An upside down idea for seed-starting
After nurturing your new seedlings indoors, the last thing you want is to take them outdoors and accidentally damage them at planting time. But, the standard seed starting trays don’t exactly make it easy to pry new seedlings out of the standard seed starting tray without damaging the fragile roots or leaves.
Clever way to start seeds in small drinking cups
So Kayla came up with an idea to plant seeds in small drinking cups — with one twist: Turn the cups upside down! Just cut the bottoms off the cups, fill them up with potting mix, place them upside down in a plastic tote and then plant the seeds.
Use the right soil mix
Kayla found that a mix of 1 part potting mix and 3 parts peat moss holds together a little better and prevents the soil from crumbling at planting time. When it’s time to plant or repot, just pick up the plastic cup, hold it over the planting hole and slightly squeeze the cup. As long as the leaves and stem are still small enough to fit through the hole without catching on the sides, the soil and the seedling will plop into the hole unharmed. When planting is finished, thoroughly rinse off the plastic cups, stack them and store them for next year.
Tip submitted by Kayla Ropp, OR
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