Plastic-free propagation?

[ragamala]

I'm still using the same pots I had over 30 years ago.

Me too. The good quality plastic ones, at least. The frailer type tend to disintegrate. My BEF pots have weathered well over the years, 3 or 4 decades. Sturdy seed trays also tend to last many years, and this is something you can't find an equivalent for in terracotta.

Terracotta has other disadvantages, even if most environmentally responsible. But I see no reason why small terracotta pots should not be suitable for seed sowing via the "baggie" method, at least, but not otherwise.

Looking at the books on cultivation from some 50 years ago or more, the seed sowing recommendations utilise hardwood containers similar in size to current day plastic full seed trays. I guess these are impossible to come by these days, but you could make them.

[Geri88]

Looking at the books on cultivation from some 50 years ago or more, the seed sowing recommendations utilise hardwood containers similar in size to current day plastic full seed trays. I guess these are impossible to come by these days, but you could make them.

Very interesting, thank you! It would never have crossed my mind.

[Cidermanrolls]

Concerns on plastic use are well meant but very frequently reactions have been misinformed. See, for example, the report on the bbc website at the moment relating to plastic packaging. The report points out how the move from plastic to glass, paper etc has a greater environmental impact in some cases.
The question on containers for seed raising is interesting, but the suggested move to terracotta is not likely to be beneficial in the round. Don’t forget, clay is dug from the ground. Clay is much heavier than plastic, so carries a significantly higher carbon footprint in transport. Whilst clay pots might be air dried before firing, they consume more energy in the firing process than plastic pots consume in the production process. Plastic pots are also really easy to clean, so they have a lower environmental impact during usage than do the harder to clean terracotta.
And not least, a good quality plastic pot will last for decades. As others have said, I am still using BEF pots that are 30 to 40 years old, with frequent change of occupant.
As a way to reduce impact, why not collect suitable containers through the year and use those instead of throwing them? The plastic trays mushrooms come in are great. Some other food packaging could also be used.
As for the old days, my grandfather and I both used wooden seed trays, which were fine for veg seeds. But for cactus seed that stays in situ for months or years the moss/fungi would be a real problem. And don’t forget, the manufacture and transport of wooden trays has an environmental impact! Plastic pots and seed trays stack beautifully. You can ship thousands in a small container. Wooden trays, at least those we used in the past, are incredibly space hungry in shipping as they are thicker and do not stack inside each other.

[BrianMc]

... a good quality plastic pot will last for decades.

A well cared for terracotta pot will last for Millenia as Roman potters and their predecessors will testify

[ragamala]

Concerns on plastic use are well meant but very frequently reactions have been misinformed. See, for example, the report on the bbc website at the moment relating to plastic packaging. The report points out how the move from plastic to glass, paper etc has a greater environmental impact in some cases.

I assume you meant the article dated 9th Jan by Roger Harrabin. Putting aside the comment that a BBC journalist's report is not necessarily a reliable resouurce, to my reading the article does NOT say that moves away from plastic have a negative impact. What the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee said in September 2019 was that the impacts of alternatives were not yet properly assessed, which is a very different thing. The jury is not only still out, but the case has not been tried yet. Sadly I believe our government will have far too much on its plate to commission the research needed and resolve this.

The conclusion of their report said

"All food and drink packaging, whether plastic or another material, has an environmental impact. There is a lot of emphasis on plastic waste and pollution, but other impacts such as carbon emissions must also be considered when determining which materials are most suitable for particular applications. In some cases, plastic may be the most suitable material, if waste is properly managed. A lifecycle approach is necessary to ensure that when producers and retailers are considering packaging materials, they are informed about the wider environmental impacts."

https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/c ... 208009.htm

The committee also felt that the public had little good information on which to base their choices, and manufacturer information on packaging was often misleading, but they said that government also, which should take a lead, had little information -

"In order to make evidence-based policies and assess their impact, the Government needs access to reliable data. It is shocking that it does not know how much plastic packaging is placed on market in the UK, nor how much is really recycled."

The EU directive on single use plastic, largely driven by public reaction to the marine litter issues, will only come in July 2021.

https://www.lexology.com/library/detail ... e8e3e07182

So in the absence of sound UK government policy, my only conclusion is that we must fall back on each of us having our own attitudes and usage, and not be critical of others who make different choices. As the Committee suggested, ALL our activities involve environmental consequences. Clearly manufacturers will do as they please, following their commercial interest. What is needed is not just to throw our hands up in horror and to give up, but in addition to making our own judgement, pressing for a political solution.

As a way to reduce impact, why not collect suitable containers through the year and use those instead of throwing them? The plastic trays mushrooms come in are great. Some other food packaging could also be used.

The intent seems to be, and ought to be, to remove the employment of single use plastic in packaging, so I would prefer to go back to the idea of utilising hard-wearing, long-lasting plastic pots. We seem to agree these can last a growing lifetime.

[el48tel]

I think we forget that we've been "programmed" to respond in a particular way and as a result an initial minor change results in societal change. As an example, in some parts of the UK the morning doorstep delivery has disappeared. From the dairy to the doorstep, some trades e.g. the milkman, and the ancillary trades like the bottle manufacturer, and then the people who relied on them for trades like the electric float manufacturer ..... are no more. "PLASTIC IS BETTER / CHEAPER / MORE HYGIENIC" delete as appropriate. Now we are being encouraged to think differently and to perhaps pay a deposit on bottles which can be re-used, for example, alcoholic drinks. Now there's a novel idea! Some European countries never left that tradition; we did and we're paying for it in a different way .... we cannot reprocess polymeric packaging easily, economically and effectively .... hence the different regulations even in adjoining local authorities. Add to this the diktat from a marketing whizz to get you buy their latest moneymaking idea ..... and we are forced to go down one road .... until the next idea (which was poorly thought through and legislatively manipulated). Plants were "designed" to grow in the ground ... it is us that are in the wrong by wanting Mexican plants to grow in Mexborough. You pays your money now, and you takes your chance later. The plants will survive / die ..... and legislation will ban plastic / pot (delete as appropriate).

[ragamala]

As for the old days, my grandfather and I both used wooden seed trays, which were fine for veg seeds. But for cactus seed that stays in situ for months or years the moss/fungi would be a real problem.

I see I was wrong to suggest that wooden seed trays were hard to come by, they aren't really, but do come at a price.

Franz Buxbaum, in his 1950s Cactus Culture (Based on Biology) book does echo your concerns about wooden seedtrays, calling them the least suitable on account of the danger of fungal attack. If used he recommends sterilisation by copper sulphate solution. It's always interesting, to me at least, to see what the old hands suggested. Buxbaum recommended square earthenware pans about 5-6 cm deep. After careful cleaning he also used square pickled herring tins!

Buxbaum's contemporary Marsden describes a somewhat complicated wooden tray system, without referring to the fungus problem, although he does suggest softwood (pine) as being preferable for an inner frame as hardwoods have more water-soluble tannins, to which some seeds he claims are sensitive. Schwantes simply says "small flower pots", by which I assume he refers to clay pots.

Jacobsen, a couple of decades earlier, in his book The Cultivation of Succulents, again refers to small pots without being specific, but does recommend these sitting in water until at least germination. Professor J Borg also refers to use of pans or shallow pots.

Personally I will stick to the sturdy plastic trays that have served me for years. Being long-lasting, easy to clean/sterilise, and whatever damage I did to the environment by buying them in the first place is by now water under the bridge. If I were starting from scratch I don't honestly know what I'd do. The only thing I would avoid are the cheap thin plastic seed trays.

[el48tel]

Ragamala is quite right when he says, "....whatever damage I did to the environment by buying them in the first place is by now water under the bridge."
We forget that we are in this environmental mess because of "financial markets", not because of the consumer who was sucked into believing what was told at the time.
Please do not ask me to name names because I'm not sure about the patent and legal status of the next bit.
In the late 70s and early 80s a dear friend of mine worked with a UK University and a large Metropolitan Authority on a revolutionary waste reprocessing scheme. It used a similar technology to that employed by the Germans in the 30s to turn coal into synthetic crude oil. (Remember that when you are next told that we are running out of oil and yet sitting on millions of tonnes of coal without a mining industry.) Once the non-process materials like glass and metals were removed the process turned any carbon based material into crude oil which could be used to fuel homes and industry and re-make plastics etc. The size of the operation was important ... big was best and along came a business partner with the plant and technology. The Metro still ships its garbage out to the boundary with the next authority and then onto dedicated trains to another part of the country for landfill. So transport links was not and still is not an issue. The issue was that the petroleum company wanted to protect its interests in the North Sea protecting a lot of jobs and its new interest in Solar and wind technologies. The project was bought and filed ... dead! No MP in their right mind with an oil refinery based constituency would argue against that; and eminent board members have become eminent Peers. My friend died early and so the project is lost.
The main issues are the will of the electorate and greasiness of the palms of others. British science, technology and innovation is the best in the world .... no such thing as "can't be done".

[Chez2]

When I was a young child back in the late 60s and 70s I remember dad and granddad using wooden seed trays, you can still buy them.

For our other plants we now sow in compressed pellets of growing medium to save pricking out. We do still use plastic as well as terracotta plant pots. You can get various presses to make your own pellets to suit what you are growing.

[el48tel]

When I was a young child back in the late 60s and 70s I remember dad and granddad using wooden seed trays, you can still buy them.

For our other plants we now sow in compressed pellets of growing medium to save pricking out. We do still use plastic as well as terracotta plant pots. You can get various presses to make your own pellets to suit what you are growing.

My granddad used to up-cycle old fruit boxes obtained from the travelling greengrocer who was only to pleased to be rid of them before the end of his journey