Thursday, October 20, 2011

Re Use: Plastic Milk Bags as Growing Pots for Coleus

This summer, I have notice that some of my plants become root bound - meaning the roots came out of the hole of the pots. When I re-pot the plants, poor plant roots had swolen, because of the lack of space. Since life is busy, I lose track of the last time I may have check the roots. 

Since then, I have been looking for other planting medium which I can see the roots inside it. There are few 4" pots that are transparent, but then, the price tag too is high.

Recently, I have been given coleus cuttings by friends "take it Angie, before coleus dies of frost",  so I did. Coleus (Solenostemon ) is a very easy to grow houseplant, can be outdoors annual (in Canada) and tender perennial (Philippines). 

So with this venture of keeping these as houseplant in Canada, and bring them outdoors for color display in summer, I found a solution in my kitchen. Those plastic milk bags - transparent enough, so I can see when roots are coming out and ready to go into a bigger container.

Any readers: please save the milk bags for me. Rinse it, and it will do fine. I will do a pick up once a month, or if you prefer once every two weeks. 

Just another way to reduce the non-biodegrable waste in our landfill. 

Contact me at: angelina2600@gmail.com

I will post few coleus poted in milk bags in a few days. 
These are current cuttings still in water. 



Coleus cuttings from our good friend, Larry. 

 
references for coleus varieties: unfortunately both as in the USA
1. http://www.colorfarm.com/
2. http://rosydawngardens.com/
3. coleusfinder.org

1 comment:

  1. Ah, how I remember those milk bags! Found you via the "heather email"

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