tx_flower_child said: ...
Do you soak the pots or just give them a quick swish?
Is the bleach still effective after cleaning X number of pots? (same day of course)
...
Soak!
What I read says
"dilute 1:10 and soak for 10 minutes".
I don't have any clay pots, but if I did, I would soak them longer during the pre-wash and also longer in bleach.
I think I read someone say that "hard water" or "lime" deposits are less harmful on clay pots than using harsh chemical "lime removers" like "CLR" or "Lime-Away". Scrub, yes, but CLR, no. I think.
But if I have a lot to do, and not much time, I skimp on the bleach step. Also, if I don't make up a 5 gallon bucket, I have to keep spraying or sprinkling bleach repeatedly. In that case, the whole batch gets sprinkled repeatedly every few minutes until I run out of mix. Then I hope that the bleach clings enough to kill 90%, 99%, or 99.9% of whatever microbes are still there.
That's why I think of it as: "clean VERY THOROUGHLY ... and then also get some bleach on them".
But I use every method I know to
prevent damping off, and I don't know of any real soil disease problems in my few potted plants. So for me it's a preventative practice.
If I still had trays or pots where I KNEW I had damping off or soil disease problems, (or dirty ones I just brought home from a discard bin) I would "clean VERY THOROUGHLY", make sure they were immersed in bleach for
more than 10 minutes, and then also leave them outside so that random microbes from rain and dust would have time to compete with and displace any remaining pathogens. Then clean them again.
Or, what's probably smarter : if you have a tray or pot where you KNOW there was an infection ... throw it away.
-----
>> Is the bleach still effective after cleaning X number of pots? (same day of course)
With plastic, which is most of what I use, I think one bucket can disinfect MANY plastic trays and pots. If they are wet when I put them in, they might dilute the bucket, but I can always add another few ounces of bleach. With clay, I don't really know for sure how long one batch lasts.
BUT I always "clean VERY THOROUGHLY" before bleaching. If there is a pinch of dirt on each tray, I expect that to "consume" the bleach rather rapidly.
These are my practices and opinions. I don't know for sure how well supported they are.
But I trust the idea that CLEANING is needed to remove the first 99.9% of crud and pathogen spores. I would not trust bleaching without cleaning, at all.
And my opinion is that cleaning is desirable as a preventative measure, even if you have no "greenhouse diseases" or "pot ghetto diseases" YET.
Some others don't bother with bleach OR even cleaning, , and some of them get away with it just fine, as others have said.
