Making Your Own Air Pot Like Seedling Cups
I have always thought that if Air Pots and Smart Pots are excellent for growing auto flowers (and they are) wouldn't they also be good for growing the seedlings? For me, the seedling stage is the most precarious. If I'm going to lose a plant (and I don't lose many) this is when it is going to happen.
Air holes or fabric sides provide more air to the plant roots, in this case, seedling roots. The air promotes root growth and also allows for much better drainage.
I use 16 oz. Solo Cups because they are small enough to monitor how much water I'm using but large enough to prevent the seedlings from becoming root bound. The Solo Cups have slick sides so when the time comes to transplant out of the cup to a larger...say...5 gallon smart pot.....the seedling easily slides out. I fill soil around a 16 oz. Solo Cup placed in a 5 gallon smart pot. I remove the empty Solo Cup and slide the seedling in it's place. The fit is perfect and does not expose the roots to much shock.
To make a "solo cup like air pot" you will need some plastic cups and any type of soldering iron. I don't like "drilling" the holes because it takes too much time and the holes leave plastic residue. The high heat from a soldering iron allows me to do a whole cup in around a minute. Just touch the tip of the iron to the plastic for a fraction of a second and you have a perfect hole. Of course the cups are reusable for as long as you need them.
Make the holes (as many as you like) small so the soil does not come out. I believe it is better to have a lot of small holes then just a few larger holes.
The end result is seedling container / cup that allows a large amount of air flow to the roots and also allows for much, much better drainage. Water will no longer "pool" at the bottom of the cup. This allows you to "flood" the plant with water, getting all the medium wet. The soil dries much faster now so there is little chance of over watering. On that note, you do need to check the soil more often because it will dry out faster.
Hopefully this will be of some help to some folks, so please let me know what you think.
