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Cleaning plant pots

• Message 1. 

  Posted by also (U14824616) on Wednesday, 1st February 2012

  The advice given on many gardening sites, is to wash out your plant pots each year before reusing them to sow more seeds or repotting etc.
  I suppose this is good advice, but can be very time consumming if you have loads of pots.
  What do most of you gardeners do?. Wash or not. And those that do wash, have you got a quick and easy way of doing it?
  Those that don't wash, have you experienced any problems with your plants?
  I look forward to the answers.

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• Message 2

  , in reply to message 1.

  Posted by marinelilium (U8293024) on Wednesday, 1st February 2012

  I remember one of our posters on here said a dishwasher cycle but I wasn't sure if I'd end up with one large plastic amoeba when I opened the dishwasher so I just use a bucket with Jeyes fluid for a sheep dip then rinse off with a hose.
  
  I did toy with the idea of stringing the pots and dropping them inside the water butt throughout winter because,no matter where I store them spiders, that may have starred in 1960 B-movies, seem to set up home in them. If there's not a spider resident then a hunkering down of snails and their eggs are glued inside and have to be almost chiselled out!
  
  Viruses, rusts and minibeast eggs lingering in the pots are the reason a wash is done but not sure if any studies have shown the level of risk. If you sell your plants commercially you wouldn't get a thank you for introducing the above to a customer's greenhouse I suppose.
  
  MLx

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• Message 3

  , in reply to message 1.

  Posted by thedogcody (U14659366) on Wednesday, 1st February 2012

  I must be living on a knife edge-I only wash pots and trays for seed sowing as I am of the opinion that any nasties will love the cosy conditions-when it comes to potting on unless the pots/trays are filthy just a tap or brush out for me does the trick.
  
  Mind you don't wear safety glasses when drilling or such like, don't sterilize the secateurs when pruning- probably break loads other rules -dont know how I or the plants have survived for so long-but we have ,

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• Message 4

  , in reply to message 3.

  Posted by lilylouise (U3205282) on Wednesday, 1st February 2012

  I wash pots and trays for cuttings and seed sowing but then usually end up just giving them a good brush when it gets really busy. I fill the sink up with hot soapy water and use one of those round headed washing up brushes and a J cloth !

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• Message 5

  , in reply to message 1.

  Posted by MIKEWW (U14827031) on Wednesday, 1st February 2012

  Hi alsogarden
  
  I lay the pots out and then use a high pressue hose.It works well they come up like new,particularly gets rid of green algea
  
  Mike W

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• Message 6

  , in reply to message 1.

  Posted by Tee Gee (U10012255) on Wednesday, 1st February 2012

  I only wash containers required for propagation;
  
  

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• Message 7

  , in reply to message 6.

  Posted by zoomer44 (U14019069) on Wednesday, 1st February 2012

  I washed most of mine last October. After rinsing off most of the soil in the sink, the smaller pots went through the dish washer on a short cylce and whilst they were being cleaned I washed the bigger pots in the sink.
  
  Terracotta pots not being used get cleaned in a bucket of warm soapy water and left to dry on a clear day before being stored for the winter.
  
  My flower buckets and bottomless pots will brobably get washed in the next few weeks in soapy water and rinsed down with a hose.
  
  I like to start off in spring with everything nicely stacked and clean but they do only get the one wash a year.

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• Message 8

  , in reply to message 1.

  Posted by Vixxihibiscus (U13865184) on Thursday, 2nd February 2012

  I feel so boring! I wash all of mine although that may be more of an OCD thing than a "because you're supposed to" thing!
  
  I have three huge trug buckets, one (cold water from the hose) to soak the worst of the dirt off. One to wash with hot water, fairy liquid and a little bleach and a final hot water one to rinse off the bubbles.
  
  I scrub all out with a dishwashing brush. If you leave them all overnight in the cold water soak step, they wash really easy. I quite like it on a sunny spring morning, feels good to be starting something before you can actually get going with any sowing. It's so much nicer to pick up a pot and it's clean and beast-free too

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• Message 9

  , in reply to message 8.

  Posted by also (U14824616) on Saturday, 4th February 2012

  Thanks for all responses.
  It looks like I will be washing my pots etc when the weather warms up a bit, as I now feel a bit guilty from the replies received.
  The one thing I won't get away with is putting them in the dish washer, so I will just have to do it the old fashion way.
  thanks again

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