PEA-Badge-Gardening

Inge Leonora-den Ouden wrote:

Timothy Norton wrote:

Do not use plastic, cement, porous terracotta, or styrofoam pots.

Now there's good quality plastic containers and trays (for microgreens) that will last almost forever, for me there's no reason not to use those. Except for 'they do not look nice'.  
Terracotta always looks much better!

Dorothy Pohorelow wrote:

Inge Leonora-den Ouden wrote:

Timothy Norton wrote:

Do not use plastic, cement, porous terracotta, or styrofoam pots.

Now there's good quality plastic containers and trays (for microgreens) that will last almost forever, for me there's no reason not to use those. Except for 'they do not look nice'.  
Terracotta always looks much better!

I have some really nice micro green trays that are plastic, the system works very well and I can't see trying to put together a similar system that is not plastic.  The same with my seed starting setup which is based on heavy duty plastic trays. I had started to look in the second hand shops for replacements that would meet the requirements but decided that it was not worth the time and effort to revamp my systems to meet the requirements for the badge bits.   And trashing plastic things just because they are plastic goes against my stingy genes...   So I just backed off and said nope not doing that will continue my exploration of the skills but will use the items I already have and just not submit for badge bits...

Hi Dorothy.
You can experiment with the requirements for the BB, just to show it's possible. You do not need to do it like that 'all the time'.
I use plastic too, both 'good quality plastic trays' and reused plant containers. Especially when it's for pre-seeding vegetable plants.

M Broussard wrote:It's been a few years, but I'm still keen to understand why porous terracotta is not permitted. If it's about moisture, this can be solved by putting a plate or dish under the pot. But it can't be about moisture, because wood is allowed, and wood is far worse for moisture wicking in this respect.

Terracotta is much more sustainable than glazed ceramics (which are higher temperature, higher energy, often higher quantities of toxic gick due to heavy metals in glazes), and its exclusion is a question mark for me. It's also one of the most accessible non-plastic options and this restriction seems to have limited the uptake of PEA's gardening section.