- by Grey County Master Gardeners

In spring I’m always confronted with the same issue. What to do with those plastic plant pots piled up in the far corner of my garage. I have a lot! But increasingly I’m finding that with some prior planning I’m really making good use of them.

As you are no doubt aware, certain types of plastic cannot easily be recycled by our municipalities. Firstly, if you want to recycle your plastic pots, check your recycling literature to see which plastics your municipality will accept. They are constantly researching new methods for increasing the types of plastics they can accept. Also, reputable growers are experimenting with growing plants in different coloured plastics, and the more environmentally forward native plant nurseries are moving away from traditional plastics altogether. Bravo!

So, back to my pots. I’ve been growing and planting for twenty years. I have pots that are at least half as old as that. If I recycle them, I’m adding to the plastic issue and so I reuse them wherever possible. My goal is to minimize the number of pots I throw into the garbage each year.

Firstly, I wash them in hot soapy water. You can choose to use a 10% diluted bleach solution or whatever you want, but you are aiming to rid them of soil borne pathogens that could cross- contaminate and infect your plant propagation efforts.

Indoors, I use many different sized pots as plant liners to put into favourite crockery or wicker decorative pots. After I have repotted my orchid, or my ZZ plant it’s fun to match it with a different pot.

Outdoors is where my many pots come into their own. As a vegetable grower, I have been sowing my choice vegetables for weeks, and now it’s time to pot them on – into my collection of 4” pots. During the last week 70 tomato, pepper and basil seedlings were potted on into their new homes.

I also place the bulbs and corms which were dug up in the fall in small pots to come out of hibernation, while waiting for their time to go back into the garden.

Larger 10” pots that have had their bases removed are used in a different way. I pot my tomato plants into those when they are pushed a couple of inches into the veg bed. In this pot I will add a high percentage compost mix and a granular chicken fertilizer. This tomato collar not only provides a great start for the plants, but also allows me to artificially raise the level of the soil around the tomatoes which provides extra growing space and moisture.

I do something similar with my fig plant. Steven Biggs, in his book ‘Grow Figs Where You Think You Can’t.’ advises us to bury the entire fig pot into the ground in the spring so the fig roots can extend and search for nutrients and water during the summer. To make this easier, I dug a bottomless pot into the ground a few years ago and place my fig in there each spring.
Dare I say it – cool springs mean frost warnings! I use assorted pot sizes to place over plants if a cool night is forecast. It easily provides just enough coverage to protect my early lettuce and tender perennials which means I can get them into the ground sooner.

Where I do my potting and growing, whether inside the garage, on the deck, or in the garden, I find that plastic pots have myriad uses:
• I always start the season with too many packets of seeds and bulbs. Pots provide a handy vessel for sorting the seed packets into categories and for separating bulbs
• When I am potting on, a small pot is a useful scoop in which I can also jiggle the soil which loosens as it flows around my delicate seedlings – unlike a trowel!
• Placing pots on top of bamboo sticks and draping these with critter guard netting provides safety for my eyes as I am working in the garden.
• Mulching time! I’m not so dexterous with a wheelbarrow and I fear running over my burgeoning perennials. So now I pile mulch at regular intervals in front of flower beds and use my larger pots to transport the mulch to its final destination.

While I look forward to the removal of plastic from our gardening industry and practices, until this time, I intend to make sure every pot earns its place in my collection.

Side note: As a side note, check out this link about a recent announcement about a partnership between Loblaws and Loop which shows just how our food manufacturers and packaging companies are trying to also tackle the problem. https://www.loblaw.ca/en/loop-launches-in-canada-with-founding-retail-partner-loblaw/