B&Q ...setting poor example!

[bobbin]

This is the second year I've purchased B&Q bedding plants. The actual plants are very good.
Each is in a module consisting of a growing medium inside what looks like a teabag fabric. At the end of the season last year I composted all the contents of my baskets pots etc into my raised beds.
This year after a late start due to foot surgery,I lightly turned the compost of my raised beds before planting crops. I was unhappy to find almost all the modules still intact! The problem is obviously as in tea bags ... the bag element must plastic,each end being sealed. It's impossible to remove the plant from the module prior to planting as root damage would occur,not to mention impractical. I feel As B&Q know these items will obviously be planted they should make it clear these modules will not biodegrade. The public could then choose to buy or not. I cannot find such information on the plant pack.
In a time when we are becoming more aware of the damage plastic items are causing to the environment this is very poor practise!

[Runtpuppy]

Bobbin, try this... take a bit of the module material and burn it (use tweezers or forceps or something, so you don't burn your fingers!).

If the ashes are grey and powdery (like paper), it's likely to be a cellulose-based/plant-based material, and maybe has been treated to not degrade all that quickly.

If it burns with the smell of burning hair, it's possibly animal hair-based. Not sure how long that takes to degrade.

If it becomes a little ball of plastic, it's a synthetic material. Again, it may be biodegradable and may just take a while. However, you'll know for sure. In that case, I don't know if you'd want to, but maybe if you complained, they'll change their practices.

[4Shoes]

Agree

I'd plants last year and like you module didn't bio-degrade.


Update.... Just found out I am wrong

https://www.diy.com/easygrow/


(Its not on the packing)

[Jungle Jane]

The teabag fabric gives less waste than the polystyrene they used previously,they’re starting a good example but should be told of the issue so they can improve things. It’s a big improvement if you look into it (the titles a bit unfair in this thread,other companies are still filling us with polystyrene)-
https://www.diy.com/easygrow/

[veggiechicken]

Thank you JJ.
Not everything will compost/biodegrade immediately when emptied onto a bed. Have you ever found bits of garden twine still intact?
These bags are a lot better than the plastic and polystyrene trays that other companies use.
Good for you B&Q.

[Mikey]

Polystyrene however is a good base layer for a plant pots stopping the pot from getting waterlogged. I've got lots of plastic pots collected over quite some time including MFB's. I give them a wash and reuse them every year. Without plastic I think we'd struggle in the garden. if all our pots were biodegradeable they would essentially be one use.

I can't afford to be buying clay pots, and you can't squeeze a clay pot to get a plant out. I'd still like to see plastic garden pots recycleable though, even if after 15-20 years of good use.

[Cadalot]

Everyone is going way too anti plastic - Yes teach the young to respect and not litter and to recycle, yes way too much in the rivers and sea. BUT if quality purchase and looked after it will last many years and can be recycled. I use vending machine cups with holes melted in the bottom for drainage to grow seedlings in, yes they are cheap but I wash them re stack them and use them again year after year until they split, then they are disposed off.

[4Shoes]

Mr Google to the rescue.....

I am wrong ... the tea bags are Coir.

It was just so unexpected to be picking what looked like fleece material out of the old compost.

The plastic trays are PET 1 green. So if you council has the technology, can be recycled

See : -

https://www.diy.com/easygrow/

In defence of the title, there is no indication on the pack what the tea bag material is made from and I put it in the general waste bin.


The trays could be reused with jiffy blocks I expect. they are 100% coir
similar products are available

[ESBkevin]

When planting a few bedding plants from B&Q this year I broke/split the rootball with my hands (like you might a chocolate bar) so the roots were no longer restrained during planting, otherwise they went in whole. Last years root balls remained constrained and were still there this spring (I chop the tops off in a no dig/disturb least kind of way and left then in the flower beds).

To be honest I get fed up picking cat poo and plastic out of my front garden. But I will prevail.

[Jay-ell]

There's a difference between biodegradable and compostable. Biodegradable objects are designed to have a workable life then break down under certain conditions - a plant pot that started to decompose straight away would just break down to mush too soon. Often the conditions needed are HOT compost piles - the average garden compost won't hack it and it will take years for these to break down.

The compressed jiffy plugs use coir/peat as the potting medium inside the teabag so that once soaked they expand. Instructions sometimes say when ready to plant SLIP OFF the outer net and plant the plug (e.g. Sarah Raven), although I've more often seen the instructions that skip passed this step.

The bags are supposed to air prune roots, but I often see them when the plants have been in too long and there's a jumbled mess of roots or where they've been too close to each other and touching so one pots roots end up growing through and into the next pot.

Did B&Q's instructions say you can actually plant the bag as well or was this something you assumed? With plants that come in plastic pots it's fairly obvious that the pots should be removed but I wonder what the instructions actually said. Do plants in plastic pots have instructions saying remove the pot? Would anyone plant out these plants in their pots assuming that the pot would decompose into the soil?

Personally I think that they are more convenient for the grower than the gardener as they use up less storage than pots/compost and the seed/soak cycle makes it easier in a production line. (there's a tongue twister for you - sowed sixty seven sedums in a seed soak cycle)

[Mikey]

How many plant plugs can a plant pot replace if a plant plug could replace pots.

[veggiechicken]

Bobbin said "At the end of the season last year I composted all the contents of my baskets pots etc into my raised beds."
That's not really composting but emptying. Were the bag's contents still a rootball inside the teabag?
I've had some plants grow in jiffy pellets before and I really dislike the mesh outer casing. They're a pain to cut off before planting, but if you don't the plants struggle to fight their way out.
I bought some "teabags" last year but I haven't used them! I'm going to set fire to one and see what happens.

[veggiechicken]

How many plant plugs can a plant pot replace if a plant plug could replace pots.

Perhaps plenty of plant pots can be replaced if plant plugs could replace plant pots.

[veggiechicken]

If it becomes a little ball of plastic, it's a synthetic material. Again, it may be biodegradable and may just take a while. However, you'll know for sure. In that case, I don't know if you'd want to, but maybe if you complained, they'll change their practices.

Mine melted!! They were from China or somewhere!

Definitely will be cutting them off before planting out!

[Chestnut]

I wonder if a machine could learn to make newspaper pots on an industrial scale....