Since several years back when I learned of their existence I had wanted a pot maker that uses newspaper to make planting pots. A couple years ago I bought a homemade version of the pot makers and have used them for several seasons. I am very happy with the results, and will continue to use them.

I don’t care to buy something more than once if I can help it, and to buy peat or disposable plastic pots to start my plants every year didn’t appeal to me. The other option I had was to buy several hundred of the small clay pots, at least they can be reused. The clay pots have the disadvantage of removing the plant from the pot when it is time to transplant though. The newspaper pot maker solves all these problems.

The pot makers I bought are very simple, and could be easily copied at home. I have two sizes, but usually only use the smaller of the two. As you can see in the pictures it is black from newsprint after making 100’s of pots.

I started 80 Roma tomato plants using pots I made out of newspaper early this year. They worked great, the only problem I have had is the roots grow right through the pot walls and will try to grow into the surrounding pots if you don’t get them transplanted on time. My tomatoes didn’t get planted until later in the season due to the very rainy spring conditions and time constraints. I had to pull the pots apart as the roots were growing into their neighbors pot.

 

 

The pots can be planted directly into the ground, as they will degrade within a couple days, much faster than a peat pot. When I transplanted my tomatoes this year the pots were already about gone, having served its job the newspaper turns into dirt.

Since I pick up the local free classified papers in my area looking for deals, I always have some newspaper around. Making the pots is easy. I cut strips of paper long enough to make a pot with two layers of newspaper. I make the strips wide enough to just have the top of the pot maker outside the pot when the bottom is folded. I then tape the edge of the paper with masking tape to prevent it from unrolling. The tape is optional, I do it to keep the pots neat.

When I have enough pots made I put them in plastic shoe boxes to make moving them around easy. When I water the pots the shoe box prevents any leaks, and the system works pretty good.

In the future when I have a greenhouse I plan on building a heated starting bed that will be built to fit these pots. I paid about $11 for my two pot makers. If I were to have to replace them I would buy the style made of stone, as the surface would be smooth. When I first started using my pot maker it took a little while to get the sides smooth so the pot would slide off.

Searching the internet I found prices ranging from $15-$20 for pot makers, kinda high in my opinion. Although if you start a good number of plants you could recoup the cost of a pot maker in one season.