Tomatoville® Gardening Forums - View Single Post - what size to re-pot and next soil?

Hotwired · February 12, 2013

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....

February 12, 2013	#6
Hotwired Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Nov 2012 Location: Ithaca, NY - USDA 5b Posts: 241	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.... __________________ Give a man a fish and he eats for a day - Teach him to fish and he eats for a lifetime.