cleaning tomato pots

[albion]

Just wondered what views people have about washing tomato pots for the new season. Is it vital or even important or should I not bother at all Thanks in advance.

[Fork]

Good hygiene in the garden is a must really and that includes giving your tomato pots a good scrub out.

[Tee Gee]

I'm with Fork on this one

This is one of my January jobs;





Believe it or not there are six hundred pots there.

Then you can add around 50 trays and tray inserts to this pile!

[Ian Pearson]

Pish-posh to cleaning I say! Home-made-non sterile compost, dirty seed trays, and dirty pots works for me.
Any weakling plants will be de-selected the way that nature intended, and you will be left with the strong. If you save your own seed for the following year you will have the seed of strong parents, not mollycoddled milksops.

It's the same with children nowadays - they live in a sterilized world, eat sterilized food, drink pasturised milk, and develop allergies because their immune system has nothing to practice on. Now when Ahy were a lad ...

[cornykev]

During the war.   
I would deffo recommend you clean your pots and trays in hot soapy water.     

[Fork]

I'm with Fork on this one

This is one of my January jobs;





Believe it or not there are six hundred pots there.

Then you can add around 50 trays and tray inserts to this pile!

I was going to count them....but Im not 

[ajb]

Yes, I know every book recommends it. But I must confess: sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. I have never noticed any difference, I clean the ones destined to spend any time in the house, for aesthetics more than anything else. I'd clean if toms had been blighted though or any other disease.

[small]

I'm on the side of the washers. Since I've started washing all my pots at the back end, I have had more reliable germination and healthier plants.  It's quite a pleasant winter job and I love to see piles of clean pots and trays.

[Jayb]

I'm afraid I'm a bit lazy on this one. I do rinse all my pots, modules and root trainers before stacking. But I don't get around to scrubbing all of mine.

[tim]

At my age, there are priorities. I do know the advice about washing, followed for 50 years, but for 2 years now, I've given up.
Nothing's changed - so far.

[PurpleHeather]

I feel sure that the idea of washing pots all came about to give the 'boy' something to do and the reasoning to support the decision was invented to support it and ever since it has become a rule.

I have never in my life washed a pot and neither did the generations of gardeners I followed.

I do dry out pots and brush off any dust before storing. I also grab any spare pots left on the allotment help yourself bin.

Also I wash my greenhouse glass with vinegar. How many of you pot washers clean your green house glass?

[amphibian]

I am a none-washer. I get excellent germination rates. I am an avid believer that we need to breed resistance back into our crops, plants and people are victims of an over sterile world and are weakened as a result..

[Deb P]

Another shake 'em and stack 'em merchant here...I'm sure my mother would not approve of my sluttish  uncleansed pots, but as I also have never suffered any germination or damping off problems I intend to continue in my slovenly ways......

[terrier]

Well, I just hate to see dirty pots lying around. I keep a bucket of water with a drop of Jeyes in it on the workbench, every time I empty a pot, I just swish it in the bucket before the muck has a chance to dry and it comes out clean. The truth is I just love the smell of Jeyes 

[Robert_Brenchley]

I leave them to accumulate dirt, it's all extra plant food. I'd hate to have been a Victorian pot boy!

[Hyacinth]

The truth is I just love the smell of Jeyes 

I CANNOT believe that!!

C'mon..anyone else here going to confess to being turned on by the smell of Municipal lavs, then?

(and, for how long have you been in Therapy?)

[albion]

wow what a fantastic response. thanks for your fascinating replies. plenty to think about but I am leaning towards non washing on time grounds but the building up resistance theories certainly have merit as does the jobs for a boy to do.