What are your frugal and sustainable tips and tricks?

[Sally PB]

Although there are issues with plastics, I've had bad experiences with cardboard planters and mold in the past.

I had mold with both the home made paper pots and toilet paper pots.

Now I use large yogurt or cottage cheese cartons to make pots. Eventually the plastic gets brittle, but I have some pots that are 3-4 years old. I've posted my how to a few times; I don't know if I've put it here, so I'll go ahead and post it again.

Collect this kind of container, with the lid.

Cut the bottom off.

This is your pot. Poke holes in the bottom (lid) for drainage.

Fill with soil, plant your seeds, grow a happy little plant. When it's time to set it out in the garden (after hardening off), dig the hole, take the lid off the bottom, and set the pot in the hole. The taper of the container will let you slide the pot up off the dirt and plant.

Wash, sterilize with a bit of bleach in the rinse, dry, and use again the next year.

 

[TooCheep]

Yup. I do basically the same with large Kroger yogurt tubs, though I don't cut the bottom off. Found them very helpful. Also keep excess crushed egg shells in one.

You could do the same with the smaller 6oz yogurt containers for seed starting.

 

[fuzzi]

I had mold with both the home made paper pots and toilet paper pots.

Now I use large yogurt or cottage cheese cartons to make pots. Eventually the plastic gets brittle, but I have some pots that are 3-4 years old. I've posted my how to a few times; I don't know if I've put it here, so I'll go ahead and post it again.

Collect this kind of container, with the lid.
View attachment 3864546
Cut the bottom off.
View attachment 3864547
This is your pot. Poke holes in the bottom (lid) for drainage.

Fill with soil, plant your seeds, grow a happy little plant. When it's time to set it out in the garden (after hardening off), dig the hole, take the lid off the bottom, and set the pot in the hole. The taper of the container will let you slide the pot up off the dirt and plant.

Wash, sterilize with a bit of bleach in the rinse, dry, and use again the next year.

I like this idea!

 

[fuzzi]

Yup. I do basically the same with large Kroger yogurt tubs, though I don't cut the bottom off. Found them very helpful. Also keep excess crushed egg shells in one.

You could do the same with the smaller 6oz yogurt containers for seed starting.

I get pints of non-dairy ice cream in cardboard containers. Once empty I rinse and save them for all sorts of nifty uses. I store dried egg shells in one, will use another to scoop dry cat food out of the bag, even bring treats to the flock. I have a couple in the coop, as they come in handy for transporting an egg or two if I forget to bring my basket.

 

[Sally PB]

You could do the same with the smaller 6oz yogurt containers for seed starting.

Yes!

I use the big ones because I can make my own potting soil, so it's cheap to fill the big pots. Also, I don't have to up-pot anything. They're in that pot until they go in the ground.

I started 70+ pots of plants this spring, so up-potting would have been a lot of work.

The idea behind using the container upside down is that you don't disturb the roots as much. Cucurbits don't like having their roots disturbed. Tomatoes and peppers don't mind it. In fact, disturbing their roots can stimulate them into more root growth.

 

[gtaus]

Now I use large yogurt or cottage cheese cartons to make pots. Eventually the plastic gets brittle, but I have some pots that are 3-4 years old.

That seems like a great way to reuse those plastic cartons for a few times before they get sent to the recycle center. I love doing stuff like that.

On your cottage cheese cartons, for example, are you limited to top watering the plants or are you able to bottom water them and have the water soak up into the pot?

As far as reusing plastic containers, I save all the plastic pots from the flowers that Dear Wife purchases every year for her flower gardens. Mostly they are about the 3-inch size, but some are bigger...

Anyways, I take them out of the garbage, wash them off and let them dry, stack them up, and put them into storage. I have quite a few now. Like I said, I am mostly using the 3-inch net pots with the slits in them for starting my plants, but there might come a time when I (re)use those saved solid wall flower pots from the store.

When we are at the store, I'll pick up a tray holder, or two, for those pots. Makes it nice to carry the plants outside for transplanting....

Perfect size for my 3-inch net pots as well.

One thing I like to do with my pots is have a tote lid full of water about 1 inch deep, and just place the pots, in the holding tray, into the water to soak for about 15 minutes. Then I take out the tray full of pots to drain until a few days later when I repeat the process. It works for me.

I mention these things because you can basically get the pots and trays for free and or reuse them after you buy some plants. Also, one of biggest challenges I had in the past was overwatering my plants in solid wall pots from the top. Bottom watering my plants has helped a lot. I don't think I have had any mold issues using the net cups with the slits. They just breathe better. But I think bottom watering just works better for me.

 

[Sally PB]

On your cottage cheese cartons, for example, are you limited to top watering the plants or are you able to bottom water them and have the water soak up into the pot?

Since the pots are fairly big, I water from the top. When I'm starting seeds, I have to carry the water out to the green house in gallon milk jugs. For 70+ pots, that takes a lot of water. I just dribble it on top when the plants are little seedlings poking up.

 

[gtaus]

Since the pots are fairly big, I water from the top. When I'm starting seeds, I have to carry the water out to the green house in gallon milk jugs. For 70+ pots, that takes a lot of water. I just dribble it on top when the plants are little seedlings poking up.

I only wish I had an outside greenhouse. Maybe someday.

I liked your idea of using cottage cheese cartons as starter pots - if I had the room inside my house. But I just don't have that much room inside my house to have those large pots. I had maybe 50 of those 3-inch net pots on my starter shelves. That is about my limit.

Last year I had great success with my plant starts, but this year it was pretty much a waste of time. I already mentioned that this year I purchased some inferior potting soil for the seed starts and I think that made all the difference. It was too coarse and bulky and had no fertilizers added to it.

Last year I purchased a MiracleGro seed starting mix that was much, much better and my plants really had a good start. The MiracleGro seed starting mix was very fine and provided nutrients as the plants grew. I am going back to buying the MiracleGro seed starting mix next year. It costs a bit more, but better that than wasting weeks, or months, of work and ending up with nothing much to show for my efforts.

It makes no sense to be frugal on your potting mix purchase if you end up wasting those precious weeks, or months, on an inferior seed starting product that does not work. You can't get that time back.

One of the things I like about the net cups is that the roots, in theory, will air prune when they hit the slits in the net cup and are exposed to the air. In previous years, I had started some pepper and tomato plants in small solid wall pots, and they got root bound over eight weeks in those small pots. I imagine that having a much larger cottage cheese carton as a pot would reduce or eliminate the plant from getting root bound.

I drive Dear Wife crazy because I save almost any plastic containers that I can reuse for something, sometime, in the future. I guess I will be adding cottage cheese and yoghurt cartons to my save list. Thanks.

 

[Sally PB]

I guess I will be adding cottage cheese and yoghurt cartons to my save list.

At least they nest and stack!

Dear Wife

Sorry. I'm a bad influence!

 

[gtaus]

How to Fix Broken Wire Tomato Cages

I have a love/hate relationship with my wire tomato cages. I have a bunch that were handed down to me from my father, that are still useable, so I hate to toss them out. Mainly, I use the wire tomato cages for my pepper plants and I trellis my tomatoes other ways other than tomato cages.

At any rate, a number of my wire tomato cages are coming apart at the welds. I was not willing to spend a lot of money to fix them, and I don't have any intention of buying new wire tomato cages to replace them. However, I was able to find a couple of methods to fix my tomato cages for only pennies and get them back into service.

Here is a short <3-minute YouTube video showing how to repair common problems with broken wire tomato cages using cheap zip ties or a wire clothes hanger that your wife doesn't want to use anymore.

In my case, I was able to use some zip ties to reattach a ring back unto the leg where the weld had broken. Took me maybe only a minute or two per tomato cage repair with the zip ties. I buy my zip ties in economy packs for about 1 penny per zip tie. For a few pennies each, I fixed a couple of my larger (4 foot tall) broken tomato cages this way. Those cages cost about $8.00 at the store to replace, so I was very happy that the zip tie fix actually works for me.

There are other methods of repairing wire tomato cages with low temperature aluminum welding (brazing) rods. But for that repair you need to purchase the aluminum rods - which cost as much as $18.00 for a pack - and a soldering torch with gas tank which might cost another $15.00 if you don't have a kit.

I suspect that using those aluminum brazing rods might give you a "better" repair with a more professional welding look like the original, but heck, I'm into saving money so I fixed my cages with the zip ties. I don't think the plants will care one way or the other.