Container Question

No worry I had planed to make better markers, that was just so I wouldn't get my jugs mixed up will I was planting them, they are marked with #'s on the bottom to go with my chart.
Thanks for making sure I did it right, read all the treads, made notes on all the Boo Boos, first time doing this never knew about it before, musta had my head in the sand somewhere along the way.
Tills

Lorraine,

last year i used the "sticks" too and while mine did not fade, because i used the paint pen... but this sticks rotted due ot being wet all the time.

I may go the 'yogurt cup' route like Suzy .. or I'll have to find the "mini blinds" as others use.

I use cut up yogurt cups, too. I eat a cup of yogurt every day, so I have an endless supply. Those I made @ this time last year are still intact in the ground, legibly written with paint pens. Haven't faded yet.

Only a few markers broke as I moved and transplanted things in fall.

Karen

Karen... roughly how many 'strips' do you get per cup?

I get about 5 markers per cup. I make them triangular, fairly large, so I can fit a lot of writing on one if I want to. I expect that after winter some will be pretty brittle and need to be replaced, but they will have lasted over a year.

Karen

I found my free blinds at the box store (HD or Lowes), where they cut blinds to size. There is a box that catches the cut off pieces. I take a few rubber bands with me and bundle them up, and off I go. I like the larger pieces, too, as I write big and can see them now.

cathy -- they just give them too you???

yes, they are just going to throw them away. I asked the first time, now I just help myself.

I get about 14 strips per cup, and the yogurt I buy comes in a vinyl #5 plastic like that fake butter and cottage cheese. Vinyl is what they make house siding out of, also the most expensive of the plant tags are made from vinyl, so it would be good all year and for many years. (Sorry just a plug for reusing plastic containers here...I am NOT opposed to blinds, just that cups are a ready supply and stack until I can get them cut up. They also double as a vessel for pens, paperclips and assorted other sundry items that makes this house such a mess at seed time (which means 365 days a year apparently since seed time is ALL the time anymore LOL!)

See, I keep telling you I have no imagination. I have old blinds still laying around because I replaced them and I still have some I haven't thrown away.!! I could have been using them and I have the paint pens because I use them in my scrapbooks!!
I can't believe ya'll come up with these great ideas. I'm going to be really proud this year, but I'm going to tell everyone I thought of all of it myself. Heh, heh.
I just hope people I know don't go to this site, then I'll be found out.
Oh, I forgot, about the 16 oz styrofoam cups. Shoud I cut the tall ones so they are a little shorter. I have some that are 3 1? X 31/2 and 4 inches on top. I know they will work, but I wondered abou the taller ones.

Here are my containers. I think my excel spreadsheet says I am up to like 25 containers, and counting.

rebecca30

This message was edited Feb 4, 2008 3:29 PM

Majorly cool rebecca

I found some strawberry containers. They are great, wish I had more. Already has the ventilation

Don't forget to mark your containers on the lower half and bottom with either the name or reference number. If you label your container on the top half, by the time you are ready to plant out in your garden, that part of the container will have been cut away to allow the plant to grow and so that it doesn't get baked.

good point Shirley - I mark both the top and lower half. The top makes it easier when tracking before the tops come off.

That was a hard lesson learned last year for me. It needs repeating often. So easy to forget the reasoning for writing on the bottom, for which only writing on the top will surely cause extra work later. I now do both too. Easy to see my RID numbers being on the top while the containers are all huddled together, then as sprouts appear and the weather warms, it's nice to have already marked the lower portion when the tops have been cut away.

Since this is only my second REAL year of winter sowing (last year I started in March- doesn't count,) I have been brainstorming for months of what to do. I have ended up using 16 oz styrafoam cups in containers of plastic or cardboard boxes cut down. I plan to use wooden shims to hold up the group covers I am going to use.

I found two group covers (covering several contains packed with 16 oz cups of seeds;) they are translucent, thin tall kitchen garbage can bags and transparent leaf bags. I will place the containers in them, put holes in the tops and have them elevated by shims stuck in a couple of the cups under each cover. I am so excited about this year's WS because I just moved to a new place with a lot of room. Also, I have googled "perennials that bloom the first year,) and have put up my light stand to grow those inside so that I can have new perennials blooming in Summer 2008. This is all experimental so I don't know what the results will be.

My eastern side is a side that is very viewable to my neighbors and the front of my home. This year, I invested in two very large plastic bins with a clear lids. I am going to use the bottoms of my gal milk jugs, but will group them all within the bins. I will be using my drill to put a lot of holes in the top and bottom of the bin. It will be a little neater than it was last year. I can use whatever in the back, but it doesn't get the right amount of sun.

About the mini-blinds...last year, I was driving home along main street, and someone had out at the curb...much to my amazement...but two old mini-blinds for the trash! I grabbed them so fast! but my teenage son was with me and complained all the way home! But I washed them, cut them all apart from the strings, and store them in a 4" PVC pipe about 18 inches long with a cap on the end. I drilled a few holes in the pipe and screwed it into my garage wall...now I have a major supply of mini-blinds within reach at all times.

Now,I have to buy a paint pen...I am another that has learned that a "permanent marker" is not permanent in WS...I had seedlings without names, too. I think the price of a paint pen is worth every penny...we are all living and learning.
RatherB

the paint pens last a long time too. It is definitely money well invested.