What I ’m about to say depart against traditional wisdom that ’s ingrain in nearly every gardener and written about by many a conjunct extension office , but I ’m bring it up to involve a wide-eyed question : Why ?
Why do we need to wash our dirty spate beforegerminating seedsor putting plant in them ?
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To wash or not to wash
I confess that I have n’t washed my charge plate containers inyears , at least not in the way that ’s normally send word . Consult almost any gardening guide and the instructions often include scrub up the mountain with soapy pee and disinfect them with a dilute bleach solution .
But I , on the other bridge player … I am hard in the skirmish - off - the - dirt , wipe - off - the - goo camp of yearly garden cleanup , and I pile my container in the potting shed like this , quick for the next troll of seedlings . ( This is the brushing I practice , which makes quick work of seasonal clean - up , though any pissed bristle brush will do . )
Occasionally I hose them off to remove any stubborn and especially crustlike bit , or I dampen the containers for aesthetic reasons ( mostly for gifting plant to friends ) .
I ’ve hoard a predominate collection of plastic seed starting pots , Imperial gallon pots , six packs , and seed tray over the yr that continue to develop , and I ca n’t envisage hand - washing ( or even hand - soaking ) every undivided one of them at the first or remnant of each season .
It seems like a silly permissive waste of cause for not that much welfare , at least where pesterer and disease are concerned . ( If you ’re the type of mortal who loves to clean , however , then none of this employ to you . )
Why , then , are we severalize to wash our container at all ?
Do pests and diseases linger on unwashed pots?
One pop argument tell that washing pots purportedly reduces the chances ofdamping off disease .
But investigator now know that to be false . The conditions that cause damping off ( humidity , inordinate moisture , and misfortunate air circulation ) originate not from dirty pots , but from poor growing drill likespacing seedling too nigh together , overwatering , water the leaves , and leaving plants in non - ventilated greenhouses or under plastic humidity noodle and cloches .
In short , your seedling is more likely to get damping off because ofyourather than a dirty pot .
But can washing pots prevent other fungi , bacteria , or pests from buck a drive on your new plants ? Is n’t washing tidy sum a part of good plant health direction ?
perchance , and sure , to a certain extent — but neither reason can free the prodigious pain in the butt of washing a pile of pots in the cesspit , two or even three times when all is said and done .
While pests and disease can certainly transfer from an old plant to a new one , the chances of that actually happening are svelte .
There may be the rare social function that a dirty pot harbors root aphid hang around in remnant territory orspider miteshibernating under the flange , or perhaps a plant you seek to grow in the pot was plagued withallium rustor clubroot .
Related : Get Rid of Aphids Naturally With These 9 No - Fail Solutions
If any of that were the caseful , and serious enough to warrant circumstance at all , do n’t chafe with washing and disinfect that pot . It ’s far more economical to throw it out and use a brand - new pot with stigma - young soil instead . The time deliver and pacification of head earned is deserving the couple extra long horse to substitute it .
Read next : Make the Best Seed Starting Mix for Dirt Cheap ( It ’s Organic Too )
As for terra cotta pile : Salts and other mineral that work up up on the outside ( usually at the base , and induce by fertilizers or knockout water ) can be unsightly and can sometimes blockade proper drainage if leave to accumulate . Those are about the only reasons you ’d need to scrub and wash them with a sozzled bristle brush .
Otherwise , the veneration of disease running rearing among dirty Mary Jane is really , truly grandiloquent .
Should you disinfect plant pots with bleach?
The common advice for disinfect works pots is to practice a household bleach containing 8.25 percentage atomic number 11 hypochlorite , and reduce it to a 10 percentage bleach solution .
But that dilution amount ( 8000 ppm , or part per million , more than even the disinfectant level recommended for infirmary preferences ) is harebrained . It ’s overkill and not something you require to be standing around and inhaling all day .
To put it in position , the bleach dilution recommend for strip up spills of bodily fluids ( like vomit or diarrhea ) or disinfecting hospitals withClodstridium difficileinfection is only 5000ppm .
So please , do not disinfect your garden pots with a 10 percent bleaching agent answer .
If you really want to lave your lot at all , live soapy water system is sufficient ( and a heap less toxic ) .
And that brings me to another trouble : For the bleach disinfectant to put to work , you have to lave your pots in hot soapy water first . That mean they need to be empty of all soil and debris , scrubbed with detergent , and rinsed light . Thenyou can soak them in a ( much milder ) bleach answer before set them out to dry .
You ca n’t just plume sordid pots in a bleach solution ( no matter what dilution it is ) and expect them to come out squeaky unclouded . With the fashion bleach works , any crap or organic matter ( admit soap residuum ) floating around in the disinfecting resolution actually demobilise the microbe - kill major power of the sodium hypochlorite .
Bleach also has an expiry engagement . After a ledge biography of six calendar month , it becomes 20 percent less good with each year that goes by .
opine about it : When was the last sentence you bought a new bottle of bleaching agent ? And how much are you actually disinfect anything if you ’ve been using a bottle that ’s been pose around for more than a year ?
Why you should embrace the “dirty” pot
When you think about how plant are grown in their natural environment — outside , in the elements , with no coddling from us nurseryman — they’re break to all the insects and germ that were there before . Thus , plopping a semen or plant into a dirty gage is no different than plopping it into , well , soil .
How often do you see break off in your garden ? ( Not as often as you see it in yourindoor seed startingtray , I depend . )
Susceptibility to pest or disease is more an unintended event of our own tendencies ( to overwater , underwater , sow too shortly , seed too late , over - fertilize , or any other simple mistakes ) , and less a unmediated result of secondary contagion from a dirty pot .
Viable seedsraised under honorable condition ( where light , moisture , and zephyr circulation are concerned ) produce plants that are vigorous enough to resist your garden - mixture microbes ( and in fact , they ’re made stronger when exposed to these elements because the plants then deploy their natural defense mechanism ) .
This is not to to say I advocate short hygienics or shoddymaintenance when it comes to your toolsand equipment . Proper concern of pots and other gardening appurtenance goes a long way toward maintaining seniority and sparking joyousness when you see everything all uncontaminating and neat .
Read more : DIY Tool Cleaning Station : The Fastest path to Clean Garden Tools
But the advice I always translate about washing and disinfecting your pots seems like a gardening myth that ’s often repeated but lack in scientific base .
What are your thoughts ? Are you a devoted pot washer , or merely a dirt brusher like me ?
This mail updated from an article that to begin with seem on August 15 , 2017 .
