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Improvised seed flats

I think this post would interest people on my two favorite lists, so
here it is:

At your grocery store, fruit and vegetables are probably packed in deep,
open-topped packs made of crinkly-thin, clear plastic. We get everything
from apples to spinach packed in these. Sometimes delicate fruits like
raspberries or cherry tomatoes are packed in hinged boxes made of the
same material (I think the plastic is called PET).

These make excellent mini-greenhouses for seeds and cuttings. My
greengrocer always has extras of these after he's unloaded the fruit
onto his display racks. I rinse them out, and sort them: some have vent
holes on the bottom, some don't. I use a closed-bottom pack for the
bottom, and invert a ventilated pack on top of it, so the holes are on
top. I fasten the two together with spring clips (the kind with jaws,
from the office supply store) or clothespins.

You can put the little plastic speed-plug pots in them: I use kid-sized
yoghurt containers from a dairy nearby (my children recycle!). If you
have a soil-block maker, discharge the finished blocks directly into the
pack. Or you can fill the entire bottom section with soil and broadcast
seed.
The packs are so cheap and plentiful that it's a simple matter to double
them up for more stability if you wish.

The finished 'mini-greenhouse' can go straight under lights or outside.
It also is the perfect shape to sit on a windowsill. To get more
ventilation, slide the top pack to on+e side and put the clips back on.

One BIG advantage of these contraptions is that they have headroom. 
That means they are tall enough to be used to harden off larger
seedlings, or to root bulky cuttings.

It also helps keep down use of virgin plastic in the garden.

Hope this helps!

JB David
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