Seedling growing containers.

If you don't want plastic, make pots from cardboard toilet paper rolls or paper towel tubes. Just fold in the ends and tape them.

[jhouse]

Having used styrofoam cups this year, and not wanting to do that again, I found this thread very interesting!
If I scrounge containers from a nursery, is it pretty easy to disinfect them? or saving my own from year to year?

[Labradors2]

Originally Posted by jhouse

Having used styrofoam cups this year, and not wanting to do that again, I found this thread very interesting!
If I scrounge containers from a nursery, is it pretty easy to disinfect them? or saving my own from year to year?

Absolutely! Use soap, water, and a little bleach .


Linda

[jhouse]

Great thanks!

[DonDuck]

I've used the same commercial plastic germinating cells (six pack) and grow cups and pots for many years. I wash them and store them stacked for the next grow season. I don't have any fond memories about my containers except they work well. My fond memories are of planting seed in the soil and watching them germinate and grow. I started doing that when I was a kid and seed was cheap. I continued doing it that way until I built a light table eight or ten years ago. I would still be planting seed in the soil, but in our area; growing under lights gives me the necessary jump on the season with tomatoes and peppers. I still plant most of my garden by planting seed in the soil. I find satisfaction getting my hands in the dirt.


I also save other containers stuff comes in from the grocery store. Those blue/green "swifter" pad containers make good mass germinating pots. I planted 25 small onion seedlings in them this year and gave them to ladies who like to harvest onion greens from the window sill in the kitchen. They are also good for growing herbs in the window sill. The large ones are about four inches deep and hold plenty of soil. Wash them good before you use them.

The Ace hardware near me sells their castoff plastic pots dirt cheap.
I’ve stocked up on 4 and 6 inch so I can give away seedlings and cuttings in them.
Wash out with soapy water and a touch of bleach ... dry in the sun ... good to go.

[DonDuck]

I recently asked the garden center manager of a Walmart store what they do with the containers plants are shipped to the store in after all the plants are sold. I was told Bonnie plants usually picks them up for disposal. He showed me where the empty containers are stored and told me I could have all I want at no charge.


I've looked at the containers on the internet and they are expensive. I like the containers to organize my plants into after they are up potted. I can simply label the container instead of labeling each plant. I rarely germinate fewer than ten seedlings of each variety I grow. Each container holds ten pots. The containers make it easy to carry my plants outside for hardening off and back in the shop at night. They also keep the pots from blowing over in the wind and simplify watering the plants with my garden hose. The excess water simply drains out the bottom of the containers. Solo cups fit perfectly into the smaller containers and larger pots into the larger containers.

[Worth1]

Even though I use a little bleach in my dish water it warns against it.
So use caution if you must.
In the right amounts with the right household chemicals it will release chlorine gas that can overcome you and you will end up dead at the very worse.
Sucking in a big gulp of chlorine gas is like sucking in a big gulp of water in your lungs and it isn't good.
If no one is around to help you death can occur.
Don't even think about mixing it with ammonia.

Just saying be safe.

[GrowingCoastal]

I find satisfaction getting my hands in the dirt.

Making contact with the earth with bare skin grounds our body's electrical charge and makes us feel good. Swimming or wading in water works too, especially if it is moving quickly which creates more negative ions, I think it is. I heard about this eons ago and now I see online that there is a new name for this called 'Earthing' with products for sale and all!
All I need is the garden or the beach and I'm set, no cost.

[Shrinkrap]

Saving this thread for next season.

[DonDuck]

Originally Posted by Worth1

Even though I use a little bleach in my dish water it warns against it.
So use caution if you must.
In the right amounts with the right household chemicals it will release chlorine gas that can overcome you and you will end up dead at the very worse.
Sucking in a big gulp of chlorine gas is like sucking in a big gulp of water in your lungs and it isn't good.
If no one is around to help you death can occur.
Don't even think about mixing it with ammonia.

Just saying be safe.

First week of basic training in the army in 1962. My unit had over 100 guys in it and you had to fall into formation by 5:30 a.m. each morning showered and shaved. Our shower was huge with tile on the floor and walls.


In the second week of training, five of us had to strip one day to our skivvies and were given tooth brushes and bottles of pure bleach and told to get on our knees and scrub the grout between every tile. It wasn't punishment. It was just part of the mental training. A different group of guys had to do the same thing to all the toilets and urinals the next day. They always had some menial task to perform. After breathing the bleach fumes all day, I couldn't smell or taste anything for a week that didn't taste or smell like bleach. Even water from my canteen tasted and smelled like bleach. I didn't know if I would ever be able to taste and smell right.

[asaump]

I use 1/4 gal grow bags from 247.

[SeanInVa]

I have been using hard plastic 4 inch pots/cups I picked up on Amazon. Enough room to start a good number of seeds in, fairly densely sowed. I then split those out and they each get their own cup.

They are fairly sturdy and easy to clean and reuse over and over.

[xellos99]

I sow the seed straight into 9cm pots in a propagator machine ( but only do a small batch 25 - 30 )

Then pot on into 3 Litre pots.

Then into ground.

Works nicely, they are highly mobile before going into the ground and can start flowering in 3 litre pots just before final planting.

[Worth1]

I like the peat pots everyone hates.
My thoughts are, 'If you use anything wrong you won't like it and you will fail.
I know this sounds like a bold, arrogant, condescending statement but it is true.
I am just as guilty of it as anyone here when it comes to using stuff wrong.

When this happens you have to ask yourself is this a bad product or do I need to adjust my actions.
What am I doing wrong?
What can I do to change it?
Is it My fault.
Of course you always have the option to not like the changes you have to make and move on to something else.
So far in my adventures I have taken just about every product people have used here, hated or loved, changed my actions and made it work.

Did I like the change I had to make?
Sometimes not and went to what I was comfortable with.
I can grow out plants in an old sock but I prefer not to.