Not Every Good Idea is that Good.

Not Every Good Idea is that Good.

In the post Potting on Part II, I described having to improvise some containers for potting on into. I had not planted out the trees in the containers I had intended using due to the dry weather.

A few went into "compostable" disposable pint clear cups, some into muslin ones and 30 into Cardboard rolls.

   The card was just rolled up and the shape retained by plastic grids that were designed to hold small square plant pots. The idea, with all the compostable pots, was that the whole lot could be planted. The card once wetted very soon started to go mouldy. Grey and orange fungus spread all over the lower parts. 

 The muslin pots looked good, The potting on had been done during dry weather and the pots were in solid trays to reduce watering. These filled up when the rain came and the bottoms became saturated. While the pots looked o.k. as soon as they were moved the bottoms fell apart. The trees were still alive but had not grown as well as their contemporaries in solid pots.

Most of these trees in disintegrating pots were prioritised for planted before the New Year.     

The idea that planting the whole pot would be possible and that  it would rot in the soil proved feasible.  They did rot but before planting was attempted. If the tree in the muslin pot, in the picture on the is was lifted the bottom half of the pot and its soil  stays in the tray. The cardboard tubes collapsed side ways when they were moved so had to be planted before there was the thought of photographing them.

The trees in commercial compostable "plastic " pint pots will be planted later. previous experience suggests that they can be left a long time.