Humble Garden

ReSkilling for future food independence

Frugal seed starting

Posted by Nika On March - 22 - 2009

Humble Garden: DIY flat dividers - cabbage starts

Like diapers for babies, it seems like there is no end to the doo-dads and supplies one needs when starting seeds indoors.

My brassica seeds rocketed into sproutdom WAY faster than I imagined they might and I was caught without a means for transplanting the soil blocks to a larger size. I cant really afford to get the larger soil blocker and I didnt have any larger containers right away so I figured I could use an excess diaper box to jury-rig something to transplant the seedlings into.

I was exhausted by the end of this DIY project because I could not find my exacto-knife (DH put it somewhere “safe” and now lost) so I used a pair of KID scissors.. use the knife.

The main hack here is to cut skinny rectangles and then some slots so that they for a grid that fits in the black tray.

Humble Garden: DIY flat dividers - cabbage starts

Add soil.

Humble Garden: DIY flat dividers - cabbage starts

Plant.

Humble Garden: DIY flat dividers - cabbage starts

Humble Garden: DIY flat dividers - cabbage starts

Humble Garden: DIY flat dividers - cabbage starts

5 Responses to “Frugal seed starting”

  1. Erika says:

    Lol, I love it. I had to do the same type of thing, only I used paper cups. My current problem is that I’ve run out of room for more plants, and I have a whole mess of seedlings that should really be potted up.

    It’s time for it to get nice out so some of these brassicas can go in the ground!

  2. Al says:

    That is AWESOME!!!! I have actually been building flats out of scrap wood and using peat pots. I also use cardboard egg cartons, and those plastic containers lunch meat comes in. If its plastic I just drill holes in the bottom. Thats the beauty of plants, they will live in almost anything as long as it has dirt and drainage….LOL

  3. Nika says:

    Erika: I am very impatient to get things going too! I feel like this ginormous clock is on my back, ticking and bonging as time races away!

  4. Nika says:

    Totally fantastic! I have been using the terrarium like plastics that lettuce comes in – great stuff! I am in desperate need to transplant but I just cant get the gumption up!

  5. bee says:

    egg cartons and plastic yogurt cups are great for this, nika.

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About Me

We are a family of 5, including Nika, Ed, Q (14), KD (7), and Baby Oh (4). We garden 1024 square feet of raised beds plus assorted permacultural plantings. We also have 13 LaMancha dairy goats, 40 chickens, and one guard llama.

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