Do you wash your pots and seed trays ?

[raine]

I agree with flummery- lifes too short to iron sheets and just think how ecological we are not wasting water on rinsing trays!

[Shortie]

If anyone wants to come and help me hand wash 3000 3" pots and 5000 12xcell trays and 200 seed trays, they are more than welcome. Cause ain't no way I'm doing it !!

Lol Rat... I'd love to offer to help but I think I'm washing my hair at that point

[valmarg]

I know its a pain of a job, but being the third generation gardener, its just something you do!!

For many years I resisted having a dishwasher in the kitchen on the basis that I could do a better job than any machine. WRONG!! Having resisted for many years, I now accept that the 'machine' does a much better job than me.

My point is that I would like some entrepreneur out there to make a dishwasher for plantpots/trays. They could make a fortune!! As sewerrat says the number of pots/trays is astronomical in a business, and all they go to is landfill.

The reason we wash our pots is purely to re-use them. It may be somewhat simplistic, but Its something we have always done.

valmarg

[HeyWayne]

I know its a pain of a job, but being the third generation gardener, its just something you do!!

For many years I resisted having a dishwasher in the kitchen on the basis that I could do a better job than any machine. WRONG!! Having resisted for many years, I now accept that the 'machine' does a much better job than me.

My point is that I would like some entrepreneur out there to make a dishwasher for plantpots/trays. They could make a fortune!! As sewerrat says the number of pots/trays is astronomical in a business, and all they go to is landfill.

The reason we wash our pots is purely to re-use them. It may be somewhat simplistic, but Its something we have always done.

valmarg

Buy yourself a potters wheel, drill a large hole in the middle of the "turntable" and run a hose up through the centre. Stick a washing up brush over the top of it. As the wheel turns, the washing up brush will rotate and the water will come up through the brush. All you then do is pop your pot over the top for a few seconds et viola! Clean pots. The resulting muck will run off the potters wheel due to the centrifugal force.

If there isn't one of these already out there - you heard it here first!

[lainey lou]

Cricky! How d'ya think that one up this early in the morning!! You're on form!

[HeyWayne]

Cricky! How d'ya think that one up this early in the morning!! You're on form!

It's a secret I have.

Anyway, this ain't early! I always do my best thinking in the morning - brain's had a nice rest the night prior usually.

[lainey lou]

Perhaps you should patent it Wayne and make your fortune!

Don't forget us lot when you're rich and famous!

[Hazel at the Hill]

Sorry, Wayne - when I worked in a pub six zillion years ago we had a pot washing machine that worked like this....

[HeyWayne]

Sorry, Wayne - when I worked in a pub six zillion years ago we had a pot washing machine that worked like this....

You're spot on! I knew I'd seen it somewhere before! Did you have to fish the bits of broken glass out from the bottom at the end of the night too?

They had brushes round the outside too if I remember correctly...

[valmarg]

Hazel beat me to it HW. Yes those machines are available, but they are manual, insofar as you have to wash EVERY pot by hand. What I would like to see is the equivalent of the dishwasher I have in the kitchen. Put the pots in, set the programme, and in a set time take the pots out washed, clean and sterile.

valmarg

[HeyWayne]

So, what would be a good business venture if someone's reading this is to have a "pot hire" service where during the growing season the pots are "rented out" for a small fee to the grower. Then when they are finished with they are sent back to the owner who will have a large commercial steam cleaner (or similar), who cleans the pots during the winter months ready for the following spring....

[sewer rat]

Hazel beat me to it HW. Yes those machines are available, but they are manual, insofar as you have to wash EVERY pot by hand. What I would like to see is the equivalent of the dishwasher I have in the kitchen. Put the pots in, set the programme, and in a set time take the pots out washed, clean and sterile.

valmarg

My mate uses his dishwasher to clean his pots and trays !!!!!! - His wife doesn't seem to mind - I know Maggie would !

[Bren In Pots]

Washing plant pots can be a FUN activity.

I'll see if I can 'con' the grandkids into washing mine.