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Garden centre use of plastics

Kjkitch59Kjkitch59 Posts: 1
in Tools and techniques
Hi, 
New to this forum, so hope my message is appropriate. Following on from your great article on the Gardeners world TV  about black plastic pots being used in garden centres in the UK. 
I have just visited Canada where I have seen trees for sale in fibre pots. Thought I would send this picture from a garden centre in Kelowna Canada

Posts

  • Big Blue SkyBig Blue Sky Posts: 716
    edited April 2019
    I don’t think these trees being probably 2-3 years old were actually grown in those fibre pots. Looks like they were taken out of plastic pots and stuck into the fibre short before they were delivered to the garden center. The pots look so clean, dry, new and tidy - nothing like the coconut fibre pots I ever purchased plants in, especially if they were not seedlings but grown plants. 
    Seems to be a marketing trick, riding the wave of the current antiplastic campaign and guilting customers into paying more for allegedly plastic free gardening. Hopefully I’m wrong as I too think that we overuse plastic, particularly in packaging. 

    Surrey
  • wild edgeswild edges Posts: 10,497
    Maybe the tree nursery reuse their plastic pots though and these are just for planting. Shame though as plastic tree pots are usually about the best pots you can get, especially the ones with the handles.
    If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
  • LoxleyLoxley Posts: 5,698
    The plastic waste generated by the horticultural trade is depressing; the simplest thing would be to reuse the pots... currently I think it's cheaper to buy new than sterilize the old ones...
    "What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbour". 
  • KT53KT53 Posts: 9,016
    Anything which reduces the amount of plastic in circulation needs to be applauded.  I agree that the trees can not have been grown in that type of pot as it would rot away in 12 months or less.  I don't think transferring trees into that type of pot is a con in any way as the nursery will be able to reuse the original pots.
  • cornellycornelly Posts: 970
    I don't sterilize but do wash pots as emptied, and reuse, always have and always will.
  • LynLyn Posts: 23,190
    Ive never washed a pot or a seed tray.
    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

  • Hostafan1Hostafan1 Posts: 34,889
    Lyn said:
    Ive never washed a pot or a seed tray.
    nor me, nor have I ever sterilised my secateurs or tools
    Devon.
  • LynLyn Posts: 23,190
    That neither!  Although I do sharpen them on a grind stone occasionally, and spray with WD40. 
    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

  • Busy-LizzieBusy-Lizzie Posts: 24,043
    I never wash pots either and I reuse them until they fall apart, years later.
    Dordogne and Norfolk. Clay in Dordogne, sandy in Norfolk.
  • Hostafan1Hostafan1 Posts: 34,889
    I've got 9cm square pots which I collected after a massive planting job in 2000 . They, and the trays to hold them are, mostly, still going strong.
    Devon.
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