I have not tried this, but thank you very much for the link. Terrific, green idea, imo.

I tried newspaper pots when my peppers sprouted a few weeks ago. They dried out quickly with a fan on the seedlings. When I watered them more frequently, mold became a problem. The pots became gooey after a while. I finally had to transplant them into plastic cups. IÂve had better success reusing Starbucks cups although they will get a little mold around the drainage holes. Only used them for ornamentals since I wasn't sure how well they'd work.

I had the same experience. In my case, the paper was always wet and it did get moldy and slimy so I had to transplant the seedlings to a styrofoam cups. it's probably a good idea when starting seeds outdoors (under coldframe) but not under indoor growlights.

Same as sprouts honor & ianna on the newspaper pots.
I used some last spring for the first time(outdoors). Noticed they dried quickly, turned kinda brown along the edges and didn't really decompose all that well either.
For some stupid reason I thought I had nothing better to do this spring and I made & used a few more but this time indoors under lights.
The same thing started to happen. My seeds sprouted well but I didn't want to take a chance with transplanting the pots & encountering problems or worse ... my seedlings died from fungal infections. So I transplanted into larger containers and once the newspaper pots were 3/4 or completely surrounded by soil I cut away the newpaper and slid it out using tweezers.
Argh...but they transferred the sprouts well to their new containers.

Now I just use soil blocks instead. Save a tree completely!!

Love them. Use them for transplants by the hundreds in all sorts of sizes from pop-cans to mayo jars.

But they aren't intended to be used as a long-term pot nor to be toted around and handled a great deal - form, fill, pack snugly into trays, and then leave them alone.

If additional transplanting is needed you can just strip them off and transplant or just plop the plant and pot into a larger container and fill it will soil.

Many different how-to's on the web, some with videos. You can also make square newspaper pots.

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: Sq. Newspaper pots

Try using cardboard rolls from paper towels and toilet rolls to make seedling pots. They work great, I just transplanted flower seedlings from them. The cardboard holds up to repeated mistings and does not fall apart. To make; flatten the cardboard cylinder and cut into three sections from the longer roll; in half for the toilet roll. At one end cut thru the flatten roll 3/4" to 1"; open the roll and refold to make another 3/4" cut. You should have four flaps on one end of the open cylinder if you did it right. Fold the flaps down into a box fold and your little cardboard seedling starter pot should look squarish with a folded flap bottom. When I transplanted my seedlings yesterday, I opened the bottom and push the seedling soil block out, but you probably could plant the whole container, just open the flaps and trim off. I hope you can get the jest of making these from my description. I plan to start all my tomato seeds in these this Fall.
Mary

If you buy some commercial hard plastic pots you can keep reusing them for years. I bought a case of 4 inch square pots from Mellingers (now out of business) about twenty years ago and still haven't used them all up because I keep reusing the old ones. If you rinse them out after you use them and don't leave them sitting out in the sun all year they last a really long time. I am talking about the expensive high quality stiff plastic pots, not the flimsy throw away pots a lot of plant growers use now a days. So if the pot cost you say 15 cents to 30 cents depending on how many you buy and where, the cost per a use ends up being pretty low if you keep recycling them. Plus if you sell your extra plants it looks more professional if they are in a nice pot.

I like newspaper pots just fine!
I don't use lights, just a sunny window. After I move seedlings outside to bigger pots I rip the newspaper pots up and put them in the compost, or pull the bottom away and plant the pot with seedling in it.
They do tend to stay wet longer than plastic, so I water less often. So far so good. 3rd year, I think.