I enjoy using products intended for one purpose for a different purpose instead of throwing them away. I'm always looking for odd things that can be used in my garden. One example is the clear plastic tubs with snap on lids that salad greens are packed in at the grocery store. They serve me well to grow lettuce or seedlings in under lights.
I gave my wife a box of those "Queen Anne" brand of cherry filled, chocolate cordials for Valentines day. They use plastic trays inside the box to help spread out the candies. It makes it look like you are buying a large box of candy when in fact, you are buying a large box with very few candies in it.
I noticed today that the plastic trays used to separate the candies in the box should work well as seed starting trays as you can see in the following photos. I used a coir pellet for each receptacle. I should have split each pellet in half because I had to throw half of the expanded coir away.
[img]https://i291.photobucket.com/albums/ll308/tedln/2011%20Garden/IMG_2708.jpg[/img]
[img]https://i291.photobucket.com/albums/ll308/tedln/2011%20Garden/IMG_2709.jpg[/img]
I like the small seed starting trays because I normally only germinate a few seeds of each variety. The candy box came with three of the trays and three trays will fit nicely into one of those clear plastic salad boxes with the lid snapped on to prevent them drying out.
How have you reused products most people would toss in the trash?
Ted
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DoubleDogFarm
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Nope, no drainage needed. They are only for starting the seed, not growing the plants. Since anything I germinate in the spring will be moved outside quickly, I will start the seed in the trays, up pot them into containers with holes; and move them outside to grow. No grow lights needed and no drainage needed until they are up potted.DoubleDogFarm wrote:Looks good Ted. Hope you poked some holes first. Drainage
Eric
Good thought though Eric.
Thanks
Ted
Gumbo, It takes more than candy to keep my wife happy.
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DoubleDogFarm
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A couple of other thoughts:
The little clear plastic cups that snap over the pouring spout on large laundry detergent bottles make great grow cups.
If you get hay for your farm animals, as I do; in the large round bales that weigh about 500 lbs, they are wrapped in a very strong, twisted polyethylene string that will never rot. When you break a bale for the cattle, you have to cut the strings and pull every string from around the bale and then dispose of the string to prevent the cattle from eating it. I used to throw it away until I realized how good it is as garden string. This works if you only know someone who has cattle or horses. I'm sure they would gladly give you the string.
Many farmers who bale hay use a polyethylene netting to wrap the bales. It also must be removed from the bale before the cattle can eat the hay. If you cut it in one long cut and pull it out from under the bale, it makes great bird netting for your crops.
Ted
The little clear plastic cups that snap over the pouring spout on large laundry detergent bottles make great grow cups.
If you get hay for your farm animals, as I do; in the large round bales that weigh about 500 lbs, they are wrapped in a very strong, twisted polyethylene string that will never rot. When you break a bale for the cattle, you have to cut the strings and pull every string from around the bale and then dispose of the string to prevent the cattle from eating it. I used to throw it away until I realized how good it is as garden string. This works if you only know someone who has cattle or horses. I'm sure they would gladly give you the string.
Many farmers who bale hay use a polyethylene netting to wrap the bales. It also must be removed from the bale before the cattle can eat the hay. If you cut it in one long cut and pull it out from under the bale, it makes great bird netting for your crops.
Ted
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DoubleDogFarm
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- Joined: Sun Mar 28, 2010 11:43 pm
Being a flooring installer I use vinyl flooring cut into strips to mark my plants. The back of most vinyl is white paper and it is stiff from the vinyl! I also use carpet strips sometimes between my rows as a walk way.. I cut used carpets in 1 foot strips like 12 foot long and lay it down with the backing up and I works great for me!. I also use grape boxes both coated car board or styrofoam as planters in my greenhouse! I have 40 of them starting now!