[RECYCLE]Homemade Root trainers[REUSE]

I do not posess a great deal of money so I recycle and re-use as much as possible and I hit upon an idea the other day...to make my own root trainers re-using old packaging from foodstuffs. Here's how I make them.

1.Cut a piece of card from some packaging, 8 inches (21cm) long by however wide you want your roottrainer to be deep, so 4 inches deep..4 inches wide.



2. I've used an steel ruler here that is one inch wide, I line it up at the edge of the card and press down, whilst lifting the card to "crease" it.



3. I move the ruler and line it up with the crease I just made and repeat No2 above.



4. I do this all the way till the end, then turn the card over. Now I position the ruler half way over the crease I made on the other side and continue to crease all along that side of the card....it gives the concertina effect seen below.



5. Finally I roll it up and tape it to maintain its shape. (I've used oversize here to make it clearer in the photos).



You'll notice I've put the print on the inside as this is the smoother surface for the roots to hit and travel down.

Now stand them in a seed tray, fill with compost, plant seed and away you go. To remove seedling, cut the tape, unroll...

A word on printing inks:

I used to work in the print trade manufacturing printing plates that where mostly "Varnish" plates, there are two main types of varnishes in use - water based and UV, water based is non toxic and UV is toxic. UV varnish is very easy to distinguish because of its incredibly high shine or sheen, a typical use for UV varnish would be in corporate brochures or book covers. Most of the packaging industry use water based varnish so if its a matt shine you should be okay to use it.

I hope this idea helps someone, especially as I expect many of you will be sowing sweet pea seeds soon (as will I).

If anyone has any improvements on this, please post them!

Steve...

 

Hi Steve, they look very professional. A couple of questions -

Why the concertina and is there an advantage to this shape?

Is it better than using cardboard toilet-roll inners (which is what I use)?

Thanks

 

As I understand it root trainers have these grooves so the roots grow to them and then travel downwards, down the grooves, hence training the roots. Without the grooves the roots just grow round and round in circles as they do in pots, cells or toilet roll tubes.

Steve...

 

I like that idea. Just two questions though.

1. Wouldn't it be better if there was a way to secure it without the tape? I'm guessing the tape won't bio-degrade.

2. How do you stop them rotting and getting covered in mould? I tried used toilet roll inners once and all a got was a world beating crop of grey mould.

 

Steve - just seen this - most interesting - about the corrugations for training and about the varnish.

This raises a couple of questions for me. The varnish you are talking about is presumably a layer that is applied after printing - or is it in the printers ink? And the question that always comes up is about the toxicity of print inks. I know that the heavy metal salts that give very high quality colours are toxic - but are they used much nowadays. Perhaps this question is irrelavent as even if bright colours are not toxic - the glossy varnish is.

 

The varnish is printed after the colours, UV varnish is "cured" once printed under UV light, I dont know if this renders it harmless.

Its six or seven years since I was involved in the print industry, so things have likely changed since then but there was a huge push to move away from all toxins right through the industry. Our plate manufacture process at that time used a solvent washout, but we also where testing a new water wash out machine too, which is how the industry wanted to go, great pressures where upon them to be more environmentally aware.

Incidentally, I've just looked through my cupboards and I cant find any food packaging that has UV varnish on it, so maybe the print trade has already changed its ways. I'll see if I can find anything out.

Steve...

 

Again Steve - many thanks. Its nice to hear from someone who has actually been working in the industry.

You may have answered the heavy metals question by saying that there was a big push away from toxins. Heavy metal salts were famous for being toxic and they may have been one of the first targets.

It would be interesting to know if there is any toxic printed material these days. This question keeps coming up when people ask if they can compost printed material. I have always been wary of expensive glossy coloured material - but that is based on gut feeling rather than fact.

Another question that keeps coming up is - is the black ink in newsprint and photocopying simple a form of soot/carbon? I have assumed it is but have not really had it confirmed. I have assumed it to be harmless.