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Post by daylilydude on Dec 3, 2017 9:53:46 GMT -5
In what way do you clean your seed starting pots every year?
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Post by paulf on Dec 3, 2017 11:24:18 GMT -5
We have a kitchen sink in our laundry room/back porch. I fill it about half full (or half empty if that is your preference), pour bleach in making it a 8-10% strength and begin dipping the plastic pots in. The counter next to the sink gets a couple layers of paper towels to keep the drips off the counter. Warning! DO NOT USE ANY OF YOUR WIFE'S GOOD TOWELS TO DRAIN OFF THE WATER/BLEACH FROM THE POTS!!!
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Post by spike on Dec 3, 2017 14:58:23 GMT -5
A bucket of hot soapy water, a bucket of hot rinse water, a bucket of bleach water and drying on paper towels all over my kitchen table and counters.
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Post by tomike on Dec 3, 2017 15:14:54 GMT -5
A diluted bleach solution to soak the pots after they have been cleaned with a brush and water. Then the pots are well rinsed in water and allowed to dry. The pots are kept in the garden shed all winter where it gets very cold in our climate. Have been doing this for many (very many) years and it has worked for me.
I have on occasion used a spray type soap such as Fantastic for the first cleaning. I think that it's very IMPORTANT to properly rinse everything before further use. BTW, my starter pots are plastic.
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Post by pepperhead212 on Dec 3, 2017 18:50:44 GMT -5
I just stack all of the used pots together in a couple of trays in the shed, until the peppers are in the ground (pretty much the last transplants from these pots). Then, on a non-windy (important) day, I take them all, and hose them out (over something I want to water), and dip them in a bucket with a dilute bleach solution in it. As they are removed from the dip, I place them on a slab of plywood placed on 2 trash cans - something I use when transplanting, too - and let them dry out, then stack them, and place them back in the shed. When hosing them out, I don't worry about getting every little bit out, since even if there's a trace of soil on the pot, it will get soaked by the bleach.
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Post by paquebot on Dec 3, 2017 22:30:50 GMT -5
Just rinse them in a rain barrel and stack on a picnic table with tons of other garden stuff. If no disease to carry over, no problem.
Martin
The truth is more important than the facts.
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Post by september on Dec 3, 2017 23:09:20 GMT -5
I do more like Martin. I don't have diseases in my starter pots, no damping off problems with seedlings. All my diseases come late in the season to well established in ground mature plants. I just rinse the early seed starting materials and pots free of dirt as I need them, no soap no bleach. There are plenty of spores and germs floating in the atmosphere so you'll never be able to keep sterile very long anyway.
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Post by coppice on Dec 4, 2017 3:31:09 GMT -5
Rince in warm water.
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Post by Gianna on Dec 8, 2017 21:06:14 GMT -5
Once in a while I'll rinse them in an acidic solution to get rid of the calcium carbonate build up from our horrible tap water. But if that is not too bad, I do nothing. If I had disease problems, I would.
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Post by brownrexx on Dec 8, 2017 22:30:45 GMT -5
I don't have diseases in my starter pots, no damping off problems with seedlings. All my diseases come late in the season to well established in ground mature plants. I just rinse the early seed starting materials and pots free of dirt as I need them, no soap no bleach. There are plenty of spores and germs floating in the atmosphere so you'll never be able to keep sterile very long anyway. I totally agree here. I keep them in an outdoor shed over the winter in freezing temperatures and in the spring I just rinse with the hose and re-use them. I use no bleach and have never had problems.
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