gallon pots

[chaz]

are plastic gallon pots readily available from garden centers? i cannot seem to locate any. I am looking for standard black 1 gallon pots.

[Doug Kanter]

If you've called every garden center near you and haven't found any, then the answer is "no". However, you might get back on the phone and if it sounds like you're speaking to a clerk (i.e.: teenager with summer job), ask for the owner or manager. Lots of unsold plants die in their pots by the end of the season. Someone might let you stop by and take the pots. You might have to take the dirt, too, but so what?

[paghat]

If you were anywhere near Puget Sound you could come & get mine for free. I must have a couple hundred accumulated, hate to just throw them away, but the nurseries don't want them back.

If you have a local paper like "The Little Nickle" you could put an add in it asking for free black plastic pots. I bet lots of people are like me, can't bare to waste them in the garbage, has no earthly use for them in a garden.

Rosedale Nursery in Gig Harbor has a "junk pile" of these black pots with a sign that says "Take all you want!"

Seems like there really should be a better recycling system in place, but I guess for the gallon-size at least, it's just cheaper to keep using new resources than to pay for the gas to pick them up or send them back to the growers.

The nurseries WILL take much bigger one's back & even refund part of the price of the plant that came in the pot, but I like the really big pots for moving compost & suchlike.

-paggers

[Mark Anderson]

I get mine from alley picking. A lot of people toss them after replanting but this can take time to build up a collection. It would be nice if some place sold these things by the dozen like Glad Bags. I would really like to buy a bunch of 10 or 20 gallon containers, the ones they put big trees of bushes in, cheaply and it doesn't look like those containers cost a lot to make.

[William Brown]

[Felder]

A.M. Leonard sells containers in bulk.

-Felder

[George Beck]

"chaz" wrote

[Lee]

We have trash pick-up on Mon and thurs so i put some pots or whatever on the curb on Tue or wed and if some one wants them they pick them up.. they usually disappear by evening. If not, may put them out again then if they haven't found a home, the sanitary engineers can pick them up on pick-up day. Leo

[e-mail] (paghat) wrote !"

[Layne]

My local OSH (Orchard Supply Hardware) carries them. Also, check your local mom and pop nuseries. They may have them or similar green Azelea pots. Or, they may just give you the used pots really cheap or for free.

Layne

[Pam - gardengal]

You can certainly call and ask. Since the pots are not recyclable by municipalities, many nurseries offer pot "exchanges", making the pots available for reuse to the general public and back to the growers - both of the nurseries I have been associated with do this, but gallon sized and larger only. Seems a shame that more nursery pots and those stupid little flimsy 6-paks and wafer thin 4" pots are not recyclable - while a lot do get reused, a lot more find their ways to landfills.

pam - gardengal

[TOM KAN PA]

Does your supermarket have a floral department? I get all the free pots I need from the floral department at the local Giant Eagle.* They are made by:

*Don't laugh at the name. I admit it's a strange name for a LARGE supermarket chain, but it ain't as bad as Piggly Wiggly!

[Rosewood]

Please explain how to get the free pots.

Rosewood

[TOM KAN PA]

____Reply Separator_____ I was in the floral section, dozens of pots were thrown into a cardboard box. I asked what they were going to do with them. They said, "Take 'em to the dumpster." "Can I have them?" "Sure."

[GrampysGurl]

you might offer them to your local garden club for thier plant sales. I know we are scrounging for what we can find as far as pots go spring and fall. A few years back DH threw all of my pots away and I haven't been able to recover since, I'm always running short. Colleen Zone 5 CT

[The Watcher]

Some people don't like to recycle used pots. They claim it's risking spreading diseases and pests. I don't worry much about that, but can see their point.