Using egg cartons as seed starters

Now i'm not the most eco friendly person out there, but I regard myself as um, "frugal" when at all possible (good way of saying cheap, no?). I'm sure this has been done before but here's the way I have done it and it worked out pretty well. These work like little mini-greenhouses.


All you need is stuff you already have at your house:
- egg carton
- cellophane or any type of clear plastic
- stapler 
- razor blade (or scissors)

first off, cut the top off the carton 

then staple the clear plastic sheet along the back side of the container. 
I used a tiny stapler and just bunched all the plastic inside the stapler and got a nice clean row of staples along the back.   -------->

finish the staples all the way around the carton. make sure the plastic is snug on there. I flipped a small flap of the access under the sides of mine and stapled it too.

make drainage holes if you want to add them... took the little guy, flipped him over and just made little triangle cuts with my box cutter low on the sides of the bottom of the cups. you could just run a hole thru the bottom too i suppose, the carton is recessed a bit under there on most of them...

and violà! you're done. My little seedlings have taken 
to it quite nicely.

I also started these same seedlings in the same conditions and only changed the container variable. I used a perfectly clear plastic egg carton, thinking I would cut my work and not have to mess with making a clear top myself (seeing as it was already transparent). I filled it with the same dirt, same lighting conditions, blah blah blah, and found that the ones in the styrofoam containers have many more seedings - about 4:1. My best guess is that since i planted them early in colder conditions, the stryofoam possibly held more heat than the thin plastic container. And for these warmer weather seeds, the warmer temp soil equaled better germination. Next year if i plant early again, which i probably will, i'll take it a step further and insulate them further by surrounding the containers in a bed of pine needles or leaves. I've yet to try the paper containers but my guess is that they will fall between the styrofoam and plastic containers in germination rates when planted that early.

Saw this on instructables and thought it was a very cute idea too. Using eggshells as starters.