Gustavo Martins
Omono
With all the fertilisation, lime sulphur, pesticides, watering etc pots start to accumulate lots of dirt, smears, stains etc. How do you guys clean yours? water alone does not seem to do it properly.
Have you tried Dawn dish soap and a mildly abrasive cotton rag? It works surprisingly well. You can also try a “scraper” that’s made of plastic and safe to use on non-stick cooking surfaces, but will also require a scrubbing after the fact.With all the fertilisation, lime sulphur, pesticides, watering etc pots start to accumulate lots of dirt, smears, stains etc. How do you guys clean yours? water alone does not seem to do it properly.
Best most thorough solution I've found is to bury the pot in the ground or a pile of shredded, decomposing mulch for a year or so
All of this isn't going to get the worst of the crap. You can also damage or break your pot with the scrubbing and scraping.
Best most thorough solution I've found is to bury the pot in the ground or a pile of shredded, decomposing mulch for a year or so. Takes time, but gets rid of ALL the crap without damage. Also can put some patina into the pot...
Well, yeah, you can, you just have to switch out pots Seriously, if you're scrubbing and scraping and applying WD 40 and detergent to the pot, the tree in it could be collateral damage...just sayin.Thanks guys for all your suggestions. I've seen a guy on youtube using WD-40 oil to clean pots and appears to do a decent job as well. I'll try some and report back my results.
I can't. I'm talking about cleaning pots with trees in it. Mostly the unglazed ones. Glazed one do not appear to become as dirty.
I actually did it once, because it seems everybody who suggested this had never tried it. Results here:Would you happen to have any before and after pics? Would love to see the results!
That reminds me the last time this question was running through the forum i placed a pot in the compost , Sept 20, 2018, only seven months to go! I may check on it when the snow melts. It was a nice show pot that the various routines listed above made little or no difference to the calcium deposits. Looks like a little grave in the corner of the garden, all marked with flagging tape so i do not push a shovel into it while digging holes for more kitchen clippings. I watered the area well off and on up until winter.Would you happen to have any before and after pics? Would love to see the results!
I guess we've just solved the question of how archeologists can dig up antiquities and artifacts all over the world. Stuff like jugs and pottery and weapons, everything imaginable. Whole cities! All that stuff buried to clean it and they forgot where they put it! Mystery solved...
Cleaning taking place under coverI think the amount of humour in this situation is inversely proportional to ones age! Once the snow melts i would have remembered because of the red flagging tape that something was different in that area. next, would be remembering what and why perhaps.
Seriously, i too wanted to know if it actually works, another of those things everyone passes on but does not necessarily try out for themselves. Brian's post triggered my effort to duplicate his experience. I already understand why most do not give it a go, but really almost everything we do in bonsai takes a lot of time.
It depends...I didn't know we had to clean them too!
I thought rubbing my nut sack on them like @Adair M does was enough.
So do I clean the pot before or after the tea bagging?
I LOVE THIS POST!It depends...
Dragging your nutsack on a dirty pot will clean the pot but will transfer the dirt to the nutsack. Which, when used on another pot, will dirty it. So, to practice safe nutsacking of pots, as well as extend the life of the nutsack, I recommend only to nutsack clean pottery. Unless, of course, you like to prepare new nutsacks by crushing nuts with a hammer. If that’s your thing, go for it!
It depends on how abrasive your nutsack is!I didn't know we had to clean them too!
I thought rubbing my nut sack on them like @Adair M does was enough.
So do I clean the pot before or after the tea bagging?