Review by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
Paper Potter
Lakeland Ref 51484
Makes pots of approx. 4cm (1½") in diameter
Price: £9.99
The season is upon us gardeners yet again where it means to prepare for the new year and this means sowing seeds.
As we all like to be as environmentally friendly when we do that what better way than to make your own plug pots, and bio-degradable ones at that, from waste materials, in this case old newspaper.
The Paper Potter is very easy to use and makes very nice little pots that can be planted straight into the soil with the plug plant, degrading into the earth while the plant grows. Much better than buying compostable pots, the latter which are often made from peat.
Use this ingenious device, made from hand-turned FSC oak, to make little newspaper pots, and when hardened off, transplant your young plants, pot and all, without damaging their delicate roots.
Making pots with the Paper Potter is extremely easy and the pots turn out well as long as, and this is important, you do not wrap the paper around the Potter part too tight. When the instruction says “loosely” it means just that. The rest is just as easy as pie.
Once you have made you paper pot you then simply fill it with soil, add the seed of your choice and let nature do its job. When the plant has become big enough – the second leaf stage – you can then plant them out straight away or grow then further to a stronger plug stage in the pot.
Aside from working extremely well and turning out great little pots it also looks great and, in a way, far too nice too be put into the potting shed.
Personally I cannot wait to get started making and using those little pots or my plants this year.
The Paper Potter will live, however, during its breaks, on my desk, as it looks so nice and a real piece of beauty, and also in order to keep it dry. Always important with wooden products.
The best thing about the Paper Potter is the pots it makes are recycled and will recycled back into the soil as they will completely biodegrade and I can definitely recommend the Paper Potter from that aspect.
© 2010
