Most people start indoor seeds in small pods or sow many seeds in one small pot, and in many cases this will only keep the roots happy for a short time. They will need a bigger intermediary container before they are ready to go outside. Some common choices for this intermediate container includes specially purchased pots from a nursery, old yogurt pots, red solo cups, or my favourite, newspaper pots.
Newspaper pots are awesome because in most cases they are free, they provide excellent drainage and air flow for plant root development, and the pots themselves are biodegradable in a city or home compost system.
Many places will see gadgets to make newspaper pots, but you don’t need them at all! Any cylinder the same diameter as the newspaper pot you want to create will do, plus long strips of newspaper that will wrap around that cylinder at least twice and are about as tall as half the diameter of the cylinder plus your target pot height. The best type of cylinder frame, in my opinion, is a wine bottle with a recessed bottom.
Making the pot doesn’t require any tape or glue, it will stay based on the way you roll and fold the paper, and when you fill the pot with a little soil that will also help the structure.
To start, lay your strip of matte newspaper down flat (doesn’t matter if it’s coloured or black and white). Place the wine bottle, or whatever you’re using, along one edge with some overhang of the paper (which you fill fold in to become the bottom). Roll the paper around the bottle, fold in the bottom, and ease the pot away. It’s actually difficult to explain without the visual, so please click on the video above to see it in action!
