I'm with you!! My husband loves strawberries, & I now have a HUGE collection of those plastic clamshell berry boxes. They're like miniature greenhouses - complete with vented top & all. I can't wait to use them.

IMHO those strawberry containers are not the best for seed starting (especially winter sowing) as they dry out too fast. I learned the hard way by losing some seeds - there is false economy too.

Not good for winter-sowing, but they might be good for spring and summer sowing, something where they wouldn't be in there very long.

The yogurt cups are a good idea. I do a lot of winter-sowing, and it would be cool to place several of those in a larger container, say 4 in a milk jug. That way you could take each yogurt container out as it grew large enough.

Good idea! I get friends and co-workers to start saving2-liter pop bottles for me by early winter -- gives me all I need by the start of the year when I sow my seeds!

I used to grow a lot of african violets, and started all my plants in little plastic bathroom cups and used yogurt containers as the watering wells. Used old acrylic yarn as wicks. I grew many a happy plant in this way.

I guess you could use this to start plants too. The wicking would provide constant moisture for the little seeds, so that you wouldn't have to worry about keeping them watered.

Agree the clamshells are bad for winter sowing, but if you are working under lights, for relatively short germination times, they are wonderful. I use them every year for tomatoes, herbs, and flowers. With minimal bottom watering, I can keep the mix evenly moist and avoid both crispy seedlings and damping off. 3 of them fit on the big foam trays that chicken comes in, and you can get about 8 on each of the rectangular trays from Costco's party platters.

I use the clamshells to sprout seeds for faster starting. Just fold the seeds up in wet paper towels and set aside for a few days until they sprout, then plant. Cuts germination time in half.

I sprout seeds for my birds that way too.