Need some seed starting supplies storage ideas

[applestar]

OK Everyone -- just HOW are you storing all your seed stating supplies? particularly the containers. I suspect people who use uniform containers have an easier time of it at this point.

I have containers of various sizes. I think I just HAVE to throw out re-purposed yogurt and other dairy containers (my county doesn't have recycling program for them) My rice milk cartons have served well and are falling apart. I have no regrets.

Go into details like how you organize them and where you store them, etc. I'm looking for inspiration.

Do you at this point, retire the light tubes you used this spring? Do you send them to disposal facilities? Do you mark them for re-use? Do you re-stock new tubes now or do you go into stand-by mode for good deals?

[tomc]

Soil components go into five gallon pails and 30 gallon trash barrels (the barrels might actually be 32's).

Bulk seed goes into pill bottles once fully dry. There are always a few one gallon jars for biggish seed.

[ElizabethB]

Applestar - I still have a rather large supply of 4" nursery pots. Easy to store in G's shop. We do have a city recycling program but I decided to take a page out of your book and recycle containers for my fall seed starts. I have them on the hard to reach and seldom used top shelf of the pantry. I probably do not have anywhere near the number of containers that you do.

Any out of the way space. If I were to go really over the top and had large numbers of containers I would probably put them in a storage bin in the attic. No basements in south Louisiana unless you wear hip waders.

I always enjoy hearing from you.

[Susan W]

This is a joke...right?! You are suggesting I should wash, let dry and stack the various containers? Then put on the shelves under the back carport? Silly me, hadn't gotten to that yet. In seriousness the pots and trays once washed, dry can be stacked and put on shelf out of the weather. Temp no problem, just some sort of shed roof to keep rain (snow?) off.

I do have a great area that needs to be addressed aka cleaned. It is an oversized carport on concrete where there had been a wood garage of sorts. I do have a couple of pallets there for the bags of dirt and other bagged stuff. The pallet keeps them up off the concrete.

The small seed start stuff, tote of hand tools -trowels etc is mostly on a shelf by back door with small porch/overhang. As my seed start and up potting is 12 months, the stuff just keeps moving around.

Apple, seems like you can wash and let dry all your yogurt type containers. Then line up and stack by size. I have some cottage cheese and other containers I try to combine in stacks.

[JC's Garden]

I have several Costco/Kirkland 2 & 3 pound chocolate candy containers. Clear, square plastic jars. You see ...... I'm a chocoholic I use these for small seed packs that I buy on impulse. Classify the contents as roots, greens, etc. and put them in the jar. I also use prescription medicine bottles for saving seeds from plants I consider to be better than normal, label them and sort as above into containers.

[rainbowgardener]

you've seen pictures of mine before




The 8' counter top all the seed starting trays sit on, is on top of kitchen cabinets. So the kitchen cabinets are storage for equipment, including the 450 little pots I washed and put away again. Over the cabinets are three shelves. The lights hang from two of them, and the one above the first set of lights also has trays of plants in seed starting season. The top shelf besides having the second set of lights hanging below it, is just storage.

I put seeds in envelopes, envelopes in boxes and store them in the chest freezer in the basement.

[imafan26]

I have a pile in my side yard and my lanai is my potting shed. Everything is all over the place. I do have a lot of things like fertilizers, drip irrigation parts, chemicals, pvc fittings which I keep in 5 gallon buckets. I have given a lot of pots away so I have a lot fewer now and I don't buy as many . I have used yogurt cups, gallon fruit cans, soda cups, styrofoam cups, plastic utensils saved from takeout, and recycled vertical blinds for labels.

I also did a soil test so, I don't have to buy or store as much fertilizer anymore.

I can nest pots of different sizes inside each other. I do like using the large trash cans. I might be able to do something like that to store media. Right now I have it all in the garage and I mix up only a five gallon bucket at a time.

One day, I will have to just dive in and do something about it.

[applestar]

Thanks for you replies and comments I'm still trying to figure it all out.

I do my potting work in the garage in inclement weather, but prefer to do large quantity and the bigger containers outside for less chance of spillage etc.

Right now, as the started plants are uppotted and planted out, the small containers are accumulating outside -- most still need to be washed but larger sizes are reused as needed to uppot the smaller ones. I've been trying to bring in the cleaned containers in the garage for those rainy day projects, but almost always, the size container I need is in the wrong location. I don't dare put any of the containers away in the shed - I keep needing them.

Right now, I'm keeping in the shed two 2 cu ft bags of potting mix and Bumper Crop in the wheel barrel as well as a 5 gal bucket in which I mixed up about 3 gallons of equal parts soaked alfalfa pellets and bran -- part of my potting mix. I trundle the wheel barrow out and mix up 5 gal bucket of potting mix at a time, adding dry rice hulls.

I'm glad. I didn't think to do this in the garage because the unused alfalfa/bran mixture is composting and emitting ammonia odor (in other words, it stinks) until well mixed. I almost gagged when I opened the shed, but once aerated well with a garden fork, the smell subsided to more of a fresh manure smell -- but I lost a lot of nitrogen (and heat) to the air. At least the experience confirmed that the mixture IS a good fertilizing additive.

I have an accumulated pile on the patio that I want to organize, hence my question and request for help and inspiration. I think I WILL start by cleaning a bunch of containers and drying them in the sun today. -- a good place to start. I think I'll hold off on final organization and storage until I finish uppotting and repotting all my tropicals which I still have to finish -- that's always a challenge because they are like molting hermit crabs, each one moving up to the next size container as they become available....

[feldon30]

At one time, I was going to grow lots of tomato seedlings and sell them (and I may still do so, given the limited choices around here), so I have lots of 4" pots. As for seed starting, I used to buy the Ferry-Morse 72-cell trays but I haven't been able to find those, but recently I was at Big Lots and they had 72-cell seed starting trays for a ridiculously low price. I bought three!

As for cleaning, I put all these pots in the shower, mix up 10% bleach in a spray bottle, hit everything, wait a few minutes, then rinse everything really well. Then I just wait til they are reasonably dry and put everything away. One could also lay out some old towels and then arrange the trays and pots upside down on the towels until they are completely dry.

After 5 years, I think I've thrown away maybe 2 4" pots. If well cared for, these seed starting materials last forever.

[rainbowgardener]

Yup, I keep mine forever, or at least as many as I can get back from the customers who buy them (sell my plants as a fund raiser at my church). I do the washing as an outdoor task. Fill up a deep garden cart with water with some bleach and soap. Throw them in there to soak a few minutes, swish them around, then put them in a rinse water bucket, then sun dry.





(that's my 2000 Honda Civic with just about 200,000 miles on it. Makes a great platform for the sun drying.)

We do have a shed for storing some of the big stuff, large pots, bags of stuff, etc and the lawn mower and wood chipper in the off season. Not a ton of room in there, because it is also the garage for Jamie's motorcycle and motorcycle trailer. Outside the basement door, there's a covered wall that has a big pegboard with hooks to hang shovel, rake, hoe, etc. On the other side from the pegboard is a long potting table with under the table storage. (I should get a picture sometime).

[rainbowgardener]

This is a little more recent picture of the seed starting operation, shows how the upper tier of lights got filled in. This is early in the seed starting season, as you can tell by how small the plants are. Later on the two shelves are crammed full. This pic doesn't show the top storage shelf over the second tier of lights.



I replaced about half of the bulbs this year, because some one gave me new ones as freebies. Otherwise I never replace them. The old ones are still sitting around waiting for me to find a place to recycle them.