Plastic or peat pots for transplants?

[Danaus29]

If you were buying plants would it make a difference what they were in? Would you refuse to buy plants that were in peat pots? Normally I pot up little plants that I'm selling into yogurt cups but this year I have more plants than cups and I haven't even started on the tomatoes and peppers yet! Most of the plants are things you won't usually find at the nursery or garden center and are either perennials or herbs. I've never tried to sell them planted in peat pots.

So, would you refuse to buy little plants at a good price just because they were planted in peat pots????

TIA

[JuliaAnn]

Not if the pots were free of mold. I have bought and sold a lot of plants, and what turns me off about peat pots is that they get moldy so quickly, and it looks bad. I know most of the mold won't hurt a plant once it's past seedling stage, so I guess for me, it's just a visual turn off.

Most of the Bonnie's brand vegetables and herbs come in peat pots, and the local mom and pop nurseries sell theirs in peat pots too, so it's obviously very common. But for me, I don't like the mold and ick they get on them after a while. Dumb, I know.

If you're out of yogurt cups, have you thought about trying either paper dixie cups or styrofoam cups? Sometimes I start seeds, small cuttings or divisions off in 8 oz. styrofoam cups. I can go to Dollar General and get a pack that has 60 of the little 8 oz. cups in it for a dollar plus tax. That's cheap. You can't even buy nursery pots used or wholesale for that cheap. Then, after the plants get a little size I pot them into larger pots to grow on for a while. I throw the used cups into a tote full of hot soapy water with some disinfectant in it, and reuse them. I can get about three years worth of use out of them.

Just a suggestion.

[martenfisher]

I don't like to use peat pots but I would buy plants in peat pots. Makes no difference to the consumer mostly the person propogating.

[Paquebot]

I'll buy them in peat pots but won't grow them in same. Major growers can afford to use fungicides to prevent mold and other seedling problems but average gardener does not. I may afford it but don't need it with plastic.

Martin

[Danaus29]

I could buy a bunch of smaller styrofoam cups, they actually would be cheaper than peat pots. I won't grow stuff in those waxed paper cups. I did that one year and lost every single plant.

I'll look for some small 5 or 6 oz styrofoam or plastic cups. Those would be so easy to label too. I've used the larger ones for larger plants, don't know why I didn't think of them for the smaller ones.

Thanks for the replies.

[ET1 SS]

This year I have been starting plants in paper egg carton cups.

A paper or wood-pulp egg carton is fairly biodegradable I cut each cup separate from the carton, fill with potting soil and seed.

[7thswan]

I use those bright blue/red cups that people drink Beer in at partys. Get a hot piece of metal and push it thru the bottems of a whole stack of them for drainage. They are great for writeing on with a Sharpie. ps. I don't start the seedlings in these cups(unless they are fast growing vineing plants) ,these cups are used for transplants.

[Haven]

Personally I prefer to buy plants in peat pots. Hate having to deal with all the plastic pots while planting. With the peat I can just crumble the pots w my fingers and place the pot and all in the ground. I think remnants of the pot in the ground help absorb moisture for the plant.

[City Bound]

I do the same thing as 7th. The party cups are stronger, larger, and less expensive then peat pots, and I use them over again. Write on them with a sharpie also. I start my seed in a little covered seed tray and when they are large enough and strong enough, I transplant them to the cups, and when they are large enough to go outside I slip them out of the cup and plant.

But, in regard to your question about would I buy them in peat or plastic..it would depend on the place of purchase and the fitness of the plant. If I was going to a farmers market, a yard sale, church sale, or something grass roots like that, then yogurt containers, cups, whatever second hand container they had laying around, is fine with me, but if I went to a nursery I would be a little shocked not to find the plants in something a little more professional. Whether peat or plastic, the plant has to look healthy for me to buy it.

[mnn2501]

I have always saved the plastic pots that I bought starter plants in and now use them for my own starters then rinse them out and store in my shed til next year.

I dislike peat pots for many reasons, but the most obvious one is that they don't work as advertised - ie if you plant in them without removing them you have stunted plants since they don't disolve as advertised. If I do buy plants in them I mmake sure I remove them prior to planting.

[sassafras manor]

From a professional wholesale growing operation point of view, I would rather grow a crop in a bio pot of any sort. Peat, coir, fiber, pressed paper, ellepot, or any of the newer sustainable pressed wheat/corn pots will grow a better plant than being grown in plastic. The above mentioned pots allow for better air exchange for the roots, naturally root prune the plants and if planted correctly will not inhibit the future growth of the plant. We literally use millions of sustainable pots each season so I do have slight experience. As far as the mold/slim on the outside of these type of containers, they should have no impact of the health of a seedling or cutting. We do not use any different or extra fungicides for crops grown in these containers vs. those grown in plastic. We actually are more likley to use more fungicides on crops grown in plastic due to the plastic pots inability to go thru regular wet/dry cycles.

[oregon woodsmok]

I dislike peat pots and would prefer not to purchase plants in them. But it depends upon what the plant is and how badly I want it. They are a nuisance and have to be peeled off to plant and that disturbs the root ball.

I buy plastic cups. Turn the stack upside down and drill through about 6 of them at a time to install drain holes.

Those little lightweight plastic grow pots are available on-line and aren't expensive. For larger plants, you can buy special plastic bags that make a pot when they are filled with soil. The smallest one I've bought looks like it holds about 2 cups of soil and contained blueberry plants about 8 inches tall.

Note: the expensive part of growing seedlings is the potting soil, so don't use any container that is bigger than it has to be.

Those little peat cups aren't all that cheap, so they would increase the price of your product.

[JuliaAnn]

That's what I look at--overall cost to produce a given plant. Good soil is very expensive if you don't make your own or at least supplement what you buy, so I agree that you don't use a larger container than absolutely necessary, even for cuttings. I find the 3"x5" deep 'mini tree pots' are excellent for many cuttings, giving deep root systems and allowing rooting at multiple nodes, but they don't use much potting medium. But for plants other than cuttings, the smallest possible is good for me. I don't sell huge plants anyway--I try to cater to the market of folks like me who can't go out and plop down $24.95 and up for a two or three gal. pot with an azalea, blueberry, or rose in it that *really* ought to be in a 1 gal. pot, size-wise. I find that I can sell all the antique roses, figs, blueberries, native plants, etc. that I want in 2", 4", 6", 3x5" tree pot and 1 quart size that I want, no problem. They are priced accordingly, and my over head is kept as low as possible.

I've bought plants in all manner of containers---yogurt cups, styrofoam and solo cups, soup cans, coffee cans, and even at a very old nursery in east Texas where the plants were grown in clay pots and when you bought them, they were unpotted and the soil ball wrapped in newspaper and placed in a box. Wish that place was still in business! I'm not chicken to buy a plant in an odd container, but I don't count on my patrons feeling the same.

[Danaus29]

I got a bunch of peat pots on clearance last year and have bunches left from prior years clearance sales. I usually use them myself for curcurbits and some annual flowers that don't like to have their roots disturbed. I'm not really fond of them personally (pretty obvious since I have so many sitting around) but they do have their advantages. The main problem I can forsee with sales in peat pots is that I can't label varieties unless I go to the added expense of buying labels from someplace. I know you can use those old blinds but I never see those in the trash and the thrift stores destroy the ones with the long pull strings (child safety laws). We don't buy popsicles here so I don't have popsicle sticks either.

I did find a cache of styrofoam cups from some other year that already have holes in the bottom. They were put away and forgotten and there's not that many but it's enough to finish the one flat of perennials.

For cheap one gallon pots I will do what I did last year, use milk jugs. Those made the best pots and they can easily be washed and reused if the plants don't sell. Unfortunately I didn't separate the caladiums by color when I dug them last year. Oh well, maybe they'll be up enough by June for the color to be visible.

[JuliaAnn]

Do you have any flea markets in your area? Believe it or not, I have bought HUNDREDS and HUNDREDS of 1 gal. and smaller containers at flea markets here. I have even bought huge 36" wide tree containers there. We go almost every weekend, and I always keep my eyes open for good used containers. Right now I really need some 4" pots, and I'm hoping something turns up soon. Last winter I found two rolls of hang tags for $3.00 each--the soft rubbery plastic kind you wrap around the stem of a plant and put the end of the tag through the slot and pull tight. Those things cost around $40.00 a roll, if Im not mistaken. We find all sorts of stuff at flea markets, if you have one near you it might be worth checking on a regular basis.

[Danaus29]

Our flea markets are full of Mexicans selling cheap Chinese junk. We used to go to the one market quite often but they never had any gardening supplies there. It's gone downhill lately and rapidly. I don't know enough Spanish to ask any questions or do any haggling anyway.

I haven't been to the southside market recently. They charge admission though.

I do check the thrift stores for gardening supplies. Other than a few books I haven't found anything gardenwise.