Cut up milk carton plant labels

I don't remember whose idea this was, but I want to thank whoever it was. I've been having to repot lots of seedlings from flats, and cutting up plastic milk cartons to use as labels has worked great - easy, saves money and less to recycle.

If you buy a cheap, vinyl mini-blind--or remove the extra slats from one you have--and you can cut up each slat and get at least 10 labels out of it....For small containers--like cell packs (when growing seeds), I even cut the labels in half lengthwise. It is enough to write something on....

I know a lot of people use these.....Gita

Thanks Gita. I've heard a lot of people talk about using the vinyl mini-blinds, but I do wonder if they contain lead. I also particularly like the plastic milk jug idea, as I buy a lot of milk, so I have them around anyway and I like that I can recycle them for a useful purpose.

I've been using the mini-blinds with no ill-effects of the plant - or are you afraid that lead would get into the plant? Is this something you have heard about?

As most mini blinds are now made of vinyl--why is there a fear of lead?????

I know it has been years that blinds were made of metal--but not any more......

I think it's those cheap plastic ones that might have lead in them. Remember the scare about lead in children's toys from China? not to mention melamine in pet food....

Well, I googled it and came up with a number of references. As the plants I'm using them in are vegetable plants that I sell, I don't think I want to take the chance. They're history.

Shoot - they worked so well, too.

Sorry, Pagancat. Just reporting what I heard. I don't know if it's true. I think they make cheap home lead test kits now. You might want to see if you can find one at Home Depot or Lowes and test them yourself.

This makes me very nervous because I have vinyl vertical blinds and my kids are always touching them! I need to make sure the ones I have are lead free. :(

Meredith, I wouldn't worry unless your kids are chewing on them or putting them in their mouth. I do think this lead business has gone a bit overboard.

I have a 1 year old so she does put things in her mouth that don't belong in there. They have actually played with my long ones on my slider so much that it only has about half the blades left. Of course I don't want them to, and I scold them, but they still manage. A piece they pulled off just yesterday ended up split in two. When I first saw the info about lead in blinds - I never gave it a second thought - thinking lead would only be in metal ones. Oh no!!

Well we don't know for sure. Do you know the brand name or where they were made? Maybe you can find out - or test them.

No apology necessary, perenniallyme! Even though the chances of a plant being able to get lead out of the soil (it probably occurs in some percentage, naturally) are pretty slim, I prefer to err on the side of safety. Thanks for the heads up!

Paint containing lead have not been sold to the public for many years. So why on earth would any store carry blinds that contains lead. This sounds like a scare tactic to me. Blinds are made out of vinyl and there would be no good reason to add lead to it.

Those were my thoughts too--but I did not Post...Geez! They are vinyl!

The OLDER blinds were metal--but that is also ages ago!

Gita

That's exactly why I didn't think they'd be a problem.