AWESOME AppleBee's Carside To-Go Container Seed Germinator / Starter!!!!!!

Intro: AWESOME AppleBee's Carside To-Go Container Seed Germinator / Starter!!!!!!

Eat at AppleBee's Lately??? Had any food to-go?? Stuck with that cool dome-like food container?

Well if you are in posession of one of those food container things, with about 2 minutes of work, you can make your self a neat little seed germinator that is sturdy and reusable, unlike many of the other "seed germinators made from recycled garbage" instructables, this one is actually cool! So read on and saturate your brain with semi-useful information brought to you through Instructables!

This green solution to all the worlds problems brought to you by Thenear1send.

CHECK OUT MY OTHER INSTRUCTABLE
How to grow PEPPERS!!!

STEP 1: Acquire the Container

This process is fairly easy.

First, eat at AppleBee's.

Second, be sure you don't eat all your food, and request a take out box.

Third Step, BAIL OUT of the place!

Alternative:
Note, if you are "smooth" enough, you could just straight up ask if you could have a couple containers, having eaten your entire meal anyway. It never hurts to ask, the worst they could say is no.

STEP 2: Drill Some Holes!

As said above,
Drill some holes!

But first... clean it with some soap.. THEN DRILL SOME HOLES!

This could be done with a drill, or if your interested in the more primitive methods not requiring fancy electronics, you could take out a pokey, metal stick, and do the same.

I snagged a drill and poked about 10 holes around the edges of the little indent of the box.

STEP 3: Enjoy It and All Its Beauty!

This is by far the hardest part. Set it down, take a breath, clear your mind of all thoughts, then... EXAMINE!!!

I can hear the masses singing... "Ooohhh, Aahhhhh...."

Isn't it beautiful!?!?! Sure symbolizes the word "Green" in a little, friendly, chain-restaurant takeout seed germinator box.

STEP 4: Your Done Making Your Box!!!

Congradulations!

You have made your very own super seed box!!

You can either be done, and use it as you please, or, if you are clueless about life, you can continue to read on about how to plant stuff into it!

Then...
CHECK OUT MY OTHER INSTRUCTABLE
How to grow PEPPERS!!!

STEP 5: Preparing Soil for Your Box

If you don't already have your own specialty dirt in your back yard, I suggest using potting soil.

There is such a wide variety of soils at the gardening section of practically every store to choose from, but personally i would use an extremely light, home made mix of 1/3 vermiculite, 1/3 peat moss, and 1/3 filler stuff (usually cheap soil, some compost, dirt from the ground, or whatever).

Little Tip:
Soak it a little with some water so it doesn't create a huge dust cloud.

Mmmm... dirt....

STEP 6: Put Some Dirt in It!

This part requires you put soil into the box....

Quite simple really....

Would have taken a cool action shot but.... i broke my 3rd arm. =(

STEP 7: Plant Your Seeds

This is pretty self explanatory, go get seeds, put them inside, and then get them wet. They will grow.

Patience!!!

STEP 8: ... Wet Your Seeds...

Spray them with a little H2O

Soak 'em, Soak them reeeaalll good..


PS!!!
Note the cool action shot!

STEP 9: Place the Hydration DOME on Top!

Yes, this is another very difficult step.

YOU MUST PUT THE TOP ON, then, GO AWAY, and WAIT a while!

STEP 10: LOOK!!! PLANTS!!!!

After a couple days/weeks, your seeds will germinate!

if you planted as many seeds as i did, you would get to enjoy a little forest in a box, but i worked a little magic to put some seedlings (from my other instructable) inside, for demonstrative purposes!

STEP 11: NOW, Enjooooy!!!!!

This the final hard step.

Like the first one, take a deep breath.... whew... and clear your thoughts.... And once done, ABSORB THE MAGIC OF THE APPLEBEE's SUPER TO-GO SEED GERMINATION CONTAINER!!!! w000t

Note its extreme similarity to other store bought seed germinators!

Which i used in my... OTHER INSTRUCTABLE!!!
How to grow PEPPERS!!!

STEP 12: END!

Hope you enjoyed my instructable!

...Just saving the world with one worthless eco-friendly instructables at a time!

CHECK OUT MY OTHER INSTRUCTABLE
How to grow PEPPERS!!!

Check it out!!! SUPER AWESOME other instructable!!!!

Comments

[K P Vasudeva Rao]

Hi ,
Your article on how to grow bell pepper seedlings in a throwaway container is very informative. I live in Mumbai, India. At present the temperature is hovering around 38° C. Is it possible to grow bell pepper at this temperature?
Kindly let me know.
Thank you.

[bFusion]

1/3 virmiculite, 1/3 compost, 1/3 peatmoss, and 1/3 cheap soil!

I think your math is a little off  :)

[ReginaTaylorHines]

Compost is not mentioned in her soil mixture as a separate item.

[AtlantaTerry]

Any similar container will work. Sources: fast food restaurants (Wendy's, McDonald's, etc.) who have salads to go. Grocery stores that have prepared meat or bread or whatever to take home. Really, if you look around you can find similar trays with a black lower half and a clear upper half. Free or with food...

BTW, the "$" should go before the number.

[georgeshtc]

This is one of the best Instructables I have come across, 10 out of 10 on the humour and good work on the guide on the greenhouse :) I had to read the whole instructable.

[annamaria1231]

I wsan't hoarding. I knew I saved all these containers for a reason :-) You just showed it's for the good of the earth. Thanks for making it funny.

[csantiago3]

soo true, my mother says I collect garbage, I say I collect magnificent seed starters

[Solderguy]

I would leave the lid a little open to get air circulation and prevent mold from forming on the seeds.

[thenear1send]

I actually do that every now and then, and mostly i just don't lock the top onto the bottom. In my case, since its like 110 degrees, it not only allows air circulation, but it allows the insides not to boil. As for mold, never had a mold "problem", BUT, my jiffy peat pots do mold, but i figured, its not bothering anyone, hopefully it will speed their decomposition.

[bFusion]

The new Applebees containers actually have a 1/4-inch hole poked in the top.

I just ate Applebees leftovers for lunch and I had an apple for a snack earlier. I popped onto instructables to see if there were any guides on growing seeds. What a great coincidence :D

[blondeeboi]

Honestly dude i love how this instructable was written, absolutely hilarious, but for your next eco-friendly-able, maybe you should learn how to grow a riddelin tree? Just sayin
It's worth a try

[ReCreate]

A plant? O RLY? Laugh out loud, especially at the last image :P

[canno]

great instructable love the i'm with stupid pic 5/5 funny xP

[willie Davis]

I really enjoyed this Instructable. Very funny, and educationally great. Will be teaching my grandchildren this one i betcha.

[temp]

okay... I need a controlled environment for growing a couple of seeds. I need a need a controlled environment because the seeds I am trying to grow have been to space. I'm serious. I need to do a scientific experiment trying to show a difference between the space seeds, and the seeds that remained on earth that act as a control. Would anybody recommend this for a controlled environment I could use? I need a reliable and controlled area for growing my seeds. Thanks you. Any help or tips are welcome to be said. I will document what I find and try to post it on the web, NASA might even put it on their website if I give a good report and have reliable data. All help is welcome! p.s. I'm not someone really smart or scientifically famous. This is just a science olympiad/ school/ I saw this guy giving a powerpoint about a science olypmiad event and he gave me some seeds that have been to space sortof experiment thing. I'm with stupid... lol.

[thenear1send]

Hey Temp,

your experiment sounds way awesome!

A good control soil (or as you said, environment/area) would be about 3 parts peat moss, 2 vermiculite, and 1-2 parts compost (depending on its thickness, ive had some store bought composts as thick as clay [not good =(] )

And if your going to get serious about your project enough to get all these things, then do NOT use my garbage food container germinator. This instructables was really more of a --less than serious project i did in my spare time.. if you didn't already catch that drift.

I would suggest purchasing some seed germinating trays. You can spend a load of cash at stores or hardware depots getting these, BUT i have found a good resource of these things in my area. The Dollar Store! w00t!

I spent an entire 2 dollars and got 2 12 celled 1"by 1" by 3" deep seed germinators, complete with hydration domes. xD

They have worked nicely.

Also, if your really confused on soils. Just get a bag of standard potting mix. They work well for about everything, especially controlled experiments. The only thing about them is that they are expensive, have a bunch of weird stuff inside of them (like time released fertilizer pellets), and break down into dust in a few years, rendering them as significant as sand.

Be sure to buy something with a good deal of peat and/or vermic/pearlite. They arent necessary, but provide for good seed germination and aeration. (untill they start to decompose)

Well, hope that helps you!

Good luck on your experiment!

Post pics if it turns out!!!

[iMac]

Does it have to be AppleBees container? I have a Jack in the box one will that work?

[pcfrost232]

I knew I was saving those kinds of containers for a reason! Thanks for helping me out. =]

[Kaiven]

This is cool. Must try.

[FreshPineSent]

I wonder how many people are going to use this to grow pot.