Red Cups or Styrofoam?

[bower]

Originally Posted by Father'sDaughter

Get yourself a roll of blue painters tape and use it for labels. It'll peel right off when your done with the pot/cup.

Yeah I've done that too.
Beware the green tape though, it is not so easy to get off after a season of wetting and drying. Some of my old cell packs are held together with it, which is fine, but the label bits are not so easy to remove.

It's certainly true that the standard green hort pots hold up forever. I have over a hundred 4 inch squares I think, from a batch I bought wholesale 15 or 20 years ago, I've only seen damage on a few of them in that time after being reused, washed, left outdoors over winter, the works. The square ones are tougher IMO. Round tends to be subject to crushing. My only gripe with them is the space they take under the lights.

[oakley]

I like the injection molded pots and trays. Sturdy and easy to move around. I've used them for herbs and should have re-potted for the gifting/donation. I have no issues investing in quality if i could find them taller. They seem to get wider and barely taller. Absolutely no room for width and then i'm just moving around the weight of more soil.
I've never had a root bound solo cup.

I need the height for tomatoes. In a short growing season and often having to hold off planting sometimes a few weeks because of late cold or cold/wet weather...i can get some good root growth by potting up deep during that wait.

My solo cups are free. Recycled. two or three names per cup crossed out and a number, (i use the #system now), so some have lasted a few years. May have been a bit of 'monkey see, monkey do' at first but the use of tall cups is not just being 'cheap' as much as the height they have.
(my farm/garden is 100miles north in the Catskill Mnts. I'm starting my seedlings at home and thought i was covered with the new sleeve of recycled solo cups that are cracked...my other used cups are at the farm far away)

...And why i started looking for purchasing an alternative to solos soon after discovering mine were cracked.
Also wondered if i've just been stuck in solo-land and maybe something better exists.

[Cole_Robbie]

The last time I bought solo-style cups was in a jumbo-size bag from Sam's. I think they came out to something like 6-8 cents apiece.

Scissors work fine to make hole by just slicing off the edge of the cup.

Solo cups can also double as labels. Snip the top edge with scissors every 1/2" or so around the top, peel the strips down like petals of a flower, and then go around the bottom with scissors.

[Worth1]

Okay I have some square containers I cant seem to buy without calling so I did the next best thing.
I also have containers made by Beldon and I have had them for years.
I took one of my containers and set it up next to a red Solo cup there is little difference in them.
It is an illusion because they are round and red.
Here is a link to the Beldon website to order containers.
They also have slots in them to put tags.
And they have trays for them to go in.
Here is the link to the square containers.
http://store.beldenplastics.com/Squares
Here is a link to what you would normally use.
http://store.beldenplastics.com/Squa...i_Square_Black
Here is a link to the trays.
http://store.beldenplastics.com/1020...at_Heavy_Black

Worth

[oakley]

Jumbo Senior looks good. Nice find. But the 'wiggly' trays i have so many of, lol.

Mt initial reson for posting is the years of seeing solo cups and thinking something must be better since i think, say i'm wrong, is not just the money saved but the need for height. I thought after all this time a production supplier would give more height for tomato growers...sure gardeners are cheap by nature needing to pinch here and there for the love of the grow and frankly hate plastic...but give a bit for the cause of successful seed starting...

I get mold and soft bottoms on other 'natural' pots.

[Worth1]

did you see the jumbo junior?
It is the same size as the ones I posted a link to but taller.
They hold 1 liter or a little over a quart.
Perfect for growing larger plants.
A lot of this depends on the soil you are planting in.
I prefer a wider container that hold more soil due to my good soil depth being shallow.
But here is the link to the jumbo junior.
http://store.beldenplastics.com/Squa...o_Junior_Black

[Bipetual]

Originally Posted by cjp1953

I know the question was red cups or styrofoam,but whats wrong with peat pods like the one Jiffy has?I bought the large ones that you soak in water and they expand?

Those work fine for starting seeds. They're a lot quicker than filling a lot of pots with starting mix, that's for sure. I think these guys are talking about what to use to pot the plants up. The Jiffy pellets do tend to get outgrown pretty quickly. I switched to 3.5 inch square pots to actually start my seeds in this year, and I don't start super early or try to get them very big because I don't have a lot of room inside for them. So I have huge seed starting trays but I don't plan on potting up, for what it's worth.

It all depends on what you are trying to achieve and what you like, but the Jiffy pellets have been around forever for good reason.

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by Bipetual

Those work fine for starting seeds. They're a lot quicker than filling a lot of pots with starting mix, that's for sure. I think these guys are talking about what to use to pot the plants up. The Jiffy pellets do tend to get outgrown pretty quickly. I switched to 3.5 inch square pots to actually start my seeds in this year, and I don't start super early or try to get them very big because I don't have a lot of room inside for them. So I have huge seed starting trays but I don't plan on potting up, for what it's worth.

It all depends on what you are trying to achieve and what you like, but the Jiffy pellets have been around forever for good reason.

I use both the pellets and the seed starting trays you use to put seed starting mix in.
This is the trick.
Get the seed starting mix moist and just dump it on the tray and wipe the mix all over the top of the tray until they are full.
Tamp down a little and do again.
I also fill my 4 inch pots this way.
Everything is sitting in a 40 gallon feed trough full of potting mix.
It is very fast.


Worth

[FarmerShawn]

Or, you could forget cups and pots and environmental concerns and tipping over problems, and invest in a soil blocker. With the right blocking mix, I keep my starts in a two inch block until transplant time. Saves space, I never need to fertilize them, they never get rootbound, planting out is a breeze, and I have only the trays to wash, and nothing to discard.

[henry]

Cow pots as someone who used to raise cow this looks like a creative use.
http://www.freundsfarmmarket.com/cowpots.html

[Father'sDaughter]

Originally Posted by henry

Cow pots as someone who used to raise cow this looks like a creative use.
http://www.freundsfarmmarket.com/cowpots.html

The downsides of using Cowpots is the higher cost compared to alternatives and the fact that they are a one-time use item. But I agree--a very creative use.

[bower]

Originally Posted by FarmerShawn

Or, you could forget cups and pots and environmental concerns and tipping over problems, and invest in a soil blocker. With the right blocking mix, I keep my starts in a two inch block until transplant time. Saves space, I never need to fertilize them, they never get rootbound, planting out is a breeze, and I have only the trays to wash, and nothing to discard.

The soil blockers are amazing. There's a great thread here by JamesL I believe, showing his starts in soil blocks. I've made soil blocks at my friend's farm which we used for squash - for use in the greenhouse they're great. It was pretty labour intensive to mix the stuff and make them, and pretty messy - probably not something I would want to do inside my house in the winter.

The advantage of plastic pots indoors is that moisture can only evaporate from the top. Drying out fatally is something we have to be mindful of all the time when plants are indoors. Nor I cannot run a sauna either to keep them bathed, unless it was very tightly enclosed.

I never did get the hang of either peat pots or jiffy pellets. Seemed like they were either bone dry or sopping wet. Also tried planting out in the peat pot a few times, and it was amazing - the peat pot and its contents dried up like a puck while the soil was moist around it. I did newspaper pots as well, they tended to fall apart and was a nuisance to pick them up never knowing if the whole thing was about to implode. I 're-used' some paper cups one year and that was extremely gross, they got moldy on the bottom half... yech.

Plastic is not something I would like to overuse, but it has its place as a material, in the couple of things it is really best for - IMO potting up plants is one of those things, and reusing a rather light plastic cup for 3-4- or more years doesn't generate a lot of waste volume in the end. Besides that they are a recyclable plastic.

[ScottinAtlanta]

I use 9 ounce clear cups - the cheap ones. I like clear because I like to see the roots form and how deep they have gone. Useful information during the potting up season.

I use a Phillips head screwdriver, heated on the stove, to make 5 holes right at the base of each cup for drainage. I can do about 30 a minute that way.

[oakley]

Up-date.
Ordered from GHMeagastore. Just 6 trays and pots and will have them for my next pot-up. Should be a good trial and will order bulk next year if i like them. Should be easier to move in and out and around if they are anything like the ones i gave away.
(get me out of these solo cups, )

I'll hang onto my solos for emergencies like spare potting mix...
Do make sure you have good drainage especially if bottom watering and if you have not you can just cut a chunk off the bottom side with scissors...

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by oakley

Up-date.
Ordered from GHMeagastore. Just 6 trays and pots and will have them for my next pot-up. Should be a good trial and will order bulk next year if i like them. Should be easier to move in and out and around if they are anything like the ones i gave away.
(get me out of these solo cups, )

I'll hang onto my solos for emergencies like spare potting mix...
Do make sure you have good drainage especially if bottom watering and if you have not you can just cut a chunk off the bottom side with scissors...

Which ones did you get.

Worth