How to Grow Seeds in Styrofoam Cups
Styrofoam is notorious for its lack of biodegradability. Those old Styrofoam coffee cups aren't going anywhere any time soon, so you may as well put them to good use instead of throwing them out and letting them build up in some landfill. One way to recycle Styrofoam cups is to turn them into starter planting pots. You'll save money and do your part to live green and protect the environment. Decorate your Styrofoam cups for an added flair.
Wash and rinse your Styrofoam cups thoroughly. Decorate your cups with markers or paints and allow them to dry. Make sure you leave a small area white so you can label each cup. Poke one or two drainage holes in the bottoms of the cups with a pen or sharp pencil.
Fill the cups with peat moss, potting soil or a 50/50 mixture of the two. Plant one to three of the seeds in the cups to the depths recommended on their respective packages. Place the cups on a tray and water them until the soil is just moist. Use a marker to write the names of the seeds you planted on each cup.
Place the tray in a warm, sunny spot. Wrap the tray in a clear plastic bag. If you don't have a bag large enough to fit around the whole tray, cover the cups in a sheet of plastic wrap. This will help retain heat and moisture to create an ideal environment for germination.
Check your seeds often over a period of two weeks. Most seeds germinate within a two-week period, but you should check your seed packages for specific information regarding germination periods. Once the seeds sprout, remove the plastic wrap.
Transplant the seedlings when they are large enough. Most plants should be ready to transplant when they have two sets of leaves and reach heights of about 3 to 5 inches, but this varies from plant to plant, so consult your seed packages for a transplant schedule.
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Writer Bio
Jarrett Melendez is a journalist, playwright and novelist who has been writing for more than seven years. His first published work was a play titled, "Oh, Grow Up!" which he wrote and performed with a group of his classmates in 2002.
