Re: Mini bottle greenhouses! What now?!

[clothmama]

I came across the idea of starting seeds in the winter outside in bottles, apparently you can even do it in hard snowy winters starting as early as December. Apparently you end up with really hardy seedlings too! In the absence of a greenhouse (I have the frame but no cover!) or much light or warmth where there is light in the house this seems like the perfect solution for me to get a headstart on some of my seed growing. I read one article that pointed out how much more a garden costs if you use seedlings (which had kind of been my backup plan ).

Anyway for the last few days I've been collecting all my big bottles and giving them a wash out.
First I cut around the bottle leaving a hinge on one side:

Then I put drainage holes in the bottom of each bottle:

I then added the soil, watered it, added the seeds (and more dirt as required with each thing) then a final sprinkle of cinnamon. From my recent research into this whole veggie gardening thing I have discovered that it is a strong antifungal and stops new seedlings / the dirt getting the nasty growths that they sometimes do

I then shut the 'lid' with some tape and labelled them with what was in there and some basic instructions from the packet (for when I loose / can't find it and need to do something with them ASAP ) as well as the date:

A bit fiddly but I now have peppers, leeks, sweet peas, courgettes, basil and brussel sprouts ready to sprout (hopefully )! Apparently you don’t' even need to water them a lot of the time as what gets in / condensates overnight is sufficient. We shall see but I'm pretty excited about them adn you can mist spray if needed! I'll update as I see progress and add to the plantings!

Love them. Might try them with my little ones!

Looks fab, I love planting veggies the children can watch grow.

[clothmama]

OMG disaster - the Sharpie I used to mark the bottles has all come off so I now have 6 bottles of seeds (hopefully seedlings soon!) that I won't have any idea what they are On the upside there is one tiny speck of green in one of the bottles

Oh no
If you didn't move them much after that photo you took then you could perhaps work it out from that?
If not we ll be able to tell the difference between some of the plants once they get going.

Love that idea!

[clothmama]

OK so this is what they now look like:

So the 3 large bottles on the bottom left (9 oclock to 6 O'clock) are either peppers, sweetpeas or basil, I'm guessing that maybe the one at 6 o'clock is basil? and not sure about the other 2 - the one that is growing well does look like it may be sweet peas but it is a long time since I've seen them! What do you guys think? @confusinglady The very happy one is brussel sprouts (they are they only one in that bottle!) and then the other 2 are leeks for the little ones and just one courgette made it!

So I'm pretty impressed with this system, I've ended up with some great little seedlings for very little effort, I've only had to water once and that was after a few warm days where I'd been opening the tops of the bottles I would be doing more now except that we've now got a little mini greenhouse so I'll just pop stuff in there at this stage but next winter I'll be trying the fully over winter growing

The one at the bottom (6 o'clock) looks like basil to me

6 oclock is defo basil! Left next to basil is peas.