What I dislike most about growing plants – or rather what I find scary – is transplanting seedlings. To me they are like newborn babies that you’d be afraid to carry for fear of breaking their soft bones or dropping them on the floor. Ooh! If you feel the same way about these baby plants, you’re going to love this idea which offers a better way of transplanting – making your own seedling cups with newspapers!
So what’s the deal? Well, let me start by telling you a little something about newspapers. We know that a key ingredient to growing healthy plants is by composting. Compost can include animal manure, sawdust, straw, food scraps and many more. Newspaper is also a good material.
What’s great about newspapers is that many of its printers now use soy ink. Yes, ink made from soybeans. Because of the rising prices of petroleum, the Newspaper Association of America during the 1970’s decided to look for other materials to make ink with. They discovered soybean oil to be a great alternative for a number of reasons. They are more cost efficient and printer-friendly than the petroleum-based ink. They produce brighter and more accurate colors as well.
This is a better material not only for the companies, but also for the environment. Soy ink has low levels of volatile organic compounds which means that air pollution is reduced because of its minimal toxic emissions. Papers with soy ink are also easier to recycle, more particularly during the de-inking process because they are easier to remove compared to regular ink.
Though soy ink does not mean that it is edible nor 100% biodegradable (because they are still mixed with other ingredients required for producing ink), it is way better – safer – than the petroleum-based. Which is why newspapers today make even better materials for planting.
Making seedling pots out of them is a great idea! Aside from being a compost ingredient, it makes transplanting easier since you don’t have to dig up your plants anymore. No more fear of damaging their roots! Read on to know how. 🙂
What you need:
- Newspaper (printed with soy ink)
- Ruler
- Pencil
- Cutter/Scissors
- Stapler
Steps:
Cut four 6-inch squares of newspaper.
Fold the paper into thirds, both vertically and horizontally…
Continued page 2…
I’m afraid that the letters printings might contain lead.