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Reusing pots and trays

Hi everyone image what a lovely day I've been busy potting out loads of viola and clematis I got for 50p a tray and all big teabag plants.  I always wash and keep pots and trays  but the teabag plants are in see through green plastic ones  can these be used for seed trays or are they a no no cos the light gets in to the roots .

 

 

 

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  • PalustrisPalustris Posts: 4,307

    There is a theory that plants do better in see through pots. The roots of most plants are photosensitive and shun the light. So in a transparent pot, the roots avoid the outside of the pot so you do not get the problem of roots going round and round the outside of the compost.

    No idea if it works though as I have no pots like that to experiment with.

  • B3B3 Posts: 27,481

    Get rid of the teabags. They restrict root growth. Got some this year - never again. There was a marked difference between those in the bags and the ones I 'released'.

     

    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • LynLyn Posts: 23,190

    Is a tea bag those net cases around some plug plants you can buy.? Hate them, cut them off as soon as the plants arrive. 

    I always thought that about square pots Philippa,  but after planting out something I bought in a square pot, the roots had gone round and round just the same.

    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

  • Hostafan1Hostafan1 Posts: 34,888

    am I being really stupid? what are tea bag pots?

    Devon.
  • LynLyn Posts: 23,190

    They look like this Hosta, grown in some restricting material, the roots are supposed to grow through but they don't,  you will know, but I expect you know the correct name for it.

    http://www.topiarygarden.co.uk/images/fuchsia-plugs-2014.jpg 

    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

  • Hostafan1Hostafan1 Posts: 34,888

    Lyn ,I'm flattered that you thought I'd know, but I've never seen them before.

    Is it just plug plants they use them for? if so that'd explain it.

    Devon.
  • Yes guys I agree you have to strip off the tea bag  I'm still finding square blocks around the garden  from last year's before someone on the forum advised me to get rid . Still not sure whether to use the trays they came in image  

  • Hostafan1Hostafan1 Posts: 34,888

    are they like the old "jiffy pots"?

    Those discs you had to soak and they grew?

    Devon.
  • B3B3 Posts: 27,481

    They are cubes of  teabag -like material. Somebody told me on a previous posting that the teabags are used so that they can be inserted into trays by machine. B&Q are the main perpetrators. I also found that when removing failed plants, the inside of the teabag was bone dry even if the surrounding compost was wet.

    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • You've got it just right B3 that's where I got my bargains image but taken out of the teabag and planted up they stand up like little soldiers when watered in . It definitely has to be removed 

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