Pots, Flats, Stakes, and Labels, and Cost of Help for your Greenhouse

Pots, Flats, Stakes, and Labels

Pots and flats must be considered also. Your first batch may be donated by friends with a garage full and to spare. But this source of supply eventually runs out. The wholesale price on pots is about 40 per cent less than the retail price. My flats cost me nothing-you may be able to get some from a tile company as I do. Wooden tile boxes are well constructed and long lasting, even in the moist air of the greenhouse. Of course, you can make your own flats-out of scrap lumber. Some amateurs begin with orange or apple crates, but these are of such poor quality and so full of openings that much time and material must be expended to make them usable for even a few months.

When I bought them, No. 1 white cedar flats of good quality, 14- by 20- by 2 -inches, cost about $25.00 per hundred; smaller sizes, say 5- by 11- by 5-inches, were about $16.00. Wooden plant bands used for growing many types of seedlings cost from $5.00 to $6.00 a thousand, depending on size and material. As you progress in your growing, you will need such things as stakes (for tall plants) at about $3.00 per thousand in the 18-inch size, and wooden or plastic labels at $3.00 to $5.00 per thousand.

What Is Your Time Budget?

You can get a rough idea of the amount of time your greenhouse plants will require by judging how long it takes you to care for your house plants. Here are some labor-saving devices: guard against dry soil by burying potted plants in damp sand, peatmoss, or sphagnum moss; automatic feeding; constant mist systems; constant water-level watering systems; automatic ventilators, and, of course, thermostatically controlled heat-all discussed later. And there are many plants like wax begonias, annuals, herbs, and episcias which can be grown throughout their life cycle in flats, thus saving much watering and transplanting time.

Cost of Help

The money you spend for outside help will vary with the size of your greenhouse, the number of plants grown, and the amount of time you and your family care to devote to your venture.For spring house-cleaning and fall restocking, or at especially busy times, you may be able to get help from school children during vacations or on Saturdays. A neighbor usually helps me with the spring cleaning, and I pay her $1.25 per hour. The two of us can clean the house in one day. A man helps me with fall restocking and removal of heavy pots from the outdoor garden to the greenhouse. He charges $1.50 per hour and, again, we finish the job in one day.

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