Seed Snails

May 24, 2026

April 10
I planted some seeds for this year’s vegetable garden.
I used some potting soil I had leftover from transplanting my indoor plants.
I used the little peat pots you can buy at the hardware store because I was refusing to use plastic.

May 1
My seedlings were tiny. Only a few true leaves were starting to sprout.
There was something really wrong. Research was necessary.
Research revealed that my soil was probably garbage and I could have chosen better pots.

May 8
I built my own seed starting soil using the Floret Seed Starting Recipe.
I transferred my seedlings from the peat pots into seed snails.

My problem with the peat pots is that the depth is so short that the roots can’t grow as much as they need to. I also hate buying things to plant seedlings in every year. It feels wasteful. I made these seed snails using cardboard wrapped in parchment paper held together with elastics that I save from buying produce at the grocery store. These are things I always have on hand and they can just go in the composter when the plants move into the garden. Except for the elastics but they just go back into the drawer.

May 1 - May 8
I didn’t take a picture of the seedlings in the peat pots but they looked like this all week. There was almost no growth.

May 22
A mere two weeks later and I can’t even see the popsicle stick anymore.