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An Interesting Observation About White Pots

Nancy Barginear

14 years ago

Last winter, the deer almost devastated our new daylily seedling bed. With that in mind, I decided to grow this year's seedlings in pots until they were large enough to hopefully withstand the coming winter's onslaught of hungry animals.

I bought a lot of new pots at our small town's local dollar store. It was a 50-50 choice between white or burnt orange pots.

I have noticed something rather interesting about the the seedlings now growing in these pots. The growth rate, health and vigor of those planted in white pots have far surpassed those in the darker ones. There could be several reasons for this - 1) the white pots remained cooler during our hot Texas summer, or 2) sunlight was better reflected back upon the seedlings.

Thoroughly convinced, from now on I'll either buy only white pots and/or paint all my existing seedling pots white. For those of you who live in warmer climates and grow seedlings in pots, you might find my observation interesting and worth testing.

Nancy

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Comments (7)

shive
14 years ago
That's a very interesting observation. I think I'll try some seedlings in white pots here to see if there is a difference.

Debra
fairysoapgirl
14 years ago
My little 4" pots are white, and they always do better for me than the black ones... I think the sun reflection/heat reduction has a lot to do with it. At first I thought I was crazy...
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jean_ar
14 years ago
gee, will have to try that,,the white pots.I don't know as I have anything in a white pot.They either in a black pot or terra cotta pots.

Jean
running_free
14 years ago
That is an interesting observation. Something similar yet different that may just apply to seedlings in general?

I did two runs of bell peppers from seed as the first died of neglect. In the meantime I filled Mom's garden with nursery stock peppers likely a month older. Detirmined to try some of the mixed bag seedlings I potted them in large terra cotta colored plastic pots and placed them on a concrete pad at the end of the veggie garden. While the older plants are carrying larger fruit the potted plants clearly larger and stronger (might pot them all next year, more room for tomatos).

Guess it's a combination of the heat on the concrete and the pots? Perhaps even something to the potting soil? I can't be sure but I do recall seeing some awesome potted veggie trellis plants at a nursery that were geared for apt. dwellers/ patio gardners. Certainly going to keep an eye on progress and production, could be helpful for bare root starts?

Wes
organic_kitten
14 years ago
That could be really helpful information. Thank you for sharing it.
kay
suel41452
14 years ago
That IS interesting! I might try some white pebbles around some of my less-vigorous daylilies as "mulch" & see if they do better!
Nancy Barginear
Original Author
14 years ago
It actually rained yesterday for the first time in 131 days. Today, the difference between the seedlings in the white (plastic) pots and those in the terra cotta (also plastic) pots has become astonishing! All of these seedlings are of the same age and planted in the pots at the same time.

Nancy

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