Coated pots for growing edible plants?

[Coconutcutie]

I am gearing up to plant some of my seedlings into pots, and I recently discovered that almost all of my clay pots have some kind of black paint coating on the inside. Recently I have become more aware of and concerned about toxic exposure, so I'm just wondering if anyone knows if these pots are safe to plant edible crops in? I'm worried that the paints might contain heavy metals or substances that could leach into the soil and contaminate the plants. I used them last season to grow eggplant and basil, but like I said I have become more aware of toxic exposure lately, and last season most of my crops didn't fare well so did not get eaten so if these pots are unsafe we were not exposed to high levels of contaminants. Any opinions are appreciated...

Thanks!

[FloridaPatty]

I hate putting anything in a clay pot because they need constant watering. On the other side of the coin - a lot of plastic pots fall apart after a year or two.

We've had a lot of discussions about the earthboxes that last for years and is self watering. There are also individual pots I've seen that are self-watering.

www.earthbox.com
www.agradenpatch.com

[Coconutcutie]

I hate putting anything in a clay pot because they need constant watering. On the other side of the coin - a lot of plastic pots fall apart after a year or two.

We've had a lot of discussions about the earthboxes that last for years and is self watering. There are also individual pots I've seen that are self-watering.

www.earthbox.com
www.agradenpatch.com

Cool, thanks for the links. My husband is going to be making a few homemade earth boxes for me (he is convinced that he can duplicate them himself) and is also building me some kind of raised bed on wheels. I guess I'll save the clay pots for flowers and such and just kick my husband in the butt to hurry up and fulfill his promises lol!

[FloridaPatty]

Cool, thanks for the links. My husband is going to be making a few homemade earth boxes for me (he is convinced that he can duplicate them himself) and is also building me some kind of raised bed on wheels. I guess I'll save the clay pots for flowers and such and just kick my husband in the butt to hurry up and fulfill his promises lol!

http://www.josho.com/gardening.htm

[Coconutcutie]

Thanks FloridaPatty!! We hadn't seen that...I had just shown him the Earthbox website and he said that it "looked easy"... Now we have the exact instructions! Thanks again! Hopefully it will work much better in the Arizona heat than those silly clay pots

[rawstrength]

I don't know if you buy anything that comes in a plastic bottle . . .

But, if you do buy stuff in plastic bottles/cardboard cartons, you can save those, cut the tops off, and use them to plant your seedlings in.

Reduce, reuse, recycles :) .