Seed-Starting Containers

Every year I have the same debate: what containers should I use to grow my transplants in.  Here's what I've tried:

1. butter/yogurt/ricotta containers
2. newspaper pots
3. clear Soho cups
4. nursery pots

Plastic food containers worked okay, but they're round, so they're not very space-efficient under the shop lights.  Also, it was very difficult to remove the root balls intact because the containers were so rigid.

Newspaper pots were a mess - I didn't like them at all.  (See No More Newspaper Pots for my list of reasons.)

Clear Soho cups worked pretty well, actually.  I didn't really like having the roots exposed to sunlight when I set them outside, so maybe I should have taped some paper around the outsides.  They're also round, though narrow so it was less of a problem.

Nursery pots are pretty good: they use space efficiently and hold a good amount of soil, and flex just enough for easy root ball removal without being floppy. They're also kind of boring and difficult to purchase. (Though easy to acquire for free at the wrong time of year.) I have some of these, though not as many as I used to because I threw a bunch out in a cleaning fit back in fall of 2010.


I've already used most of my meager supply of nursery pots, and will be moving on to Soho cups soon, if something more brilliant doesn't come to me.

Milk cartons?  Do schools still use milk cartons?  Anyone ever tried it?


PS - If anyone was wondering how the microwave lunch steamer trays worked out last year, they didn't.  They just weren't deep enough for the plants to grow much of a root system and I ended up tearing a lot of roots during transplanting that had grown down into the water dish below.