Biodegradable plant pots are not new, yet little is known and even less talked about. However, they have many advantages to organic farming,…

More than 50 years have passed since biodegradable plant pots for sowing or planting have been used in gardening. The first such pots began to be produced in America under the commercial name Jiffy, so even today, many gardeners call them that. They were made from dried peat and pressed into different shapes, either round or square. Today, peat is on the blocklist of organic growers because it is a non-renewable organic material with increasingly depleted deposits.

This is why the modern industry of biodegradable plant pots is constantly looking for new materials to reduce the proportion of peat as much as possible. Therefore, it is not unusual to find coconut fiber, tree bark, and even mature manure in the composition.

Two advantages to Organic farming are that organically grown food keeps longer and that it’s ecologically friendly.

Advantages of Biodegradable Plant Pots

What is the advantage of biodegradable plant pots? The most important one is that these plant pots are planted in the garden beds together with the seedlings we have grown in them. Since the root passes through the softened peat due to frequent watering, removing the plant with the root is not necessary. This way, we avoid seedlings’ shock when transplanting from plastic or clay pots. In practice, this means that cultivation will last at least a week shorter because the plants do not waste time and energy on straightening the roots that grow in a spiral. In addition, peat pots are usually warmer by at least one degree than plastic ones, which is why they grow faster. And if they are made from settled manure, they are also a unique source of nutrients.

Using Biodegradable Plant Pots

In the same way, we sow pepper, tomato, or lettuce seeds in plastic pots; we will also sow them in biodegradable ones. Different sizes and dimensions will allow us to choose the most suitable ones. We will fill them with the substrate for sowing and sowing them. After that, it is essential to put them in a plastic box because after watering, excess water comes out of them in all directions. For this reason, it should be watered more carefully than usual. It should also be considered that such pots dry out quickly, so more water is always used in cultivation. However, this cost is negligible compared to the damage caused by the millions of plastic pots gardeners use every year, each of which takes 500 years to decompose in the environment. Organic gardeners should take care of this and understand that caring for nature is an integral part of the gardening culture.

Composting

Once we put biodegradable plant pots in the soil, they will decompose quickly; that is, they will compost. It’s probably a little confusing for gardeners who have never grown herbs in such plant pots and wonder how they don’t fall apart even before, during cultivation. Such a question is appropriate because it is pretty clear that they are not made to last. But since the process of growing seedlings usually does not last longer than a month and a half, in practice, this is quite enough for even the softest biodegradable plant pots to remain intact, i.e., not to disintegrate from moisture. I often use them in cultivation because they are light and simplify cultivation, so after planting, I don’t have to think about disposing of plant pots, as is the case when I use plastic.