Peat pots, newspaper pots. Tried them once- never again.

Karen

One of the seeds I remember trying more than once was cleome. Don't know why it never germinated and I tried a few times too, so now I just don't bother, :)

Alberta

poking holes in the bottom of 2-liters with a steak knife. Figured out scissors work much better.

Last year I discovered that the holes in the bottom of my containers were too big - resulting in fast drying out and a lot of watering.
Unfortunately, I forgot that lesson this year when I prepared my containers! I can cover the holes or stick the containers in a pan of water, but I'm irked with myself that I forgot.
oh well...

sunny631 - oh no, do scissors work better just because they are sharper, or did you use them to make larger drainage holes? I put two soda bottles out and used a steak knife for the holes, hope they will still work out!

Little yougurt cups-they dried out way too fast!!
-B

Peat pellets for anything other than fast germinating and growing annuals or veggies that can go in the ground within 2 week period after germination.

Not putting a thin layer of vermuiclite over my pots of seed starting mix for tiny seeds such as digitalis. They germinate way better with the vermucilite.

Germinating tree seeds in pots that aren't deep enough to hold them for a year.

Somehow I didn't cut myself but I'm sure it would have happened if I had kept doing it. With scissors you can just snip off the little "feet" things to make perfect holes.

Also anther thing I did this year that I had to change was keeping all my jugs spread out on my patio so when a strong wind came they fell over like domino's. Now I have them all bunched up in a corner.

I tried to talk my husband in to doing it... that didn't work.

Remember, what works (or doesn't) for one person might work (or not) for you.
You have to find what works best for you...trial and error.
Most of my "didn't work" were a result of just my circumstance. Case in point, I can't use small containers until late in the season, or they will crumble, crush, and be all around disintegrated. I can't use cups or small containers until there's no more snow and ice and extreme cold.

Linda

What didn't work for me last year was lasagna pans with clear lids, deli take out containers with clear lids and butter containers with plastic wrap. Too much snow and ice, the covers were crushed by spring. This year I stuck to milk jugs, and now because containers are getting scarce, 2 litres. They can handle the weight.

Another thing, because I use sharpie markers and they fade quickly come spring, I made sure to line up every jug in numerical order and wrote the number a bunch of times (even on the bottom) so I can at least have a general idea of what is in the jug when it is time to plant out. Last year I got some in late so there was very little in the way of marking left, so it was a guessing game. Next year I will use paint pens.

Rhonda

Cheap potting soil. Period.

LOL, Nancy!

I tried using berry containers one year and it was just too much work - had to cover most of the holes anyway. I also don't care to bother with plastic-wrap covers. I just stick to milk jugs now.

I also used to sow my veggies in the lasagna pans with the clear lids, mostly because I was anal about lining things up neatly - although I did have a good reason. Lining things up the same way all the time makes me differentiate between a wanted seedling and a weed, just by the placement. Anyway, this year, I'm very lazy and I'm just throwing the seeds in the milk jugs to sort out later!

:)
Dee