Plant pots

[Stonecoloured]

I'm starting off my fruit&veg garden &have jumped in with both feet. Having read that you should plant 3 times as much as you need, as there will be a lot of failure ect... I'm now left with a lot of seedlings/new plants to grow on (as ALL the seeds sprouted! ). I'm fast running out of small plant pots. So my question is, is there a source of "cheap" small plant pots or can you make your own? I've seen people use newspaper pots, for seedlings, is there an equivalent for small plants/pots for small plants?

Thank you

[PLUMPUDDING]

A lot of garden centres have a corner where they leave surplus pots and trays etc for people to help themselves. Another source is people who have been gardening for a few years. Shortage of pots is only a problem when you are starting up - you eventually end up with far too many and are happy to give them away.

[Tony Hague]

You can of course use yoghurt pots, plastic cups etc etc.

But try to be a bit hard hearted - most of the failures are in emergence, once they are up most will grow on, and if you won't have space for them (or someone to give them to) there is little point in potting them all up now to compost the excess later.

I am always too soft, especially with chilli seedlings, and wind up growing too many plants in my small greenhouse, to their detriment. Each year I tell myself to keep fewer next time ...

[Pa Snip]

Over sowing early in the year is something of a trap we all fall into at some point or other.

If you have sown a lot of some things be brutal and pot up only the best examples that you eat plenty of.
Remember that despite your urge to get some growth, and your fear that seeds might not germinate, it is very early and there is still plenty of time for later successional sowings.

In the past I have been in the same position as you are with regard to pots.
I even tried making my own out of Paper Mache,

the memory is making me smile.

In order to get them to support the damp soil in them I had to make them with quite thick wall and base. Plants grew ok in the ones that didn't collapse when wet and were duly eventually planted straight out in the ground in the pot so there was no disturbance and roots could grow through.

Idea being pot would rot down.

There ended the theory

I discovered that paper mache takes ages to rot, ended up with stunted plants and was able to lift the pots out complete and throw them away

Hey ho.

[robo]

I have a thing called a blocker its a tool for making blocks of seed compost that you wet slightly it makes 5 blocks at a time with an indentation in the top to pop the seed into they are hard to find but a search on the web will turn something up

[Pa Snip]

We have seen those at a couple of shows robo.
Looked interesting, and available in different sizes as I recall.
Don't think it would solve SC's problem though as you still need something to put the blocks into if I remember correctly

[Monika]

I am with Tony H there: surplus plants always have my sympathy but not enough to hold on to them. Pick the best for yourself, Stonecoloured, a few to give away and chuck the rest!
We have all been there.

[Stonecoloured]

I've taken a long deep breath and gone around with the scissors... There are now a lot more "1 plant per pot" than there were... Also, I've stated potting the chillies up to the 1st set of leaves to help with legginess. Will be sharing out the plants, so I keep the best to focus my attention on!

Will try a few suggestions about the pots as well. Thank you

[Ricard with an H]

I've been doing this for three years I've been gardening, last year I sowed and produced so many Cosmos plants that I could have started a market stall.

Like you it was down to lack of confidence and I have lost a lot in the first year through overcrowding and sowing far to early for my environment.

The potting and endless potting on has finally got to me to the point I'm keen to explore more direct sowing now that the soil in my raised beds is so much better than when I started. Direct sowing will mean sowing later though I found last years direct sown crops soon caught up with those I had sown early indoors and they didn't get all leggy.

Gardening isn't easy even if you have the resource of this forum, you still have to learn by bumping into problems and sometimes it's fun to achieve by falling over and getting up again.

How about over watering ,and then under watering, in my first two years this was a massive problem down to me not knowing about how different composts perform. Seed trays and small pots need daily attention, clever direct sowing could mean more time for me to get on with other things this spring.

I hope.