Introduction: Bio Degradable Plant Pot

By Jonty: My YouTube Channel
About: I'm an Electronics Engineer who likes to make Doze Lamps, Lumen Powered Thingamajigs, Almighty Brainy Buttons, Tweeting Weather Stations and share them on Instructables.

What Is a Bio- Degradable Plant Pot?

A Bio Degradable Plant pot is a pot made from materials that naturally disintegrate after a particular period of time and merge with the soil. The paper used is also Recycled newspaper which makes this a Green Instructable. The Bio Degradable plant pot is designed to prevent Transplant shock of Sapplings and also to be as minimalistic as possible.

Why go Bio- Degradable?

Bio- Degradable means it is Eco- friendly. It basically disintegrates and is converted back into soil. This means it is a GREEN way of planting. Rather than using non Bio degradable pots made out of plastic, we can use pots that are bio degradable and good for our Planet Earth. Hence we must go Bio Degradable.

Step 1: Things You Will Need

IMAGE:

  1. Newspaper.
  2. Container.
  3. Scissors

Materials:

  1. Newspaper.
  2. Plastic Cup or Plastic Container.
  3. GLUE.
  4. Water.
  5. Soil.
  6. A Plant or Seedling(s).

Tools:

  1. Scissors or Cutting Blade.

Step 2: Cutting the Newspaper

IMAGE:

  1. Cutting the Newspaper with a Scissors.
  2. Newspaper Cut into Strips.
  3. Newspaper Strips.
  4. Newspaper Strips.

Using the scissors cut the newspaper into many strips. Each strip must be roughly 3cm X 10cm or even more. You don't have to be very accurate while cutting the strips. As long as the strips are not too thin.

Step 3: Creating the Water-Glue Solution

IMAGE:

  1. Water in the container.
  2. Adding GLUE to the water.
  3. GLUE- Water Solution.

Pour a decent amount of water into the Cup or Plastic container. The water should be around 50ml-200ml or more. Basically it should be enough to wet all the newspaper strips. Now pour a good amount of GLUE into the water. Now shake the cup or container. At this point, the water and glue will mix and form a sticky solution.

Tip: Don't add too much glue. This could make the solution very sticky and uneasy to work with.

Step 4: Soaking

IMAGE: The paper strips soaking in the solution.

Soak the newspaper strips in the Water - Glue Solution. Make sure the strips are all well and evenly soaked in the solution. Also place a couple of sheets of paper below the conatiner to prevent the table from any spillages.

Step 5: Sticking

IMAGE: The strips of newspaper evenly stuck to the container.

Empty the solution out of the cup or container and turn it upside down. Keep the strips aside. Now gently take the strips and stick them to the container. In this way the container acts as a mould for the paper pot. Make sure you have completed at least two layers. You can also reinforce the base of the container with a couple of extra strips or even larger pieces of newspaper. All in all make sure you have a good, sturdy cross section covered all around the container.

Step 6: Drying & Peeling

IMAGE:

  1. Dried Paper Pot.
  2. Base of the Paper Pot.
  3. Gently Removing the Paper pot from the container.
  4. Paper Pot removed from the container.
  5. Dried Paper Pot once removed.
  6. Dried Paper Pot once removed.

For this step you might have to wait for a couple of hours so that the strips can dry out completely. Once the strips of newspaper have dried out completely, they should be stuck together. Gently start to peel and turn the paper pot away from the container making sure that you dont tear the paper pot.

Tip: Key to this step is patience.

Step 7: Planting

IMAGE:

  1. Soil ready to be put into the paper pot.
  2. Lime Sappling placed in the Bio- degradable Paper Pot.

Once you have successfully separated the paper pot from the container you can fill the paper pot with soil and add the plant or sapling to it. Once the root system has outgrown the size of the paper pot and the sapling is ready to be transplanted, you can directly place the paper pot into the ground. This will prevent the sappling from going into transplant shock and dying. Also there is no need of throwing out the paper pot as it will automatically degrade and become one with the soil.

Safety & Caution:

  1. Do not handover the scissors & GLUE to children aged below 5 years.
  2. Make sure you use a toxin free Glue.
  3. Be careful while using sharp instruments like the scissors while cutting.