K Barrett wrote:
Anyone have a tip for a quick way to wash out pots? I bought a bunch of new
pots 6" (or larger) for plants that had out grown their pots and wouldn't ya
know it? Now I need a bunch of 3", 4" 5" etc pots for other plants to move
up into. So I'm stuck washing out those old pots. I get all happy that I
have a stock of nice clean pots, sit down and do some repotting then lo and
behold! I got all these dang dirty pots again!! LOL!! Its a never ending
cycle.
Keep a very big plastic tub filled with water (and a little bleach
or physan, probably), and just throw pots into that when you empty them
out. When the tub gets full, the pots have probably soaked long enough
to get most of the schmutz off. I have also run across a very neat
product in my beer/wine making alter-ego - it is a soak cleaner. Just
soak your befouled items in the solution for as long as it takes
(although it works better if you rinse them off first). It really does
work, although I'm not sure how. Just go to your local homebrew store
and ask for it by name - not that I remember what the name is...
I had an epiphany the other day. I came to realize that I had so dang many
old dirty pots (DNODP) that I didn't have to keep any pot that was a pain in
the neck to clean. I recycled any with edges that grime congregates in, and
kept only ones with whatever shape was straightsided and easy to clean. So
that was my only contribution to making pot cleaning easier.
I think of it this way. I figure the benefit of my cleaning pots is
a function of the cost of new pots, the cost of my time, and my
willingness to do it. This gives me the following formula:
Benefit(of cleaning) = Cost(new pots) - Cost(of cleaning)
The cost of cleaning, where LF is the often overlooked "Lazyness factor" :
Cost(of cleaning) = hours * cost_per_hour * LF
And of course the cost of new pots is the price it says on the box...,
so that makes the formula:
Benefit = Cost(new_pots) - (hours * cost_per_hour * LF)
My time is worth mega-bucks (to me only, unfortunately), and since
my LF is also extremely high, buying new pots pays me! You can use math
to justify anything! Now, if I had a hoard of industrious elves that
worked for free, then it might make more sense to wash pots. They could
also wash my car, hoe down the weeds that are taller than my sweet corn,
and mow the lawn. If somebody could direct me to the elves, that would
be quite appreciated. If anybody does want a few hundred or a few
thousand used pots, I can hook you up...
I tend to like the square plastic pots, only because they don't have the lip
azalea pots have (and tags get stuck on). Plus you can put more on a bench.
Indeed... Death to all round pots. Except clay pots - and I'd
prefer those square if I could find them at a reasonable price. I do
prefer round clay pots for hanging plants - I don't know why, exactly,
except that square pots just don't look right.
--
Rob's Rules:
http://www.msu.edu/~halgren
1) There is always room for one more orchid
2) There is always room for two more orchids
2a. See rule 1
3) When one has insufficient credit to purchase
more orchids, obtain more credit
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