People are being urged to use egg trays in their garden (Image: Getty) This article contains affiliate links, we will receive a commission on any sales we generate from it. Learn more
“Smart” gardeners are being urged not to throw away their egg cartons because they have “so many clever uses”. Gardening expert Benjamin Vanheems, known as GrowVeg, says that households go through ‘loads’ of egg cartons each year, but many find their way into the recycling bin.
However they can actually become quite useful around the garden, Benjamin explained in a YouTube video. He said: “Most of us get through loads of them in a year, but here’s the crazy thing, they have so many clever uses in the garden and once you know what they can do, you’ll never throw them away again.”
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Benjamin uses egg cartons as plug trays (Image: Getty)
Benjamin says the most common way to use an egg carton in the garden is to help sprout or chit your potatoes ahead of planting. According to the RHS potatoes should be sown anywhere between March and May.
It says now is the perfect time to start to chit your potatoes. This is a process that allows them to sprout before putting them in the ground, allowing them to produce an earlier crop.
Benjamin explained: “Each of these little cups is the perfect size for holding onto our seed potatoes like that, keeping them nice and secure as they sprout on a sunny window sill or a bench on the green house.”
Elsewhere Benjamin says egg trays make a suitable alternative to plug trays, due to the “plug-sized spacing”. Before using the cartons as a plug tray, Benjamin says gardeners should spike a hole in them to stop them “falling apart”.
Benjamin says egg cartons are an alternate to trays (Image: Getty)
Another way Benjamin likes to use egg trays is for growing carrots. He says you can either remove the bottom of each section, by soaking it in water and then pinching the bottom off, giving the roots space to grow.
This can then be planted in the ground with the cardboard acting like a mulch. The second option is placing the egg tray on top of the soil, making a hole in the bottom and sewing the seeds into a hole before covering with potting mix.
The RHS says that now is a good time to prepare your ground and sow your early outdoor varieties of carrot. Any seeds planted now should be ready for harvest anywhere between May and November.
Chitting potatoes can be put in the trays (Image: Getty)
He then recommends filling up the tray with an all-purpose soil before planting seeds as normal. Gardeners should then spray them with water, because the egg trays can “dry out” quicker than a traditional plug tray.
Benjamin however says there is a way to stop them drying quite as quickly. He said: “Chuck in a label and then pop your sown carton into a bread bag. It’s ideal because it neatly fits around it, or you could put it in a seed tray with a dome lid or a propagator over the top.
“What this does is create a kind of snug environment and also stops the moisture being lost so quickly, so it’s nice and humid, nice and warm, and will hasten germination.”
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