The Problem with Newpaper Seedling Cups

I started germinating the seeds in wet paper towels in ziplock bags. That went much better than I anticipated. Seeds that I was sure were gonners, actually turned into seedlings. I was a happy camper.

But as they got bigger I realized they needed soil, air and sunlight. So I decided to make some newspaper cups. The origami ones didn't even kind of work for me, so I used this one instead:


How to Create Seed-Starting Pots From Newspapers -- powered by eHow.com

And they were great and easy to make. Then this happen:

I'm not sure why I didn't realize that the newspaper would slowly start to develop mold. So I decided to go to the local Dollar Tree and pick up a couple of packs of large plastic cups. $3.21 later, I had this:

Perhaps in the end, this is a more green option. I can reuse the cups every year. And since I don't really read the paper anymore (all the news I need I get from Perez) I don't have to worry about buying the newspaper. At least I got to compost all that moldy newspaper.