leaves: for example, asters or cabbage.

In any case, when buying ready-made containers for growing seedlings, you need to pay attention to the following factors: sufficient capacity, rigid, opaque walls with low thermal conductivity, as well as the presence drainage system, which will save the seedlings from excess moisture. Under such conditions, the shoots will grow strong and healthy, and the plants will delight the gardener with a rich harvest.