What do you do with old nursery pots?

[Gin]

Royal .. I toss them in the old duck house and hope they go away , Some I clean and keep . .... hi --oo cluck cluck

[RosieC]

Originally Posted by RoyalOrchids

I'm building a to-scale replica of Eiffel tower. When I'm done I'll plant an orchid in each one, slap in on a trailer, and haul it down to the judging center.

AAAhhhh!!!! Here comes POT-ZILLA!!!

That would be a sight

[dounoharm]

like most other folks, i wash em with a bleach mixture and stockpile em for future use....i use em for whatever, more orchids, tomato seedlings, houseplants, whatever comes down the pike.....

[WhiteRabbit]

pot up a bunch of tomato seedlings
(last weekend it was a bunch of basil seedlings - marinara anyone?)

[peeweelovesbooks]

I depends. Most of the stuff that I buy comes in dark pots...I only use clear pots. So I trash those that came with the plants.

If I am repotting something, I usually have to cut the pot to avoid damaging roots. If that happens, I toss the pot. If it looks to be re-usable, I clean and store it away for future use. I'm not at a point where I have orchids to give away or other stuff growing.

[natasha]

i am still thinking what to do with my 3 ft stack of old pots... i want to paint them, but now its quite rainy... furthermore, it seems i'm out of space to use. but'm i'm still keeping!

[Brenda Aarts]

I'm with Royal, building an Eiffel tower or 2!!! Not sure why, but I can not bring myself to throw out or give away....just in case I one day need 4000 different sized, different coloured pots! I think it's part of the whole orchid craze, you have to have a cabinet or 2 overflowing with pots, potting medium, sprayers, spray....etc...etc...

[sucuz]

Natasha,

Couple of choices to painting your pots. Acrylic paints work well on plastic, terra cotta, or ceramic pots. You can get as creative as your heart's content. Regular cans of spray paint work also. You can put down a base coat, then free spray patterns over it or use stencil cutouts. Lightly spraying layers of different colors so that the background colors show through looks cool also.

If you are painting over terra cotta, just be sure that the pot is completely dry before painting. If there is any moisture, your paint will bubble and peel off in only a short time.

Have fun and send pics of your results for us to enjoy.

[Cookiemonster]

I do a bleach water soak for my plastic pots- make sure they are clean and I can reuse.

If the plant was sick or funky i toss it with the pot, no point in trying to reuse.
If they're clay pots I toss em, too much work to sterilize

[natasha]

Originally Posted by Brenda Aarts

I'm with Royal, building an Eiffel tower or 2!!! Not sure why, but I can not bring myself to throw out or give away....just in case I one day need 4000 different sized, different coloured pots! I think it's part of the whole orchid craze, you have to have a cabinet or 2 overflowing with pots, potting medium, sprayers, spray....etc...etc...

hmmm... true true... but i don't have 4000, 100+ maybe. we have a small file cabinet outdoors, which my hubby bring from his workplace - they're replacing office furniture. he told me he want to put the car supplies - lube oil, shampoo etc. then what he saw is it become full of my collection of pots conquering most of space! that's only part of the eiffel tower anyway!