6 Seed Starting Pots: Pros & Cons

There are many choices of seed starting pots for a home gardener and each has its pros and cons. Let&#;s take a look at our six best options!

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I love, Love, LOVE starting my own seeds! First of all, because I am cheating and getting a jump start on spring, getting the chance to stick my hands in the dirt after only a couple of months&#; hiatus. Also, I know that I&#;m doing something that is frugal and organic, which is a great feeling!

I mean, you can grow a tomato as organically as you want once you get it home from the nursery&#;s greenhouse. However, let&#;s be honest, do you really think they give a hoot and a half about organics? Well, maybe they do in your neck of the woods, but around here &#;organic&#; is something all those hippies on the west coast dabble in. We&#;re practical here in the midwest (and &#;feeding the world&#; don&#;t you know? Pf!)

So, I played around with starting seeds for a few years now. However, once I realized that onion seeds need to be sown as early as January, I got serious about my new winter hobby. Do you really mean I only need to skip November & December in my gardening calendar?! It was music to my ears! (Being such the addict that I am regarding gardening and all).

Seed Starting Pots: PROS & CONS

So, over the years, I&#;ve tried most of the ways that backyard gardener starts their seeds. Here&#;s the rundown of what I learned are the pros & cons of seed starting pots. Beforehand, I want to assure you that you should always take into consideration your garden&#;s needs and your own. My favorite seed starting pot may be or may be not yours too.

That&#;s totally normal and fine! You should just find your own!

1. Egg Cartons As Seed Starting Pots

Cardboard egg cartons can be used to start a dozen seedlings, and then cut apart to plant each one when it&#;s time to plant them in the garden. As with newspaper seedling pots, there&#;s no need to remove the plants from the pots before planting, as the cardboard will break down in the soil as the plant grows.

Pros

• Economical;
• Readily Available.

Cons

• Size Limiting;
• Difficult to maintain even moisture levels;
• If it gets too wet, it could rip.

2. Newspaper Pots As Seed Starting Pots

As I already said, this way of starting seeds is a lot easier than others, as there&#;s no need to remove the plants from the pots before planting. The cardboard will break down in the soil as the plant grows. Also, you can learn how to make newspaper pots in an easy and fun way on this website.

Pros

• Economical;
• Readily Available;
• Can decompose if planted in the ground;
• Environmentally Friendly.

Cons

• Time-consuming to prepare especially if you&#;ll be doing a large number of pots;
• Don&#;t wear white while making them. No seriously, you&#;ll ruin it.
• Easily rips if saturated;
• Susceptible to molding- Mine got quite slimy.

3. Cardboard Tubes As Seed Starting Pots

Next is this easy and environmentally friendly way of starting seeds. Moreover, here we have a fun tutorial too on learning how to make Cardboard Tubes into seed cups.

Pros

• Economical;
• Readily Available;
• Environmentally Friendly.

Cons

• Don&#;t quickly decompose in the ground- I suggest at least ripping them open prior to planting so those little roots can get out.
• Can rip if saturated during watering.

4. Peat Pots As Seed Starting Pots

In effect of the higher price, these pots can be shuffled and moved around and are still environmentally friendly. However, they have to be bought. So, if you are interested in this way of starting your seeds, you can buy Peat Seed Starting Pots on Amazon at a budget-friendly price.

Pros

• Environmentally Friendly;
• Can be planted in the ground and decomposed;
• Can be shuffled and moved around if allowed to dry out a little first.

Cons

• More expensive

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• Can rip if oversaturated;
• Can be susceptible to molding;
• Wicks away moisture from the soil so you have to water more often.

5.

Plastic Seed Starting Pots

As Seed Starting Pots

You can purchase plastic seed starting supplies on Amazon. In addition, plastic cups work great too and they can also be free if you collect them from parties or fellowship meals.

Also, if you&#;ll be using a self-watering tray, be sure to poke a few holes in the bottom first. No matter how I start them, I transplant tomatoes up into plastic cups because they&#;re so tall and narrow. I bury the whole stem right on up to the bottom of the first true leaves and a beautiful root system will establish itself by the time it&#;s ready to go into the ground.

Pros

• Can be inexpensive, especially if salvaged;

• Reusable and with careful handling can be saved from one year to the next

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Cons

• More expensive;
• Can rip or get a hole.

6. Soil Blockers As Seed Starting Pots

If you need one at a fair price, you can buy a soil blocker on Amazon anytime. Even though I&#;ve never tried seed starting plugs like those on Amazon, the advantages and disadvantages are about the same with the exception of price.

Pros

• One-time investment;
• Easy to use, and quick to make once you get into a groove;
• No containers to break;
• Environmentally friendly;
• No root shock;
• Roots don&#;t get bound;
• Works great with homemade potting soil mix.

Cons

• Expensive initially;
• If you need to shuffle your seeds into different trays it can be tricky to keep them from breaking if they&#;re loosely made or wet.
• You&#;re limited to size. If you want to upsize using to a larger one, you&#;ll need to purchase multiple sizes. Not all plants need a large block of soil so you might need to buy a second one to accommodate those needs.
• If your seeds don&#;t germinate, your soil is stuck. There&#;s no adding it back in to be made into another one. It&#;s just wasted space.

Final Thoughts

Finally, what are the best seed starting pots? Well, as I said before, it really depends.

Honestly, I don&#;t see myself ever making newspaper pots or ones from cardboard tubes again. It wasn&#;t worth the upfront time investment for the advantage of using &#;free&#; materials. So, if I&#;m pressed for time, I&#;ll probably reach for a plastic pot or maybe a Jiffy pot. It will irritate me come planting time that I&#;ve used the Jiffy pots, but that&#;s trouble for another day.

Ideally, if I have the time, I&#;m going to go with the soil blockers. Because I believe that in the end, a soil blocker produces a pot that is the best for the seedlings and the most user-friendly for the gardener. However, these are my thoughts and personal preferences.

Therefore, look within yourself and at your garden&#;s needs and decide for yourself. Which are your favorite pots for starting your seeds? However, when you find the answer, do not hesitate to share it with us in the comment section!

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Some seeds are always better off started in modules or individual pots, like sweet peas, poppies and many vegetables, but we&#;re often advised to sow most flower seeds in seed trays and &#;prick out&#; seedlings to transfer into separate modules or larger pots to grow on. I&#;ve struggled with seedling loss after pricking out and wanted to share what I&#;ve done to avoid this problem in case it&#;s helpful for anyone else.

The problem - seedling loss after pricking out

The first few years I grew flowers for sale - growing larger quantities of flowers than I ever had before - I used the pricking out method. This would mostly go ok, but I increasingly had seedling losses after transplant - particularly with Ammobium, Xeranthemum and zinnias - no matter how careful I was in handling the seedlings. The problem was that the small, delicate roots of the transplanted seedling had been disturbed and damaged by pricking out and were then sitting in damp compost in cool spring weather. As a result, many of them succumbed to root rot and perished, especially the plants that prefer warmer climates. I tried different composts but that made no difference (I now use Fertile Fibre plastic-free). I tried amending the compost to improve drainage (perlite, sand, vermiculite) and planted the seedlings to the side of the pot rather than in the centre (to promote drainage around the roots) which helped a little bit but I was still losing too many plants and the seedlings that did survive often grew into weak plants that didn&#;t flower well.

My solution - sowing directly into module trays

Last year I sowed some seeds directly into modules instead of seed trays - so they didn&#;t need pricking out - and these seedlings grew into healthy plugs with strong root systems that could be potted up with very little root disturbance. These plants had much better survival rates than the pricked-out ones. This year I decided to sow ALL of my seeds into module trays to avoid any need for pricking-out and possible root damage. I sowed as little as two up to a few seeds per module depending on the age and quantity of the seeds (for older seeds I sowed more, for fresh seeds or seeds that came very few to a packet, I sowed less). As the seeds grew, I carefully thinned them to just a few plants per module, finally thinning to one strong seedling per module (this way of sowing is the same as direct sowing in the garden where you over-sow and then thin your seedlings). I also watered from the bottom only, to ensure the compost structure wasn&#;t compressed in any way by overhead watering. Once the seedlings&#; roots filled the modules, I transplanted them into 3-inch pots to grow on before planting out.

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