Growing lettuce seedlings in Egg Cartons

We often start lettuce plants in egg cartons! The egg cartons use less soil per plant than your typical nursery 'six-packs' and when it's time to transplant the seedlings, we just tear off a cell and plant them directly in their permanent bed; egg carton and all! The roots grow right through and have very little transplant shock. We love that the cartons are biodegradable so we're using less plastic in the gardens. Also, they're free!

Here's a step-by-step post on how we do it.

 

When it's time to plant the 'starts' in the ground, we remove the 'lid' of the egg carton that had become the tray that held the egg carton cells while the lettuce plants were growing. This can be composted. Then we just tear off each cell and plant directly. Roots grow right through! (You can see little, tiny roots coming through the bottom of the egg carton ) 

 

We start the seeds in a tofu container with holes drilled in the bottom. We're vegetarian and, as you can see from the picture, we eat A LOT of tofu! Three to five drainage holes is plenty. Holes should be 3/8" - 1/4". (You can make a bunch at once by stacking them and drilling through 10-15 at a time.)

Use finely-sifted potting soil so the seeds don't need to struggle to germinate. Pack it firmly and evenly (with the bottom of another tofu container) so the seeds are started on a flat surface and all come up at the same time. Water the soil. Don't plant too thickly and aim for an even distribution of seeds. This will make it easier to tease them apart and transplant them to the egg cartons later. 

Sprinkle a very light dusting of soil on top and press it down so seeds have good contact with the soil. Put the tofu containers in a tray and water from the bottom (so the moisture 'wicks' up until the first  leaves appear. Watering from the top can make the seeds spread unevenly. Don't over-water! Seeds need very little moisture to get started.

Once seedlings are about two inches tall, tease them apart and replant in the egg cartons, one plant per cell. It is important to handle seedlings by the stem, or leaf. Some of their root-hairs are almost too small to see with the naked eye and are easily damaged. (Pic: cabbage seedlings)

  

Tear the lids off the egg cartons and use them as trays under the egg cells. Strip off any labels with thick ink (they don't allow the water to drain well). Soak the egg cartons in a tub of water so they are saturated. Fill each cell with sifted, moist soil. Your seedlings will experience less shock if transplanted into moist soil. Gently water them in with a watering can or fine spray. Keep them in a shady spot for a few days while they get acclimatized. The egg cartons hold moisture while the plants' roots are developing.

We prefer to use egg cartons with no plastic-y labels or excessive printing which can interfere with proper drainage. Plain, pressed-paper egg cartons are biodegradable and compostable and the roots grow right through.

These seedlings were transplanted a few weeks before this picture was taken. Don't wait too long or the plants' roots will become entangled in the tofu containers and you risk damaging them when you transfer them to the egg cartons. On the other hand, if you try to do it when the seedlings are too small, it's much harder to work with them and their root systems may not yet be established and the plants may dry up and die between waterings.

To minimize the stress on your seedlings, do your 'potting up' in the shade or on an overcast day. Here, Donn and Chris are transplanting cabbage seedlings into tofu containers: six to a pot. Notice Chris is using a pen to make a hole to drop the little seedling into. Use this same method with the egg cartons being sure not to "J"-root the plants...All roots should be covered with soil; none sticking out.

Before planting the seedlings, we make a furrow in the soil and water it thoroughly. This means that the plants are going into wet soil (which makes them very happy) and, with each subsequent watering, the water is channeled towards the roots. 

In the picture above, the black nursery trays (behind the lettuce starts) are covering other recently transplanted lettuce. This shades them to minimize transplant-shock and discourages birds from coming in and helping themselves to spring-time 'salad'. After 4-7 days, we can usually remove the trays without a problem.

Many weeks later...

It's fun to mix colors/types of lettuce...

Lettuce heads are harvested once they reach full size. Here, a Service Learning student harvests Slo-Bolt lettuce for us to share.

Now, that's some beautiful lettuce!

Garden Bounty! Spring Garden Digest

Good day to all of you reading this - May of 2025. Spring weather is fully upon us now, with lilacs blooming, grass growing by the minute, plants we started back in January and February finally getting planted in the ground. It's a time of great bounty and beauty! 

We'll write a full garden update soon but here are some time-relevant posts for mid-spring for our area in the southern Willamette Valley, Oregon (USDA zone 7B). Hopefully you'll find some information you can use in your garden too! (image: Jen, with spring's lettuce-bounty!)

How to Build a Bean Tipi (teepee): Bean tipis are an attractive way to grow pole beans and an efficient use of space. They're also fun for young people to hide out in the shade at the peak of summer. As beans ripen, they hang down inside the tipi and can be harvested from within. (image: Llyn in our first tipi built in 2009 at the Alpine Park Sharing Garden)

Organic Solution to Slugs: In the early days of the Sharing Gardens we had horrible problems with slugs; sometimes they would devour a whole row of newly transplanted lettuce or cabbage - overnight. We finally got them under control using a method which is approved for use in organically grown farms and gardens: iron phosphate (trade name - Sluggo). Click Here to read more about it.

Blue corn in the foreground and Kassaby sorghum in the background; both drying on their stalks before being harvested for further drying and processing.

In recent years, we've been developing methods for small-scale grain and bean growing and processing. These methods might not be efficient for a solo gardener to use (because of the time-consuming nature of the processing) but in a community-setting such as the Sharing Gardens, 'many hands make light work'. (right: Golden Amaranth - grown for use in our hot cereal mix)

Dried grain and bean processing is a fun, relaxing way for Sharing Garden participants to help with the harvest and enjoy conversations. Here we are, shucking corn.

Bean and Grain processing have become favorite activities for our volunteers in the fall as people enjoy sitting around and doing this hand-work while they visit. These processes are adaptable to any community setting such as schools, senior centers or churches. Click on the links to learn how to grow and process: Scarlet Runner beans, Sorghum for grain and flour, and/or Blue Corn (which has up to 30% more protein than yellow corn!). (image: Pulling husks off of blue corn)

More community grain processing...

Why Sunflowers are Great for Bees: Apparently, the pollen from sunflowers has the ability to strengthen the immune systems of bees! If left to mature, the seeds provide food for birds in the autumn when many are in need of storing up extra fat and protein for migrations. Left in place through the winter, sunflower stalks provide habitat and shelter for many insects and their eggs. And they're just beautiful! Be sure to plant 'true' sunflowers; non-hybrids, like Mammoth Russians or Autumn Beauties as hybrids are often not as nutritious for birds and insects as heirloom varieties. (image: Chris with a Mammoth Russian sunflower head. That's a lot of birdseed!)

Sunflowers are great to plant with children because the seeds are big enough for them to easily handle. Here, a classroom of preschoolers planted a huge patch of sunflowers that was just glorious when they all began to bloom in late summer.

Some years we have harvested and dried the sunflower heads to feed to birds throughout the winter. Nowadays, because we're drying so many grains and beans (and onions, foreground) we prefer to leave the sunflowers on their stalks. The birds finish eating them before winter comes but they need that extra fat and protein to prepare for their winter migrations.

Do I Need to Buy Seed Potatoes or Can I Just Grow Potatoes from the Grocery Store? Here, in early May, it may be too late to buy seed potatoes from your local produce store unless they are already showing signs of sprouting. Potatoes don't sprout in response to day-length or soil-temperature but have a natural dormancy period which they must pass through before they sprout again. But if store-bought potatoes, or ones you have had in storage are already sprouting, here are some tips for how to turn them into 'seed potatoes' for planting: Sprouting Potatoes? What to Do (image: Sprouted potatoes, ready for planting.) We pull them out of the dark when sprouts are small like this. Being exposed to mild, indirect light stops the sprouting process, turns the potatoes green and hardens-off the sprouts so they're less likely to break when planted. Once planted, potatoes resume growing.

Potatoes with beautiful sprouts, ready for planting.

Chemical contamination of compost and soil: This is a timely post as this is the season that people often purchase potting soil from an urban composting facility (that turns yard and construction waste into compost and soil), or try to amend their garden beds with manure found for free.

Unfortunately, some urban composting facilities let treated lumber into their compost process (not on purpose, but it happens...). Treated lumber can contain arsenic and other persistent toxic ingredients which accumulate in their finished compost. Only purchase compost or soil from trusted, tested facilities. (image: tomato seedlings showing classic signs of herbicide poisoning).

Also beware of horse manure (composted or not)! Horses, unlike cows, goats and rabbits, have a simple digestive system that won't break down the herbicides often sprayed on hay and other horse-food crops. Unless horse manure is thoroughly composted (this can take several years) herbicides can persist in their manure.

In 2017, we made the mistake of mixing un-composted horse manure into our potting mix (we thought it was composted) and we lost three batches of tomato, pepper and sunflower seedlings! We added this same manure to some of our raised beds which stunted and killed the beans we planted there and continued to be a problem even after we replaced the soil (some of the herbicides lingered in the beds).

This horse manure that Bella and Adri were loading into buckets) was thoroughly composted.

This first post (Herbicide Contamination?) describes symptoms to look for, and this second post (Herbicide Contamination Update) reveals the likely culprit, an herbicide from the family called: Chlorpyrifos-Wickipedia,  Chlopyrifos Facts - Pesticide Action network.  

If you're going to use horse manure on your garden be sure you know the source of the hay the horses were eating (was their feed raised organically?) and how long the manure has been composting. Or, better yet, avoid using it altogether.

The year we suffered from herbicide contamination (from uncomposted horse manure used in our potting mix) Steve Rose came to our rescue. Here he is with some of the many tomato 'starts' he'd grown to share at our local food pantry. He provided all our tomato starts that year (after three failed attempts to start our own!).

We have now switched to 100% 'veganic' gardening (no livestock manures or animal by-products) with amazing results! The contamination from horse manure was the final catalyst for weaning us off this source of fertility. (image: Sept 2023 Sunship greenhouse, grown with no commercial fertilizers, livestock manures or animal by-products). Making Your Own "Veganic" Potting Soil in Your Greenhouse Paths - Using Worms

Our 'Ark' greenhouse, May 29, 2023 - also grown 'veganically'.

Important Sharing Gardens LINKS: It's come to our attention that people viewing our site on cell phones are sometimes not able to see the Links we have on our side-bar. Here are most of them!
Overview and Benefits of the Sharing Gardens,
Garden Location and Volunteer Info
Meet the Founders - Contact Us
Wish List
Mission Statement
Videos About the Sharing Gardens
So, you want to start a Sharing Garden!

For the full list, Click Here: FAQ's - Links 

 Enjoy Spring's unfolding!

Apples in bloom; the promise of fruit in autumn.

FAQ's - Links

Hello, it's come to our attention that people viewing our site on cell phones are not able to see all the Links we have  on our side-bar. So, here they are: 

Overview and Benefits of the Sharing Gardens

Garden Location and Volunteer Info

Meet the Founders - Contact Us 

Wish List

Mission Statement 

"It Takes a Village..!" - Gratitude Journal

Videos About the Sharing Gardens

Letters of Support 

So, you want to start a Sharing Garden! 

If  you discover any broken links, we'd sure be grateful if you'd send us an email so we can fix them. Happy Gardening! Shareinjoy AT gmail.com

Chris  and Llyn - Sharing Gardens coordinators

             

Herbicide Contamination?

Sunflowers stunted by herbicide contamination.

(Re-posted from Spring 2017) Hi folks! It's been a long time since we posted anything new. We've been feeling challenged by a number of things and will write a more comprehensive post soon but wanted to get word out about a situation we had with many of the 'starts' we planted from seed this spring. Many of them were severely stunted or died from what appears to be herbicide contamination in our potting soil (which we made from combining last summer's compost and some composted horse manure).

We're posting this to our site in the hopes that people reading our posts about the deep mulch method of gardening and folks using grass clippings, animal manures, or hay or straw for mulch, or to build their compost piles will use discretion in acquiring those materials. Some herbicide chemicals can remain toxic for several years in plant materials and manure.

Herbicide-contaminated tomato plants

We always knew that farming chemicals can have damaging and long-lasting effects in the environment but didn't think we would be effected as we use no chemicals directly on our lawns or gardens.

It is ironic that, after championing the use of "local", organic materials to create garden fertility (instead of imported, concentrated fertilizers that are often mined and produced unsustainably) that we experienced such devastating results.

Of the hundreds of tomato and pepper seeds we started this year, not a single one was unaffected and all had to be thrown out!

If you are still using chemicals to fight weeds, we urge you to stop. Herbicide contamination is another reason to only eat organic foods as they minimize the use of these chemicals in our environment.

Here are links to two excellent articles we found on the topic:

(LINK) - Gardener Alert! Beware of Herbicide- Contaminated Compost and Manure

(LINK) - Herbicide Carryover in Hay, Manure, Compost, and Grass Clippings

We encourage you to do research of your own and share your comments below if you have relevant experiences.

Here are the details of our situation:

Right from the start, some of our seedlings did great but other varieties would do fine until they began putting on their second set of leaves and the leaves would begin curling in a distorted manner, never fully unfurling so the plants couldn't photosynthesize (get energy from the sun). We also noticed that some of the plants formed gold-colored nodules right below the soil-level where the roots begin to branch and on their root tips.

Onion starts did fine!

Some of our seedlings did fine:

• cabbages and kales
• cucumbers, squash and melons 
• onions
• artichokes

 But many of them did poorly or died altogether:

• tomatoes
• peppers
• peas, beans
• lettuce
• sunflowers, zinnias, marigolds

In many cases we started seeds three, and four times. It took us awhile to discover the likely source of our plant failures. For several months we thought our plants were suffering because it was so cool, wet and overcast; the Pacific NW - where we live, set records both for rainfall, and consecutive days of cloud-cover this past winter and spring. Plants sometimes develop a condition called "damping off" - (LINK) where they rot at the soil-level. 

Starting seedlings - before we knew our soil was contaminated.

After an on-line search, we found the articles listed above that outline the symptoms we were experiencing and they attributed the problems to soil contamination from a class of herbicides commonly used on golf-courses and other large public lawns, and on fields that are destined to be planted in grass-seed, livestock and horse-feed, and grain crops (such as wheat). These herbicides target broad-leaved weeds but do not kill grasses and grains. We haven't had our soil tested so we can't be sure but we feel it is likely that the wheat-straw we purchased to mulch our garden and build up our compost-piles might have been tainted with one of the products listed in the article (Clopyralid and aminopyralid, or something similar). It is also possible that one of the loads of composted horse manure that was donated had not been composted long enough and still contained herbicide residue.

OSU students sifting compost and manure to make potting soil.

Compost Contamination: This is the first year in the Sharing Gardens that we made our own potting soil. We've always purchased it in the past. For many years Chris has had experience making his own potting mix (prior to the Sharing Gardens) and always had good success with it. Last summer (2016) we made a huge amount of compost. It was made primarily from grass-clippings, wheat straw and leaves. For the first time since starting the gardens, we had enough excess compost after planting Fall crops, to save it for making potting soil.

Our recipe:

•  2-parts of our compost
•  1-part of composted horse manure/sawdust and 
•  a small amount of coffee grounds.

We don't know if the contamination came from manure that wasn't composted long enough or the wheat-straw we used to build our compost pilesl. We've checked with all the people who have donated large quantities of grass-clippings and none of them used any herbicides last year on their lawns so we feel confident that grass-clippings were not the source.

The reason we think it was our potting soil that was contaminated is that none of our seeds planted directly in the ground showed any of these same signs of distress.

Compost bins(left) and grass-piles (center) for garden fertility.

Note:

• Do not use contaminated compost or manures to make "compost tea" if you are going to be pouring it on any of the families of plants listed above. In addition, potatoes (in the same family of plants as tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and tomatillos - solanacea should not be grown in contaminated soil or had tea applications. Lettuce may also be susceptible).

• Some chemicals can remain active in the soil. compost or manure for two years or more.

• They can harm vegetable and flower plants in concentrations as low as 3 parts-per-million!

• While it is unlikely that enough of these chemicals would be present in lawn clippings from a residential source to contaminate your compost or mulch-pile, there are several herbicides available from garden-stores that do contain aminopyralid or clopyralid.

      -- Here is a list of herbicides and their active ingredients organized by trade names.

      -- Here is an alphabetical list of herbicidal active ingredients, with trade names following.

We encourage you to do research of your own and share your comments below if you have relevant experiences.

Carrots (front) and nasturtiums (back) are thriving this year!

Once we discovered the source of our plants' distress, we bought some regular potting mix and have successfully started lettuce and most of our flowers. It's too late to start peppers and tomatoes.  The only pepper plants we have are ones we purchased at a nursery; unfortunately we won't have many peppers to share this year.

Steve Rose, in a previous year, with tomato plants he donated to the Sharing Gardens and Monroe's Food Pantry.

We're grateful to our friend Steve Rose for dropping off dozens of tomato plants he started from seed. If not for him and the tomatoes that "volunteered" in our greenhouses from fruits that fell on the ground last fall and sprouted this spring, we'd have no tomatoes. We've managed to dig up and transplant almost eighty tomato seedlings and even have had a few dozen to give away. Thank goodness for volunteers! (This is another great reason for only growing heirloom/open-pollinated seeds: if we had grown hybrid varieties of tomatoes, the "volunteers" could not be counted on to "grow true".)

Thank goodness for kale! Delicious, nutritious and unaffected by herbicide contamination.

On a happier note, it's now mid-June and we have most of the gardens planted. It's been a challenging winter and spring but we're feeling optimistic for the Summer and Fall to be able to fulfill our mission of providing bounteous harvests of vegetables to our local food charities.

LINK to Herbicide Contamination Update

The Sharing Gardens is a registered non-profit and tax-exempt organization. We exist entirely through donations. If you have found benefit from our project or our site, please consider making a small donation through PayPal. (Click button below.)

Herbicide Contamination Update

This is a great 'carrot-year' for us! Just in time to help loosen Bella (5) and Adri's (6) baby-teeth.

Hello Folks! The gardens are finally really thriving this year! We've put the 'herbicide contamination debacle' behind us and are thrilled to already be eating cucumbers, potatoes, summer squash, and tomatoes daily from the gardens. That's early for us! Both our local Food Pantries have begun receiving weekly deliveries of fresh, organic produce that, along with cucumbers and squash include cabbage, beets, carrots, kale, elephant garlic and lettuce.

We feel relatively confident that we have identified the source of the herbicide contamination that devastated so many of our seedlings this year. We had made our own potting-soil from a combination of composted horse-manure combined with last-year's compost (made primarily from leaves, grass-clippings, wheat-straw and vegetable scraps) and we weren't sure which ingredient was the cause of our problems. LINK to original article

We make our compost primarily from leaves, lawn clippings, wheat-straw and food-scraps.

We are reasonably certain that the horse manure was to blame. We have a friend who brings us his composted horse manure which we have used all throughout our gardens for several years with no ill effects. He has always been very careful to bring us loads from a pile that has sit fallow for many, many years. Coincidentally, the one time he brought us a load that was from a fresher pile was the load we used to mix up all our potting soil (at least 15, five-gallon buckets!).

Herbicide contamination of tomato.

The only places we've noticed the stunting effects of the herbicide were 1) in plants grown in the potting soil we made, 2) places where we dumped the potting soil in our greenhouses,  3) where we used that batch of manure to amend soil directly. None of the places that we have used the wheat straw as mulch, or the compost we made from it have shown signs of contamination  -- unless we also used the manure in those same spots.

Our last piece of evidence that supports our theory is that our friend used some of that less-composted manure on his tomato patch and all of his tomatoes are showing strong signs of contamination (and he didn't use any of our compost, or the wheat straw we thought might be the source).

It's becoming harder and harder to find clean sources of material to use as mulch, or to build our compost piles as more and more chemicals are being used to grow food, and showing up in the environment from other sources. This herbicide contamination was a real wake-up call for us!

Will we continue to use the horse manure from our friend? We've really meditated on this. It is our intention to demonstrate a "veganic" style of agriculture that uses no livestock manures, or commercial, concentrated fertilizers. It is important to us to use local materials - like leaves and grass-clippings to create soil-fertility. We don't eat meat of any kind and feel it's hypocritical to benefit from the by-products of an industry that is not sustainable and that we don't support philosophically. Recently we did turn down an offer for a load of goat-manure to be delivered to the gardens, for these reasons. We only used a 2-pound box of commercial fertilizer to get all our seedlings started this year, which is incredible when you realize how many hundreds of seedlings we started!

A pile of our finished compost - super-food for the gardens!

For now though, we're going to continue to accept Dave's donations of horse manure. Because he saw the effects of the contamination on his own plants, we're confident that he'll only bring us manure that is thoroughly composted. With the exception of the single contaminated load, Dave's been bringing us manure that's been composting for 20-years. We don't know how much nitrogen or other nutrients are left in it, but the composted manure has a beautiful consistency that really helps "fluff" our soil which has a high clay content. Maybe when Dave runs out of manure that's sit fallow for a long time, we'll wean ourselves off this source of soil-amendment.

Note: If you are using horse manure in your own gardens, be sure it has composted for a minimum of two years but the longer the better. Also, if the pile sits out in the rain and fresh manure is added on the top, it's possible that the rain can leach the chemicals down into the older material at the bottom. If in doubt, do not  add it to your garden, or use it to start seedlings until you test it. One website we visited recommended testing the manure/soil by planting peas or beans in it which are highly susceptible to contamination and will show signs of leaf-curling once the second set of leaves begin to form.

First ripe tomatoes - July 7th!

We're happy to report that, thanks to 'volunteer' tomato seedlings that we transplanted into our greenhouses, and Steve Rose's generous donation of surplus 'starts' that we have close to 100 tomato plants growing and the first Stupice plants began producing ripe fruit in early July - right around the normal time for our greenhouse plants!

The Sharing Gardens is a registered non-profit and tax-exempt organization. We exist entirely through donations. If you have found benefit from our project or our site, please consider making a small donation through PayPal. (Click button below.)