Our family’s favorite way to start seeds indoors is to use plastic bottles.
Here’s what you need:
- plastic bottles
- potting soil (or dirt)
- pail
- coffee filters
- cotton string (old shoelaces or clothesline work well)
- seeds
- sharp cutting tool
- organic matter (e.g., eggs shells, coffee grounds; this is optional)
Here’s what you do:
- Use the sharp knife to cut the bottle at the "waist".
- Invert the top so that the top/hole points down, and set in the bottom of bottle.
- Tear a small hole in a coffee filter. Put a piece of string through the hole in the filter so string sits in the bottom of the lower bottle, and there is enough to wind through soil. Place the filter in the bottle and open it to get it ready for the soil.
- Stir your soil and organic material (we like to use egg shells and coffee grounds).
- Fill the coffee filter with potting material/soil. Plant seeds in the soil.
- For the first watering, get the soil moist. For subsequent waterings you can just lift out the top and fill the bottom reservoir. Your string will wick the moisture up through the soil. You can water from the top occasionally if needed.
- Set the bottles near a sunny window sill and keep reservoir filled.
When it comes time to plant, lift coffee filter and all out of bottle and plant the whole works into the ground (unless you have more than one seedling, then separate). The coffee filter will disintegrate in the soil. You may find your string later or it may disappear into a birds nest. This is great for kids as they can't over-water, and if they forget to water a day the plants are still ok.
