The colour of pots, when transplanting seedlings

[Primrose]

Does colour matter? I'm planning to sow some surplus seeds this year to grow spare plants for a village fundraising event and have a load of white vending machine cups lurking in a cupboard which I thought I could use as I don't have any spare conventional pots.

I know I can make a skewer hole in the base for drainage but wonder whether the light colour, even when filled with compost, would have a negative effect on the root development. I assume that this is why conventional pots are made in a dark coloured plastic?

[Johnboy]

Hi Primrose,
My father, in his retirement, used nothing but vending machine cups for damned near everything. They will be fine.
JB.

[John]

A hot skewer, easy if you have a gas hob, will go through loads of polystyrene cup in a fraction of a second.

John

[macmac]

We were given a "pot maker "at Christmas a wooden thing that you shape pots from newspaper.It's a lovely little thing but anything bottle shaped would work the same and result would be endless pots for no cost to any fund raising venture.So when the white pots run out ....

[Kleftiwallah]

Primrose, you do not know how happy your message makes me. I've been using these (but brown jobs) for years. Go ahead, no tears when they crack. A soldering iron with a long copper rod does squillions at a time. Cheers, Tony.