5. Cleaning Dirty Pots
What a dull and boring job it is!
For many years I have soaked the pots in a 30 litre bucket using vinegar, rinsing them and then re-soaking them in a 30 litre buckets using bleach. Then I use assorted sizes of bottle scrubbing brushes to clean all the pots taking many hours of hard work in my sink in the garage.
Last year I suffered from bowel cancer… 15 days in hospital and 20 weeks of chemotherapy left me very tired and very weak. A group of orchid club friends came over for a few days and repotted most of my rather large orchid collection and left me with hundreds of used dirty pots.
These I packed into two seventy five litre plastic garbage bins and left the on the back porch until I could get someone to take them into the garage for me.(Photo Number 2)
What a dull and boring job it is!
For many years I have soaked the pots in a 30 litre bucket using vinegar, rinsing them and then re-soaking them in a 30 litre buckets using bleach. Then I use assorted sizes of bottle scrubbing brushes to clean all the pots taking many hours of hard work in my sink in the garage.
Last year I suffered from bowel cancer… 15 days in hospital and 20 weeks of chemotherapy left me very tired and very weak. A group of orchid club friends came over for a few days and repotted most of my rather large orchid collection and left me with hundreds of used dirty pots.
These I packed into two seventy five litre plastic garbage bins and left the on the back porch until I could get someone to take them into the garage for me.(Photo Number 2)
Looking back I find it amazing I did not get this great idea sooner. I was sitting there one morning looking at all the dirty pots and suddenly I had a bright idea… why not soak them in the first bin using 1 litre of vinegar (bought on special at Coles for $2 per 2 litre bottle) per 75 litres of water and left for a few days to soak. The vinegar got rid of all the fertilizer salts that build up around the bottom of the pots. (See photo number 1)
Then I rinsed off the pots using a small stream of water from the spray gun connected to a garden hose. See photo number 3.
Then I placed them into the second plastic bin and I poured 1&1/4 litre of household bleach over the pots and filled with water.
I left them for a few days and then repeated the washing with the water spray gun and left them to dry. They were now ready to re-use, cleaned and sterilised.
Such a simple and easy way to clean large amounts of used dirty pots.
I hope you get some enjoyment out of washing your dirty pots this way, as sitting on a chair and cleaning the pots with the hose spray makes it all so easy.
Ron Boyd
[email protected]
I left them for a few days and then repeated the washing with the water spray gun and left them to dry. They were now ready to re-use, cleaned and sterilised.
Such a simple and easy way to clean large amounts of used dirty pots.
I hope you get some enjoyment out of washing your dirty pots this way, as sitting on a chair and cleaning the pots with the hose spray makes it all so easy.
Ron Boyd
[email protected]