Free, 5 Minute Greenhouse for Seedlings

I wanted to give a tomato seedling to a friend without a greenhouse, and came up with this.

I wont do a 'materials' step because almost everything that I used can be swapped for something else :)

I love this project because it's free, fast, and made from something that would otherwise end up in landfill. You can re-use the greenhouses year after year, and give your friends who don't have greenhouses the joy of eating home grown tomatoes!

I used a flavoured water bottle.

Enjoy your beverage and take the label off if possible (I did it later on in the steps, but i think its easier to do it right away)

Cut your bottle in half using scissors/ a knife/ a chainsaw/ anything. Be careful, danger, whatever. Keep your fingers attached to your hands if possible.

Make some holes in the bottom of your bottle. I used a drill, you can use a hammer and nail, a heated sewing needle, whatever works. Again; fingers, danger, whatever.

Fill the bottom of your bottle with compost, and plant your seeds as suggested on the packet. I like to plant no more than 3 seeds in each bottle to stop it from being overcrowded. I usually do 1.

Using your scissors/ knife/ chainsaw, cut a slit up from the bottom of the top half of the bottle, a few cm long. do this about 4 times around the circumference of the bottle.

Take the top half of the bottle and jam it on over the bottom half. It should be snug

Take the lid off the bottle and save it for another project. Leave the lid off as you grow the plant for ventilation. Water your seeds

Leave your mini greenhouse somewhere sunny, where it wont be blown over by the wind. Water when necessary, and wait for your little seedlings to grow!

When your seedling is about to outgrow his greenhouse, you can make a larger one out of a 2L bottle, and then a 5L bottle.

If you have more seeds that you would like to plant than water bottles, you can either dig through your neighbour's bins (not recommended, you get funny looks) or you can make these newspaper pots https://www.instructables.com/id/Eco-friendly-Com... and use one half of the bottle as the greenhouse, just bury it in the soil a little. That way, you get 2 greenhouses from one bottle.