Recycled (or Repurposed) Toilet Paper Rolls – Grow Seedlings

Ever wonder what you can do with all those empty toilet paper rolls instead of throwing them away?   Those toilet paper rolls make perfect seedling starter pots, and can be planted in the flower bed when it’s time for the seedlings to be transplanted and grow big!

We placed a bag in each bathroom in our house to collect the empty toilet paper rolls.  When you are ready to get started with your flower, vegetable, tree, or any plant seedlings, here are the items you will need:

1. toilet paper rolls
2. soil or seedling starter pellets – we purchased a box of 36 pellets for $3.88 at Walmart
3. seeds
4. shallow bowl to place seedling starter pots in – we burn a lot of candles in our house, and reuse the empty glass candle holder once the candle burns all the way down.  What a great way to repurpose those glass candle bowls!!!  If you want, decorate the outside of the glass candle bowl with paint and embellishments you have around the house.

Cut the toilet paper rolls in half.  Cut 4 notches on one end of each half and fold up as the bottom of your seedling starter “pot”.  Place each starter pot in bowl to hold in place – 3 starter pots fit perfectly in our glass candle bowl.  Place soil or soil pellet in each seedling starter pot (add water to pellet until it expands).

This is a photo of 3 seedling starter pots – we still need to add water to 2 of the pellets until they expand into dark, moist soil.

Plant seeds in the moist soil of each seedling starter pot.  Place in a location with indirect sunlight in your house, add water when needed to keep the soil moist and watch your seeds sprout and grow into beautiful plants!

When the seedlings are a few inches high, you can transplant them to your garden outside by planting the entire seedling pot in the soil.  Because the toilet paper roll is made of paper, it will break down over time in the ground and will become part of the soil.  We opened the folds on the bottom of each toilet paper roll when we transplanted our seedling pots so the roots could take hold and spread more quickly.

Happy Planting!!!