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Old February 12, 2013   #6
Hotwired
Tomatovillian™
 
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Join Date: Nov 2012
Location: Ithaca, NY - USDA 5b
Posts: 241
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I go to a restaurant supply house and buy 20-oz. colored cups at $2.20/hundred. They also carry 1-quart carryout containers in clear and colored at $2.99/50. If you are watering with chlorinated water, clear cups are fine. Algae growth on the inside of the cup surface from sun exposure can be a problem for plant marketability. You'll need a drain hole in the bottom. Stack 20 cups together and drill a 1/4" hole through 20 at once. That takes care of your container problem, however you will need 144 quarts or a little less than 5 cubic foot of potting soil (29.92 quarts per Cubic Foot). I use SunGro Metro Mix 360, which is $18/2.8 cubic foot bag (~84 quarts/bag). I personally would fill the cups 1/2 full, wait until they get much bigger, and then add more soil to get the roots deeper. It depends on how big you want them before selling them.

Here's my $0.06 quart carryout cup....
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