I loathe, loathe, loathe cleaning my AV pots. =/ Absolutely hate it. As you all know, because you're constantly repotting, potting up newbies, etc, you have to scrub the stupid things, disinfect, yadi-yada....and so on. Actually considered just chunking all, buying new ones on a consistent basis, thinking maybe, cost-effective-wise, my time would be worth it?? I'm a lazy butt.
=(
I have a confession.........
I'm the same way. I'm trying to do some housecleaning and I have piles of pots that need cleaning.
I've taken to washing the plastic ones as I go. I use an orange-based cleaning solution which is good at killing soft bugs and easy on the hands. I figure I am not going to worry about viruses with the gesneriads.
The clay ones I will be baking... when I get around to it. But many of the old clay ones do get thrown out.
I really try not to throw out plastic pots for enviro reasons, but I admit I find I buy rather than clean. Hence the piles of dirty pots all over the place.
Hi Ya'll,
Have you ever tried using a dishwasher? I knock all the loose dirt out and then put them on the top rack. I use the "normal" wash cycle.
It does a good job for me.
Eric
I would be banned from the house if I used the dishwasher for plants - that and the blender are off limits. Bad enough I already use the oven.....
Key,
The kitchen is MY domain so I can get away with it.
I've put clay pots through the dishwasher too, after rinsing them out. Seems to work pretty well, and I'm assuming they get reasonably well disinfected. I've even put the inserts from my self watering pots into the dishwasher. Top rack for all of these. It's much easier than hand scrubbing, even if a little of that white residue gets left behind.
What about washing the pots and then rinsing them in a neam solution?
Nanna