Hi Venice,

You may see a few posts down I too am looking for them. Well I have in fact sourced some, but I need to buy 1000 and it ends up a bit too many for me. Email me if you are keen on maybe going halves or something.

a@b.com.au

Where a=martinfield and b=tpg - I'm sure you can work it out.

I remember seeing a post some time back about making these from newspaper. You had to fold them a certain, fill them and stand them in white fruit boxes, then you planted into each one. I don't know anything about the long term lasting quality of these. Someone else might enlighten us?

Hello Judith and Sparaxis,
Thank you both for your suggestions. Sparaxis, if you knew me and my patience-tolerance, you would never had mentioned making tubes from newspaper. It's a great idea but I can't even sit and sew on a button without giving up midway through the task!! LOL. We buy 2 newspapers a day but they go through the mulcher. Although I do have the patience, I suppose, to sit for hours and prepare cuttings, so I shouldn't really have a giggle, should I?
Judith, I will contact you when I work out your addy...although I'm not too bad at cryptics. Sounds like a good deal, eh?
Best wishes to you both,
Venice.

another way of making them is to use papiere mache - - use some of the tubes you have at the moment as forms and put the paper mush on the outside.

if you mince the paper down quite fine, there's no need for any glue.

youe do have to use vaseline or oil on the tube to let you slide the papiere mache tube off.

I've seen people use an old washing mashine - fill with torn up paper and water and set it on wash cycle for an hour or two - then strain the pulp and put it on the tubes.

another way to mulch up the paper fine enough to use is with a kitchen wand - though it does tend to stuff up the kitchen wand.

Hi Paradisi,
Thankyou for your advice. I especially liked the last sentence, LOL. However, I need hundreds of the tubes (yes, Hundreds). A girlfriend loved the idea of the paper tubes until she stopped and tried to imagine me doing it!!!
End of subject.
Kindest regards,
Venice

Know anyone who goes through a lot of toilet paper? The inner roll would be ideal :)

re goldhills suggestion

maybe you could contact one of the papermills (makers of toilet rolls) and see if they'll sell you the cardboard

OR if you or your partner enjoys a beer - it shouldn't take too long to get hundreds of cans and whip the tops off and punch a few holes in the bottom. And the collecting of the hundreds of cans would be a fun event too.

Ha ha you two,
Very ingenious.
Unfortunately the 2 of us Darby and Joaners don't go thru that many loo-rolls a week, and we're both wine-lovers.
Butttt....I do know someone who loves his beer and whose wife makes relish, jams, etc., pleading me for all my spare jars. I'm thinking a swap is in order here. What a super idea!!!
Thankyou very much - my mind's twirling already.
Venice

Well, my misses (I'm actually judith_sydneys other half) reckons I use loo paper like its going out of fashion, and I must admit we do use a bit, but I can't see that working, unless there is an easy way to close off the bottom (of the roll that is!!).
I also use the bog method (oh god, it gets worse) of sitting the tubes/pots in water and keeping the seeds moist until they germinate, which would cause a problem with the cardboard roll.
I think I'll stop while I'm not too far behind - when will it end :)

"Unfortunately the 2 of us Darby and Joaners don't go thru that many loo-rolls a week, and we're both wine-lovers.
Butttt....I do know someone who loves his beer and whose wife makes relish, jams, etc."

Im not sure what youre getting at, are you saying wine lovers dont use much loo paper but beer drinking jam eaters do?? ;)

lol, maybe I dont want to know!

Yes, that was a strange thing to say, wasn't it?
What I meant was 'maybe I could swap my jars for her partner's (empty) tinnies'! Does that make more sense.
Actually, I had a little brainwave this morning. Those real thin plastic cups that you use at water-fountains, etc. My husband's going to price them in town today, and if they're not too expensive, buy a few hundred then solder some holes in the bottom. Good idea?

Sounds good. Cheap soldering irons are easy to buy if you don't already have one.
The holes are a whole 'nother story. You might source them in bulk at a holesalers perhaps? Get the right size, because once you have soldered them in, they are extremely hard to remove. Also makesure they come in a holeproof nylon bag, and be extremely careful handling them - you don't want them falling out of the bag onto the floor.

Oh, very funny.
Yes, we have a soldering iron. In fact, we have every power-tool known (and some unknown) to mankind. Bunnings have a ticker-tape parade whenever my husband walks in the door!!
Sparaxis, I've been trying to get a-hole of you re your iris offer, but nothing works! Perhaps if I use the method of judith_sydney you could contact me?
a@b.com.au
Where a=paulineshipton and b=iprimus.

Venice, if you know of somewhere that has one of those water bottle fountains (e.g. waiting rooms at doctor, dentist, mechanic, tyre dealer, school etc. perhaps you could ask them to save the used cups for you.
Cheers,
Dee.

just try me on janclarx@hotmail.com :-)
Have plenty left but timing is a problem/ I am tied up monday and tuesday each week for the next 6 weeks babysitting in melb while my daughter completes the last semester of her masters degree before baby number 2 in June.
That causes problems with posting iris early in the week, to avoid weekend holdovers in hot weather. Probably better now to wait until the weather cools, but yes there will be plenty left and no problems planting them in Autumn.
Cheers, Jan

Hey Pauline (venice), thats copyright to me! Just joking. I copied the idea from elsewhere.

Sparaxis - the HOLE idea of the a= b= rubbish is to stop your full email address sitting on web sites where webbots automatically search and pickup valid address in order to sell elsewhere or send you spam. Once your email address is out on a few web sites its a sitting duck. :)

Martin

Hi judith_sydney,
Yes, I admit it. I stole your idea, only because it's a beauty! Please don't sue me!
And Jan, thanks for you addy. I'll write privately and perhaps we can sort something out.

Hi all, I am happy to send you some second-hand 75mm tubes if we can arrange postage and maybe a swap? I own a retail nursery and we always have heaps that are too scratched etc to put out for sale. Email me and we can sort something out if you wish. Cheers!

Hi lillypilly,

I'd love to trade, but I don't have much.....few basic seeds, thats about it - are you after something in particular?

Maybe we can come to an arrangement regarding cost.

Let me know - I don't have your email address

Martin

Hi Martin and Lillypilly,
Martin, I finally managed to squish that stuff into the satchel, and will send it tomorrow. Unfortunately not one iota of room left for any 'treats' though!!!
Lillypilly, I also live in southern NSW so maybe if we're not too far apart we could take a Sunday drive there - thankyou for your very kind offer, by the way.
I have quite a few seedlings/seeds for trade, mostly cottage garden and climbers though. Would you like to contact me off-list? My email addy is 7 posts back.
And for all those others with their 'holy' jokes, I bought a couple of tubes of those plastic cups at IGA yesterday - $1.15 per roll of 20. They'll keep me going for about 5 minutes, I suppose!
Cheers, Venice

Hey Venice,
Thanks for that, it will be much appreciated. I still haven't heard from any of the wholesalers so I will have to see what happens.
I did notice Venice, that on Ebay there was a guy selling 500 cups that sold for $5.24 or something, plus $9 postage, but about $15 for 500 cups is 3c each which sounds ideal. Shame it wasn't around when you were looking. I wish I could get my tubes for that price.
Look forward to getting my goodies. No problem about the treats, maybe next time :)
Martin (www.cutepettags.com)