A different take on the humble upcycled toilet roll tubes
by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
Harrod Horticulture is offering "growtubes" which are biodegradable pots which are open at the bottom. The same can be achieved for free using the cardboard tubes from toilet rolls and that for nothing.
In all honesty those growtubes are nothing but a biodegradable tube, even though they may be slightly tapered at the bottom. A toilet roll tube will, however, work equally well and you can, in theory, get two pots out of each toilet roll tube.
While the growtubes from Harrod Horticultural are an alternative to the toilet roll tube from those that don't have the time to collect those tubes, the thrifty grower, like myself, will collect those cardboard tubes for sure. I fact I wish I had not put so many of them into the composter over winter. Each empty tube equals one growtube.
I have used toilet roll tube growtubes in the years gone by and always with good success and last year tried paper pots made with the Paper Potter but they did not work that well. No fault of the potter and the idea but the fact that I used too much newspaper for the pots and thus made them in such a way that they did not break down properly.
You never stop learning in the gardening and growing game that's for sure.
© 2011
