#paper pots

I made a video but it’s too long to post to tumblr and I’m too lazy to upload it to youtube because youtube is annoying and weird.

What you need: 

Paper of some sort. 

I’m using flyers from Aldi that my twin gets for free when they expire, because otherwise they just get thrown out. If you live near a grocery store that has weekly fliers, ask a manager if they have any old ones that you can take. They’ll probably say yes. Try to avoid shiny paper!

Something to roll the paper around, as wide as you want the pot to be, and taller than you want the pot to be. I’m using a can of spray paint, but water bottles, soda cans, wine bottles, anything you can think of would probably work fine.

[ID: A gif showing a white person kneeling with their head out of the frame, holding a can of purple spray paint over a half sheet of newspaper, gesturing to show off the can of paint before sitting it on the edge of the paper. End ID.]

Line your base up with the edge of the paper, leaving enough room at the bottom to fold, and roll it as straight and tightly as possible to the edge.

[ID: Three gifs. The first shows the same person pointing at the can and paper, before the camera zooms in, while they adjust the paper to be straighter. The second shows them rolling the paper around the can, and adjusting the paper once to keep it straight. The third gif shows them finishing rolling, and holding up the can to show the bottom, which has a few inches of paper longer than the can of paint. End ID.]

Fold the bottom down firmly, starting with the seam where the paper overlaps itself.

[ID: a close up of the person’s hands as they point to the edge of the paper, before pressing it inward, folding it down to the bottom of the can, and then going around in a circle and pressing the rest of the edges down as well. End ID.]

[ID: Two gifs. The first person presses their hand to the now folded edges to makre sure they’re tight, then turns the can of paint right-side up, and slowly pulls the paint can out of the paper. The second has them turning the paper at different angles to show it off, then begins to stand as the gif ends. End ID.]

This will be my first time sing these, so I’m going to use them with seedlings that I’ll water with a spray bottle until they get enough roots to kinda hold the paper together.

These will be so that people who come and take seedlings will be able to bury the entire thing, so that they have to do less work, and the seedling won’t have to deal with transplant shock. The paper will degrade in the soil as the plant grows, and the roots will have no problem poking through it when they’re big enough!

I also still have my seedling bags that do the same thing, but I wanted some taller pots for transplanting baby trees so they have some room to grow a taproot. Mainly for the black walnut and butternut seedlings that should be appearing this year :)

also whatever acorns I remembered to plant! I know I put at least 4 pin oak (small super pretty stripey acorns) acorns in a pot, so hopefully they’ll grow. They were drying for a year because I put them in a box and then forgot about them! 

Also might use them for pawpaw trees so that I can plant them directly in the ground! I’m going to keep some, give some away, and the rest will be planted in wild areas to help restore habitat!

I’ll update this post with the results when I’ve actually used these. I think they’ll work pretty well, since there’s several layers of paper because they’re being rolled. And unlike the stupid cardboard pots you buy at the store, these will actually break down and actually let roots through. (don’t buy those cardboard pots. they’re stupid and I have NEVER seen them work)

by the way my pronouns are it/its and I’m the one in the gifs, I’m just so used to not knowing people’s pronouns that I was automatically using they/them without even thinking and by the time I realized it I was more than halfway done lol.

PS: if you post pictures or gifs, please consider adding image descriptions to them to make them accessible to people who can’t see them! You can also add image descriptions when you reblog from someone else, and if you can’t, or aren’t confident enough to start, you can check the notes to see if anyone else has added one you can reblog!

Here’s the link to the youtube video where I learned this! 

Also I had the idea of tying some cotton or jute string around them to help hold them together! As long as its a natural plant fiber it should degrade along with the paper!

The cheap colorful yarn you see is usually not biodegradable, but jute is usually pretty cheap, and as of March 2021, they sold little spools of it at the Dollar Tree with the gardening suppliess!

How to make paper pots for seedlings. It is easy and free to do using old paper bags. You can grow your own seedlings. Support the channel: https://www.etsy.com/shop/SiloeOliveira https://www.patreon.com/suburbanhomes...

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