A local Christmas tree nursery went out of business, and they have a huge pile of USED 2 gallon nursery pots (my favorite).  If anyone is interested, 50 will fit in a 48" box. They are relatively clean, but not washed or sterile. They are the thin, blow-molded type, and the rims are somewhat weathered, but other-wise they are very serviceable pots. With shipping, 50 pots would be $40, and maybe a tad cheaper to destinations closer to me. [EDIT] That includes shipping.

If you are interested let me know in the next few days, as I will probably make a trip to pick some up later this week.

There are also some 1 gallon pots, looked like more traditional injection-molded type. 50 of them (I think) should fit in the same box.  I am guessing about $30 with shipping. They also has 1/2 gallon pots, blow molded type, which are the width of gallon pots, but shallower, same price as the 1 gallon.

I went by a big nursery here yesterday and bought some blueberry plants.  Fellow there told me to take all the one gallon and three gallon pots I wanted.  His wholesale customers (builders and landscapers) bring them back to him.  Good, heavy and serviceable pots.

Said he had to charge for anything larger than three gallon, but he had recycled pots in the back up to sixty five gallons. 
Ox

By the way;  some of you fellows have been using the Air4pots.  How is that experiment coming along?  Are you still sold on the Airpots?

One reason why I got the three gallon pots is that I had an idea I would take one of my hole punching chisels and knock out a bunch of holes in the pot, sort of a home-made airpot, and try it.
Ox

Hi Ox,

I'm still on board with the Air-Pots.  Punching holes in a container (which I tried with a freaking solder iron) has most of the downsides of the Air-Pot without having most of the benefits of them.  The shape of the interior pushes the roots out of the hole.  The roots do not necessarily gravitate to the holes on their own.  However, the additional holes contribute to loss of moisture in the container.

This is a 'Genoa' I rooted this year, I've pulled the growing mix back a little to show the path of the root (outlined in yellow).   The root was moved towards (and out of) the hole by the interior hump just below the one outlined in green.


The nice thing about them is it is easy to monitor the progress of the roots without the need for a a lot of root work when it's time to step up. 







Also, when the cuttings are ready to go into larger pots, I take the bottoms out of the smaller containers, then put the rest of the container into a 3.4 gallon and fill with more growing mix (pot in pot).  When the tree goes dormant, I'll repot using the smaller container as a guide for root pruning.

To compensate for the additional loss of moisture in the container, I use both expanded shale and Perlite in my growing mix instead of one with grower's grit.

~james

Thanks, James.  I suppose I had better look for a local source.
Ox

If I remember correctly, Rootmaker is an Oklahoma company.