Has anyone tried starting seeds in eggshells?
I've come to the conclusion that direct sowing is difficult for me at my allotment. Because a) not much seems to germinate and b) I find it nigh on impossible to tell what is plants and what is weeds. I know people say to put a string along the row with sticks and labels at the ends. But that doesn't work for me because there's nothing to stop the weeds growing along the row as well, and as I'm blind and new to this, it's really hard for me to know which is weeds.
So I want to start as much as possible from home and plant out when they're big enough that I can feel the difference. Looking for cheap/easy ways to start the seeds I've tried starting in trays then transferring to pots; in giffy pellet things; in biodegradable pots; in toilet roll tubes; and now finally I'm trying eggshells.
Transferring from trays to pots works well but can be fiddly and difficult not to damage the seedlings (as well as being blind I only have use of one hand). Giffies and biodegradable pots work great but I don't want to keep paying for them. Some people swear by the toilet roll thing but I found it hard to make a stable pot withe them and the thing went rotten and manky before the seeds had a chance to really get going.
So now the eggshells, another idea I found online. I've washed out egg shells, pricked a hole in the bottom, filled with compost and put in the egg box. At the moment I've just covered with the lid of the eggbox. Some people do that, some use clinggfilm. Apparently when ready to plant out, gently crush the shell around the seedling.
This appealed to me because I thought it would make the seedling easier to handle than getting out of a seed tray, I always have eggs around so it's cheap, and hopefully I can more easily tell the difference between plants and weeds as plants will be surrounded by crushed eggshell.
Has anyone tried this or any opinions on how this would work? Any other suggestions about how to cheaply start seeds and how I might be able to tell the difference between my seedlings and weeds?
I've come to the conclusion that direct sowing is difficult for me at my allotment. Because a) not much seems to germinate and b) I find it nigh on impossible to tell what is plants and what is weeds. I know people say to put a string along the row with sticks and labels at the ends. But that doesn't work for me because there's nothing to stop the weeds growing along the row as well, and as I'm blind and new to this, it's really hard for me to know which is weeds.
So I want to start as much as possible from home and plant out when they're big enough that I can feel the difference. Looking for cheap/easy ways to start the seeds I've tried starting in trays then transferring to pots; in giffy pellet things; in biodegradable pots; in toilet roll tubes; and now finally I'm trying eggshells.
Transferring from trays to pots works well but can be fiddly and difficult not to damage the seedlings (as well as being blind I only have use of one hand). Giffies and biodegradable pots work great but I don't want to keep paying for them. Some people swear by the toilet roll thing but I found it hard to make a stable pot withe them and the thing went rotten and manky before the seeds had a chance to really get going.
So now the eggshells, another idea I found online. I've washed out egg shells, pricked a hole in the bottom, filled with compost and put in the egg box. At the moment I've just covered with the lid of the eggbox. Some people do that, some use clinggfilm. Apparently when ready to plant out, gently crush the shell around the seedling.
This appealed to me because I thought it would make the seedling easier to handle than getting out of a seed tray, I always have eggs around so it's cheap, and hopefully I can more easily tell the difference between plants and weeds as plants will be surrounded by crushed eggshell.
Has anyone tried this or any opinions on how this would work? Any other suggestions about how to cheaply start seeds and how I might be able to tell the difference between my seedlings and weeds?
Comment