I was just going to give them away to friends, but I think I need more friends (or fewer seedlings).

I have seen "Unattended children will be given caffeine and a small puppy"

The trouble with styrofoam cups is that they fall over so easily - seems like there's no kind of tray that will keep them upright when you move them around. We bought a case of round 2x2 inch peat pots, and they are hard to handle too -keep falling over everytime you even slide the tray! The aren't cylindrical, but tapered, and that makes them unstable. Very irritating! :-)

20 years ago a nursery in our town went out of business and the lady gave me a large amount of regular square, six-cell, commercial plant containers - brand new and nested. I used them for years and years until I ran-out a couple years ago. Most plastic trays are made to accomodate those. The new ones now are made of lighter plastic and difficult to reuse, no matter how careful you are.

Jack

That's a good point. Those soup containers looked better re. tippiness - I'll have to see what I find for what price.

It seems like I'll be attempting to sell a few hundred extra plants unfortunately.

A local business had wanted to buy plants from me but now they are no longer in communication. I suppose I'll be getting a sign made for "Hairlume materz 4 sell"

[quote=JackE;204245]The trouble with styrofoam cups is that they fall over so easily - seems like there's no kind of tray that will keep them upright when you move them around. We bought a case of round 2x2 inch peat pots, and they are hard to handle too -keep falling over everytime you even slide the tray! The aren't cylindrical, but tapered, and that makes them unstable. Very irritating! :-)

20 years ago a nursery in our town went out of business and the lady gave me a large amount of regular square, six-cell, commercial plant containers - brand new and nested. I used them for years and years until I ran-out a couple years ago. Most plastic trays are made to accomodate those. The new ones now are made of lighter plastic and difficult to reuse, no matter how careful you are.

Jack[/quote]

Have you looked at the square pots sold at novosel? Verys nice pots I am happy with my purchases (note no direct involvement with this company just a satisfied customer)

[URL]http://www.novoselenterprises.com[/URL]

These 18-cell tall inserts are big enough and less expensive
than individual 3" or 4" pots:
[url]http://www.novoselenterprises.com/products/single.asp?ID=593160[/url]

They are made of a very thin vacuum-formed plastic, and picking up the whole insert full of potting mix and seedlings
without a web flat under it is precarious at best. The plastic
is thin enough that they are easily cut into individual pots,
strips of three, 6-packs, or 9-packs with scissors. Like Jack said,
reusing them always has some attrition, because they are so
thin. They develop splits up the sides, etc. If you are selling plants
in them, though, they are a lot cheaper per plant than individual
pots.

Those old ones were pretty heavy gauge and quite durable. It's just like everything else. Everything keeps getting lighter and crummier - not too mention getting 12 ozs in a pound coffee can or 28.5 ozs in a quart jar of spaghetti sauce - Man. that irritates me! Go ahead and raise the price if necessary, but don't try to cheat me all the time!! I noticed the cans of tuna are smaller now too. Oh well, I better get off that stuff. :-)

Jack

Those look like a great idea Dice, if I do end up selling some, those certainly have the right price. Thank you.

Their web flats are not much to brag about (I have a 10-year
old one that came with a bunch of annuals from a store that
is at least twice as sturdy), and shipping will add $10 or more
to an order, but it would most places that one can find items
like that online.

When cut into single pots, they are wide enough at the bottom
to stay upright more easily than styrofoam coffee cups or
plastic beer cups.

WHOA!!! They were cheaper at the local Farm & Garden store... and that's before even adding in the shipping!!! If you haven't checked locally, I'd highly recommend pulling out the old Yellow Pages and making some phone calls! If no one sells them, a nursery might be willing to order a few extras for you! Also, I was at Lowe's the other day and they had a stack of used ones... I asked if they knew where to buy them and they said they did not, but that until this year they had given them away to any interested customers. This year they started "recycling" them and returning them to the company so they weren't sure if they could still give them away or not.

Well with $10 for shipping the price got worse, true. I will have a look around.

I purchased a bunch of stuff from Novosel, but wish I hadn't - not that they were bad, but I found out I could buy the same thing locally for less with no shipping.

[quote=shlacm;204561]WHOA!!! They were cheaper at the local Farm & Garden store... and that's before even adding in the shipping!!! If you haven't checked locally, I'd highly recommend pulling out the old Yellow Pages and making some phone calls! If no one sells them, a nursery might be willing to order a few extras for you! Also, I was at Lowe's the other day and they had a stack of used ones... I asked if they knew where to buy them and they said they did not, but that until this year they had given them away to any interested customers. This year they started "recycling" them and returning them to the company so they weren't sure if they could still give them away or not.[/quote]

The Lowes stores around here are giving them away to the customers still. They see it as recycling whether they send them back or give them to customers. I've been grabbing the ones that hold 8 5inch pots at a time. As well as a few smaller ones.

For individual pots I get the kord pots from greenhouse megastore. They are very durable, I can reuse them year after year, their carrying trays are fairly sturdy if you need to move lots of them around like i do and I also reuse those although they are less durable than the pots. The 4 inch pots run about 10cents each before shipping. I buy their black pots for the 3inch size which are even cheaper and I think a large box is 1000 if I remember correctly although they also sell "Hobby" amounts. I have used jiffy peat pots, yougurt or drinking cups, even empty milk containers or jugs for plants before but the pots are worth it as customers generally dont like the dirt/possible dampness of the peat, or the tippiness of the cups when they are transporting plants home. I do make sure they know that if they want to recycle they are welcome to return their empty pots to me along with empty pots from any other plants they might have. A lot actually get returned to me this way along with a few extras. I also like the 4 inch plant labels that they sell. They are all attached, 1000 on a long roll, a genius move I think as otherwise, at least at my house, I end up with loose labels everywhere. I don't grow specifically for sale, just usually have lots of extras, and having decent pots seems to sell more in my experience.

Well, I have researched it and as I am unincorporated, my county does not require a permit for garage sales.

So I'm thinking, there's nothing special about selling plants out of one's garage right? Anyone think of any common county regulations or anything that I might run afoul of?

I'm thinking of just putting some signs at the end of the street (which is a busy road) and seeing what happens. I should have lots of extra tomatoes, basil, and Bright Lights chard. And probably a few peppers.