How To Clean Out Pots That Had Plants That Died Before Replanting

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How To Clean Terracotta Pots In 3 Easy Steps!

How To Clean Crusty Terracotta Pots In 3 Simple Steps!

Terra cotta plant pots are notorious for getting a crusty white residue on them over time. It looks bad but don't worry, cleaning clay pots is quick and easy. In this post, I'll show y'all exactly how to clean terracotta pots in 3 simple steps!

How to Clean Terracotta Pots (Clean Clay Pots In 3 Easy Steps!)

Cheque this out, I recently got a agglomeration of gratuitous clay pots from a nice lady on Craigslist. At that place were about 25 various sized terracotta establish pots in total – awesome score, right?!

The dirt pots are very one-time, and they looked nasty, but I could see the beauty that lies beneath all that crusted on grime.

So I went right to work to clean them, and return them to their former celebrity! Once I'm done, they volition look make new, and exist prepare for potting upward my plants!

Below I'm going to talk most what that nasty white rest is, and why you should get rid of it. Then I will show you the 3 like shooting fish in a barrel steps I use to clean terra cotta pots.

Before cleaning crusty old clay pots — Before cleaning crusty onetime clay pots

What Is The White Residue On Terracotta Pots Anyway?

One of the advantages of using terracotta pots is that they absorb h2o from the soil, and assist forbid over-watering your plants (I utilise them to grow all of my succulents and cactus plants).

But, terracotta pots as well absorb fertilizers, as well as salts and other chemicals that are commonly found in tap h2o.

Over fourth dimension, these salts and chemicals volition build up and create a crusty or chalky white remainder on your beautiful clay pots.

To help prevent this, I recommend using rainwater to water your plants rather than tap water. As well, skip the chemical fertilizers and employ an organic fertilizer instead, or effort an organic compost solution.

Using rainwater and organic fertilizers is much healthier for your plants anyway (and better for the environment too. Win, win!), and will assistance to go on your beautiful terra cotta pots clean much longer!

White residue on terracotta pots — White residuum on terracotta pots

Why Should Yous Clean Terracotta Pots?

Some people really like the look of crusty old terracotta pots, and don't want to clean them. Unfortunately, using dirty pots over and over again can be very unhealthy for your plants.

Muddy pots can harbor pests and diseases, which is definitely not something you desire. Cleaning and disinfecting plant pots is a addiction you should become into no matter what blazon they are.

If you're wondering how to clean clay pots with plants in them, well… if a plant has been in the same terracotta pot for so long that the pot has buildup on it, then it's time to repot that plant and give it some fresh soil anyway.

And then take this opportunity to repot your neglected plants, and make clean their pots likewise.

Oh, and if you like the look of crusty terracotta plant pots, so you lot can paint them to look that manner, and still have clean pots. Learn all about painting terracotta pots here.

Alright, off my discourse. Let'south become busy cleaning some terracotta pots!

Crusty Residue On Old Terracotta Pot — Crusty remainder on one-time terra cotta pot

How To Clean Terra cotta Pots Step Past Footstep

You don't demand many things for this, which is nice. And y'all probably already have all of this stuff already. Here'south what yous'll need..

Supplies Needed:

Pot brush
White vinegar
Utility tub (for big terracotta planters) or a bucket or sink (for smaller pots)
Dishwasher (optional)

Step 1: Remove whatever loose dirt from the pot. Use your pot brush to clean as much dirt every bit yous can off of the clay pot. In my case, I as well needed to castor cobwebs and other debris off my pots (yuck!).

You don't need to be super fussy here, cause yous don't need to become all the dirt off. Simply brush off the loose dirt, and whatsoever large chunks of soil that might be stuck to the pot. The rest will come off in the next steps.

Remove loose dirt from terracotta pot — Remove loose clay from terra cotta pot

Step 2: Soak clay pots in vinegar/water solution.

Ideally, y'all would use one cup of white vinegar (5% acerbity) for every iii-4 cups of h2o. The less vinegar y'all use in the water, the longer you'll demand to soak the pots.

Completely submerge the clay pots in the solution. You lot may hear a sizzling sounds or come across bubbles.

Don't worry, that'southward a combination of the vinegar doing it'southward job at dissolving the crusty buildup, and the dirt pot absorbing the water.

I start by soaking crusty clay pots for 20-30 minutes. If the buildup wipes or scrubs off easily, they're done.

Otherwise, I'll soak the pots longer. Keep checking until all the residue is easy to remove. You may need to utilize your pot castor to scrub some of the remainder off.

Soak Terracotta Pots In Vinegar Water Solution — Soaking terracotta pots in a vinegar and water solution

For really tough crusty buildup, y'all can soak the pot in pure vinegar (in the photo beneath, I'chiliad just soaking the rim of the pot where the crusty buildup is the worst).

If you soak the entire dirt pot in vinegar, you should soak information technology in water afterward to dilute the vinegar the pot absorbed.

Soaking terracotta pot in vinegar to remove tough buildup

Footstep three: Run pots through the dishwasher. As a concluding step, I run the terracotta pots through the quick wash wheel on my dishwasher.

This will help to disinfect the pots and clean them.

If y'all don't have a dishwasher, you lot can apply a little actress elbow grease and scrub the pots in soapy water.

That's it, you're done! Run across, I told you information technology was easy.

Equally for those dingy, crusty old clay pots I got for gratuitous. Well, hither's what they await similar subsequently I finished cleaning them…

Make clean and shiny terracotta pots expect brand new

WOW! Tin you believe these are the aforementioned terracotta pots?

Seriously, it took about 30 minutes of my time (not counting the fourth dimension I permit the pots soak, and the time information technology took for the dishwasher to run) to clean these pots.

I'm pretty sure information technology's been several years since these pots take been cleaned (if ever). And now I have what look like brand new terra cotta pots (for free!).

Totally worth it!

How To Clean Large Terracotta Pots

If you have large terra cotta garden pots that are too large to submerge in a utility tub, bucket or sink, don't worry! You tin can still employ this method. Simply soak 1/ii of the planter at a time.

One time you've cleaned off all the crusty residue (steps 1-2) on the first half, then flip information technology over and practise the same matter to the other half.

Obviously you lot won't exist able to run large clay pots through the dishwasher, but that's ok. Yous tin just wash them with soapy water instead.

Terracotta pots have a timeless beauty, and can last for many years if given some TLC one time and a while. The good news is, it doesn't have much time to requite new life to your crusty quondam clay pots.

Now you can shop yard sales and thrift shops to find inexpensive terracotta flower pots (or perchance you'll find a agglomeration for free similar I did!), and and so clean them upwardly similar new!

Why buy terra cotta pots brand new when yous tin relieve yourself tons of coin with just a little time and elbow grease by cleaning old ones!