My wife has a few 'plastic' pots that she uses for herbs, and places on the deck outside our kitchen. My biggest use of them is in starting the seeds each year. I used peat pots for many years, and was always annoyed at the amount of failures, and resulting re-plants. I have found a better way, especially for my tomatoes and peppers. I use these bio-sponges to germinate the seeds, and then when they have about 2 or 3 leaves, I move them into small plastic pots(square) that are almost 4 inches deep, and 3 1/2 inches square. (with potting soil filler) They have consistently done much better than the peat pots ever did. Some suggests that the peat absorbs too much moisture, maybe. When it comes to planting in the garden, they pop out of the plastic pots quite easily, with their roots well developed and holding it all together. This year, I tried using these foam shipping trays for wine bottles. I buy a case of wine, now and then, and when they are shippped, they come in foam formed containers for the bottles. I realized they are not too wide, but nice and deep, so thought I should try them for my seedlings. I lined each cylinder shape with wax paper, then put in the plant which grew in the biosponge, with the soil filler. I'll be putting them in the ground later this week, so will be anxious to see if they pop out easy enough with the wax paper. They also grew very well from the seedling stage. We'll see!

Hi, Mike Thanks. It's been pretty busy weekend. My three kumquat trees (all in different variety ) have different metabolism... one is blooming like crazy, one just woke up and figured out it is time to start new grow, one is dying. Green Leaves drop and twigs die back. I searched up in internet, the symptom is not for any disease or pests, it is the root rot. This made repot decision easier. I just repotted this kumquat into gritty mix. Although it continues to loose leave and twig, but hopefully it will recover soon. This is my unknown named kumquat from China with very sweet fruit. I hate to loose it. My meyer lemon has few baby lemons on it and still puts out new growth. I am excited to see the lemons grow into larger size. My local grocery store had season end sales. The bark mulch I use for my gritty mix and 511 are on sale for $1 /2cf. I stock up a lot of them and stack them up to decompose a little more. This past weekend, I mixed big batches of 511 and gritty mix. Repotted my jasmine sambac "Grand Duke..." which just finished flowering. This was a cutting given to me last year from friend of mine. Mine survived over the winter pratically a stick, but started new grow this spring. My friend's plant died in winter so I need to grow my jasmie large enough to give him some cuttings. Moved all my Brugs. into 511 mix. They are all very happy, no more droopy leaves in the afternoon. I potted aout 1/4 of my plants with Gritty/511 in plastic. I am happy to recycle those plastic pots. I am a little heitate to move all plants into either 511 or gritty mix. I am evaluating the pros and cons. The gritty mix and 511 will reduce water retaintion , improve air circulation therefore less chance of root rot and improve root system and thus healthy plant. But it creats another problem... fertilizer and water waste. it is also harder to manage the fertilize timing. Every time I water/fertilizer the gritty mix/511 most of water with fertilizer in it come out at the bottom, which all goes to waste. It makes nearby grass grow much faster and greener than my plants. In winter time, when all the plants are inside, I must have a deep saucer under each plant in order to catch excess water.

Yellowthumb, are you still here with me? I must say that I was a bit leery of taking my lime and lemons out of my clay pots too. But after seeing mine improve, and I mean remarkably, I decide to do the same to this one just now after totally forgetting about it! Would you believe that I have had this one in this same clay pot for TWO YEARS!? It looks like a stick with one piece of new growth after all this time. I fed it, provided a great mix, and gave it lots of sun light. It has been given the same cultural needs as the others. Look at the size of the root ball and the lack of leaves, if I must say so myself. Let's see how fast this one improves. I am finding it hard to think it is all in our heads.lol Before: Look at the size of the root ball! And, they don't even look healthy. And now after. :-) Let's keep you updated from here. Here is a few doing very well after only 2 months in plastic. Now I have NO reason to buy another Meyer Lemon to start one looking great just to see it decline. I got tired of looking at less than healthy lemon trees just to replace them with another healthy one. No worries now. I can keep the ones I have and get them looking like they were when I bought them. The ones I am about to post were in a sick condition a couple months back for years, with just a few leaves, small root balls, and just constant flowering on bare branches. Now they are full and seem to be thriving in this short time. I have always complained that Meyer Lemon trees for me, are the hardest to please. My view point has changed now: thanks to John:-) This is an added BONUS for me. This Ponderosa Lemon had had only 3 leaves and was all bare for THREE YEARS! It would flower, but that is it. Now look at the leaves and new growth. I am so excited about this one.:-))))) Now this one is next! Mike

A few years ago I was told, by the people at one of the transfer stations here on the Cape, that they would throw away much of the recycling materials. The volume of recycling material was far greater than the ability of the recycling plants to process it. They told me that they wanted to keep the public in the habit of recycling so that if they would be ready when there was places that could process it. I was disappointed to learn that I had been living with the false good feeling that my efforts to separate and deliver these items to their areas in the transfer station along with most everyone else resulted in a better world was largely a farse. Hopefully, there are many more plants to process this stuff. But watching 3 dump workers spend their day tending to the recycle area, people walking through no less than 8 container areas each week to separate their stuff, and dealing with criss-crossing cars in the area seemed like a wasted effort when I watched the container of milk jugs get emptied into the general refuse early in the morning before the place opened. That is when they explained to me that they could only find a home for some of the materials some of the time. It was very disappointing. I live in a different community now. I find it interesting that here we do not have to separate light cardboard from other trash. All cans, bottles, and plastic containers go into one container. I would love to know how they recycle that "co-mingled" material. I guess what I am saying is that there is not a lot of opportunities to find anyone eager to accept material to recycle because they have access to more of it than they know what to do with. The best bet for recycling plant pots is to get them to someone who can use them as plant pots. But, the expense of washing process, storage, and handling might outweigh their value.