Where do you buy nursery pots?
- Thread starter snarfing
- Start date
superdave336
Well-known member
I do 5 gallon buckets too. Cheaper than nursery pots.
ETXfigs
Well-known member
Go to local nurseries and see if they have used nursery pots for sale. I found a mountain of nursery pots stacked up behind the green houses of all sizes. People don't know they are there because they are around back. I asked if they sell them and I have been buying them for $0.25 a gallon ever since. There are other members here that also buy used nursery pots for cheap.
SnoopyFiggy
Member
A lot of people like the injection molded nursery pots. You can find them at Greenhouse Megastore and local and online "grow stores" like HydroPros
TorontoJoe
Administrator
I used to use buckets a lot but found by second season they’d be disintegrating from the sun. I do hate paying for nursery pots though. I’ve become quite good at getting them for free.
1) garden centres - they often have customers return them after planting. They often just have a pile of them sitting outside to be disposed of. They generally give them away for free. I get a decent number of 5-10 gal pots and lots of smaller ones. I have a lifetime supply of those nesting seedling trays for propagating my veggies
2) Private landscaping companies. They do a job… they have to dispose of the containers. Keep your eyes open when you’re driving around.
3) Municipal / institutional landscaping and gardening. I have maybe 500 really nice, blue 1 gal injection molded containers that were getting tossed when they redid a garden at a local park. Boulevards, parkways…. Always doing this stuff when seasonal. Keep your eyes open.
Not only are they free but you help by keeping them out of landfills
1) garden centres - they often have customers return them after planting. They often just have a pile of them sitting outside to be disposed of. They generally give them away for free. I get a decent number of 5-10 gal pots and lots of smaller ones. I have a lifetime supply of those nesting seedling trays for propagating my veggies
2) Private landscaping companies. They do a job… they have to dispose of the containers. Keep your eyes open when you’re driving around.
3) Municipal / institutional landscaping and gardening. I have maybe 500 really nice, blue 1 gal injection molded containers that were getting tossed when they redid a garden at a local park. Boulevards, parkways…. Always doing this stuff when seasonal. Keep your eyes open.
Not only are they free but you help by keeping them out of landfills
Inflorescence
Well-known member
I go from 4x9 to 7 gallon right away, I’ve not found a downside to that. There could be a potential one when going really large in that it may be harder to regulate the water for a while, but it’s been a non-issue for me.
Kompakfigs
Well-known member
facebook marketplace.
TorontoJoe
Administrator
This one reminded me.... See if there's a Freecycle.org or Trashnothing.com in your area. You can register to get notified when certain types of items are posted.
Also Craigslist in the free section.
SlowRiver
Active member
I wonder if we use the same pot guy if you are in western nc. He is in Marion and calls himself the biggest pot dealer on the east coast lol. I’m in Burke county
Opiem10
Well-known member
I up pot from 4 x 9 tree pots to 5 gallon buckets. After a year, those 5 gallon trees go into 20 gallon Cal Pro pots that I pick up at Hydro Pros every time I visit my son in Michigan.
DCallahan
Well-known member
I go from the 4x9 , 1 gallon, 5x12, or whatever the rooting pot was straight to a 7 gallon trash can.
I got a bunch really cheap, a while back but I've come to really love the tall profile. I can get my trees to root throughout the entire soil mass, I can uppot from the 7 t/c to a 15 nursery pot in the first year without busting any roots, the tall 7 gives me the same height as the 15 nursery.
Also the 7 TC stacks so well for winter storage.
Landscape contractors are a great source of the larger nursery tree pots.
I got 200 15 gallon pots for $150 last Fall from a local contractor working down the street from my house.
I got a bunch really cheap, a while back but I've come to really love the tall profile. I can get my trees to root throughout the entire soil mass, I can uppot from the 7 t/c to a 15 nursery pot in the first year without busting any roots, the tall 7 gives me the same height as the 15 nursery.
Also the 7 TC stacks so well for winter storage.
Landscape contractors are a great source of the larger nursery tree pots.
I got 200 15 gallon pots for $150 last Fall from a local contractor working down the street from my house.
Dbox
Well-known member
I will take the rooted cutting (3x8 or 4x9 or 1 gallon whatever size) and go straight to 5 gallon painters buckets (7.5 gal nursery trade pot equivalent).
These have done well. Thus far and I anticipate keeping most of my trees in these for a year or two.
I have taken a good number straight to 10,15, 25 gallon injection molded pots. But like mentioned earlier. You have to be extra mindful of watering the root ball and not soaking an entire 25 gallon pot.
These have done well. Thus far and I anticipate keeping most of my trees in these for a year or two.
I have taken a good number straight to 10,15, 25 gallon injection molded pots. But like mentioned earlier. You have to be extra mindful of watering the root ball and not soaking an entire 25 gallon pot.
TorontoJoe
Administrator
$0.75 a piece for 15-gal!?!? That's a score!
Now.... If you can just fill them for that price
TorontoJoe
Administrator
Kompakfigs
Well-known member
He is probably the same person and has a landscaping company in Black Mountain. Great fella. I got (10) 15 gal nursery pots for cheap, maybe $30. It is an hour drive from Hendersonville to Marion but you're closer. I will be looking for 7 gal nursery pots for next year.
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SlowRiver
Active member
Nice!
