i need to figure out how get cheap soil, perlite, and  container.

i see at homedepot, you can older nursery pots for rather good price in bulk. but is there any other options? i see good price online, but after figuring in the shipping and all, the price isn't all that great at that point. i'm looking for 5-10 gal containers. 10 gal tubs are another choice, but they add up quickly.

soil, i can go with plain potting soil, but perlite is rather expensive. i'm not finding anything around here for bulk perlite. any sources that doesn't charge arms and legs for perlite?

I don't know if this applies to all Lowe's, but at my local Lowe's, people return old pots for recycling, from 1 gallon and up.  The garden manager says they're for the taking.  She usually donates to local schools.  She gave me 75 one-gallon containers a couple months ago.  See if yours might do the same!

You could dumpster dive at local nurseries.  They often toss dead looking bushes and trees along with the pot.  Also, garage sales where people are just getting rid of junk, you can find containers often.  Craigs List.  About the dirt, no answers for that.  Those larger containers sure do take a lot of that, don't they? 

Good luck Pete!
Suzi

Look on craigslist for the pots. A lot of times you can get things for free if you pick them up. You can also find good deals on large terra cotta pots (look nice but hard to move) that would retail for $100's+ for about $10.

I imagine getting perlite cheap will be tougher. It is bulky for shipping and the manufacuring process involves heating it up very quickly so it pops like popcorn. Its never going to be dirt cheap.

Most landfills have green waste composting and recycling programs when you can get compost and mulch for a reasonable price, and often for free.

Rural nurseries are more likely to give pots away for free but even then the bigger pots are scarce.  I visit mine weekly and have a good supply of 4 gal pots but the pickings are slim above that. 

If you mix your own soil, try landscaping supply companys. My best find was a source of small pine bark chips sold as "Supreme Bark". I don't know if that is a brand name or just what they call it. I can fill a 55 gallon drum for $5. The best part is that when you screen it, you get hardly anything that doesn't pass through the 1/4" screen; so it's basically 99% usable as soil mix.

The perlite is the most expensive component for me also, I like Epsoma in the blue bag.

Find a local Grower's supply places for perlite I use Griffin Greenhouse supplies.  I get I think 4 cubic foot bag for around $13. You should be able to find in NC Pete that where alot of it comes from. My bag is from Carolina Perlite Inc out of Gold Hill NC. As stated by other search "nursery pots" on craig's list, I found some selling for 5 cents/gal regardless the size of the pot.

Also farm supply stores....here a 4 cf bag of perlite which is HUGE is $13.  The pots I just ask all family, friends to save them for me.  Smaller pots are easy larger pots not so much.

Perlite will never be cheap.  If you can't find it locally, you'll have to get it delivered, which will be expensive.  The best option I found was greenhouse megastore.  I only use the coarse kind (meaning larger pieces), which is a little harder to come by. 

If you're looking for really cheap options for the soil, you can do what Jon or others said and probably get a load of decent stuff for dirt cheap (pun intended).  But it will be heavy, and the bottom might get soggy, particularly in a large pot.  I like lighter, better draining stuff, but others have reported success with these "heavy" mixes.

The largest component of my container mix (~80%) is pine bark fines, aka partially composted pine bark, or pine bark mulch.  It's light (compared to dirt) and drains well.  I can get a 2 or 3 cubic foot bag for about $5.  Then I add some agricultural lime (to lower acidity, if necessary), some fertilizer, and some perlite.  You should be able to find posts describing this mix if you do a search.  One cubic foot is about 7.5 gallons, so all in the mix costs me maybe $4 per 10 gallon pot. 

Here walmart sells pinefines under the name "pine mulch"  in a purple bag.  $2.65 for a 2 cf bag. West Of the Mississippi I guess the pine fines are hard to come by.  

If there is a hydroponics store near you, they usually stock the large perlite. That's where I have gotten mine.

Go to nurseries and landscapers, the landscapers (especially the city workers etc) tend to want to get rid of the pots from trees that they plant if they have any from plastic.  I once found about 60 1 gallon pots on the side of the highway that I still use.  

You can also look for sales on buckets at local farm stores etc that have the rope handles (they will offer then up to 50% off several times a year here)

If your looking for peatmoss replacement that last longer and rewets much better, take a look into getting a 5KG block of coco coir. You can pick them up from a local hydrostore, price should be around $10-13. This can replace 2.5 CU FT. of peat moss.

If you buy from the major hardware stores and walmart, you're going to pay extra cash for the packaging and ease of grab and go.  The cheapest I've found is your local land fill.  They sell compost for 15 or 20 bucks for one pickup truck load and that's a lot of compost.  BUT, you get what you pay for!  It's going to have a lot of weed seeds so be for warned but it is cheap!  Plus what ever you choose, you're going to have to add sand or perlite to it allow for drainage and air.  I make most of mine these days using Peat, cow crap, mushroom crap, perilite, lime and mychroyze and pine bark fines.

As for the buckets, dumpster dive or ask your largest nursery for some but as a good rule of thumb is if they through them away, they are there for a reason.

I do my own composting, and get wood chips for free from the tree trimmer guys. the woodchips i may use as mulch for the first year, but after the pile sets a year or 2 i will sift with 1/4 screen.

my compost is made up of whatever i have, mainly clover, pine needles, leftover garden waste, yard waste, horse manure, cow manure, rabbit manure, straw, dried leaves. I have rabbits and straw, and alot of clover that grows in my yard. the cow and horse manure i get for free from the livstock sale barn when ever my pile just wont heat up.

my soil mix

5 gal of sifted compost
5 gal of sifted wood chips
8 quart bag of perlite
mix well

For pots i use the gal containers of cottage cheese as my kids eat about 2 gal a week. so i save the cartions and melt drain holes. when i am running low on pots theres a guy on ebay that sold me 100 1 gal pots for 22 bucks. i havent really looked for anything larger but need to.

hope this helps
Dave

Go to a new building job site when the landscapers are planting the plants,most of the time they throw out the containers. I was on a job site 3 years ago that had over 30,000 1 and 2 gal. plants that were being put in ,we could not get rid of them fast enough!!! So we started giving them away to people for free!

Yes, perlite is getting expensive.  I've been buying 4 cubic feet for $11 from a nursery that mostly sells to landscapers, but it is something like $18 for only 2.5 cu ft at Home Depot.   I'm just going to have a landscaping company dump some soil for $35 cubic yard.  They have crushed granite too for $35 a ton.   If you've got a lot you need, definitely look up where the landscapers go.  

Hey Pete,

Mike "newnandawg" had posted this for perlite in the past.  Don't know if price is good but I believe this is the largest perlite anyone on the forum has found

http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post/Additional-Perlite-Information-6087739

One relatively cheap container option is to buy clean plastic 55 gallon drums with lids. Cut in half and you have two 27.5 gallon containers. In my area you can buy these drums for $20 or less if you buy several. These wouldn't be good choices if you want to move containers around much. I will probably buy some of these this spring.

Greetings All

Just a quick upate on this morning's acquisition of a 2 cubic feet ( 56.63 liters) bag of perlite from our local Home Depot store. Last time I checked they only had the very small bags, but today they had about 8 of this size. Sure beats having to pay extra for shipping & handling when a local store carries the product one is interested in. Price: $16.97

That caught my interest for a moment until i saw that its the fine stuff.
I been useing the bigger perlite in my mix .

Good find, Mark.  My Lowe's only has the Miracle Grow bags in 8qt sizes.