Customer Reviews

PotMaker® The Original Pot Maker

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

When I first heard of this product, I was skeptical at first that one could make a pot out of newspaper without any sort of adhesive to hold it together. I took some positive reviews from another website on faith, however, and was well rewarded. The pots hold their shape suprisingly well, especially once they get a little damp from the soil.

One word of advice: stick to the suggested dimensions for the strips of newsprint that you use. While one can always use more, the pots don't form as well as if you stick to the dimensions on the instructions. Do so, and you will have an effectively unlimited supply of cheap, biodegradable pots for transplanting.

I used to help my mom make potmaker pots when I was a kid and this is the first product I asked for when I got a house of my own. I love this thing. Lately,I like to use fancy "scrapbooking" paper or stationery to make pots and then grow plants and flowers as gifts for people. They turn out really cute.

I first used this product in a class I was taking in propgation. We found it on a shelf, and took turns making pots to take home with us.

As a project for my work, we set up a table at a community event and decided we wnated to let the children who attended plant tree seeds to take home. (Ultimately we planted veggies and wildflowers, but I digress.) We ordered two pot makers as a less expensive and more envornmentally freindly option for plastic plant pots and safer for kids than the red ceramic pots.

They were a hit, easy to use. Though taking them off the potmaker without completely crushing the newly made pot takes a bit of proactice and can be difficult for young children. (Even if they do get crushed then can be popped back into place afterwards.)

Best of all, we have them for anytime we wnat to do something like this in the future.

I do have on critisism though: one of the pot makers came in terrific condition, the other had rough edges around where the brand name was stamped ino the wood. Nit-picky, but it wasn't very attractive and could have scratched someone.

Potmaker / B00062ZNXQ

This little potmaker makes wonderful little seedling starter pots for starting plants from seed. I bought this to start my herb garden, and I couldn't be more pleased with the results. The potmaker is fairly large and extremely solid - solid wood all the way through, as far as I can tell. Take a sheet of newspaper, tear it in half or (at most) into thirds, wrap one end around the potmaker and roll the potmaker down the length of the newspaper strip. At the end, tuck the ends up slightly and jam the potmaker into the circular wooden base with a satisfying 'thunk'. Fun and easy, and I'll just bet that kids would LOVE this.

The resulting pot is about 4 inches tall (or more, depending on the width of the newspaper strip) and about 2 inches wide in diameter. Very sturdy, and you can even secure with a tiny strip of tape if you're concerned. The pot holds quite a bit of soil and will easily nurture just about any seedling. I can't rave enough about the efficiency of this product - it saves me money by not having to buy those little clay seedling pots (that break when my cats knock them over) and reuses the newspapers in my recycling bin in a safe and green way. The pot creation is easy and fun, and I had over 30 pots created in well under an hour.

~ Ana Mardoll

I was definitely skeptical about this product, but I was wrong. It is very easy to use (I was successful on my first attempt), and creates perfect little seed-starting pots in seconds. I love that I can use newspaper for it, since it is free and can go straight into the ground, minimizing transplant problems. In addition, I've started writing the name of the plant in pencil on each pot, so I don't even have to worry about keeping seedlings grouped by type or labeling them.

Two small tricks: fill and water the pot right away, since they will droop and lose their shape if you leave them sitting empty, and water with a spray bottle to avoid getting the newspaper so wet that it loses its shape.

Perhaps I'm a klutz or something, but I didn't have much success with this gadget. Most of my pots didn't turn out good enough to use and I found that even the ones that did were awkward to fill with soil and/or line up in the pan I was using for my water tray, since the bases weren't completely flat on most. I certainly gave my project the old college try on multiple occasions, but in the end found the little peat pots much easier to use.

The form itself is sturdy, attractive and well made and seems like it would last for countless seasons. Apparently, others have had success, but folks should know that this device doesn't work well for everyone. It seemed like a good idea and I worked hard to cut the needed newspaper strips to the correct size and all, but I wasn't happy with my results and ended up giving the form away.

Great tool for recycling newspaper while starting seeds, especially those that don't like "root disturbance" when transplanting! I've always had trouble with peat pots - the root system just doesn't grow through peat even when the sides are cut but thanks to paper pots I have no such trouble; roots grow through easily and the paper melts away in the soil! Another plus - you get to bury bad news!

The Pot Maker is a creative and inexpensive way to make pots for seedlings for any would-be gardner, especially children and adults in the preschool setting.

Ok so it's just a couple pieces of wood. It does exactly what the maker claims. No more yearly expense for dusty peat pots. Just save a few Sunday papers during winter, cut them up and make pots. I cut them into 4x12 inch strips, a bit bigger than the instructions call for, but I use more of a newspaper page that way and the pots seem a bit stronger. Newspaper rots unlike the netting on peat pots.

Only drawback is the newspaper pots are easy to tear up when filling.