Plastic Watering Cans

[Geoff]

Does anybody else find their designs silly?
Washing them out today, after having soaked them in Jeyes Fluid for a while to kill off all the green slime, I realised two of them I couldn't get my hand in the filling hole. As well as that they have these hollow handles where stuff collects that you have to clean with a bottle brush. I must look at them more carefully next time I need a new one.

[Colin_M]

Not directly related, but a lady who has a gardening column in the Guardian Weekend magazine recently wrote about how she always cleaned her plantpots by putting them in her dishwasher.

She got a few letters from incredulous readers the following week.

Might be the answer for your hard-to-clean watering can
Probably likely to get you banned from the kitchen though

[Monika]

Geoff, about your watering can: I submerge mine completely in one of those large flexible tubs one can buy nowadays in lots of different colours (very useful things, for all kinds of purposes I find!) in warm water with a dishwasher tablet and leave it to soak. and then give it a cleanout. I know you can still not get into the spout and the hollow handle, but a good shake with water in them seems to clean them out after the algae etc have been loosened by the dishwasher chemicals.

And Colin, about washing the flower pots (the watering can is presumably too large for the dishwasher): a dishwasher engineer once told me that the inevitable small grit from the flower pots wouldn't do the filter any good, so I gave up washing the pots in the machine.

Hope that helps.

[Geoff]

Tricky to follow Colin or Monika as we don't have a dishwasher (I could buy tablets specially of course). I have left the worst can full of bleach so I'll see how that works out. Don't wash many pots just wipe then out when they are dry.

[Beryl]

I try and clean mine before the winter sets in, I don't always remember and then find its the snails that over-winter in the spouts and handles that's the problem.

Beryl.

[Primrose]

Oh dear - I'm ashamed to admit that I hardly ever wash out my watering can (which is used for straightforward watering). It never really occured to me that it might be harbouring any infections which might be damaging to plants. I always leave it empty when not in use.

I do thoroughly wash out the separate watering can I use if it has any weedkiller in it which is used on the lawn though. I've noticed that my ordinary plastic watering can has developed a small split near the large hole and suspect that being exposed to sub zero temperatures during the winter has probably made it brittle.

[Colin_M]

the inevitable small grit from the flower pots wouldn't do the filter any good, so I gave up washing the pots in the machine.

Monika, call me slovenly, but I only mentioned this because I'm amazed anyone would go to the lengths of putting plant pots in their dishwasher.

[Monika]

I thought it was a great idea when we first got a dishwasher and the pots certainly emerged clean and, presumably, fairly sterile. Now its back to brush, hot water and, as mentioned above, dishwasher tablet in a tub.

[richard p]

ive never washed a plant pot or a watering can

[Johnboy]

Hi Geoff,
I have a 100 gallon tank about 75% full with a Jeyes Fluid Solution and just so long as things are immersed for a couple of hours the nasties are killed off. (the solution is like Heineken it reaches the parts where others cannot)
With pots they go in dirty and if some of the soil is still on when they come out I know the soil has been treated and do not bother. I have not had any difficulties yet.
When the watering cans and the pots are done I use the solution up by scrubbing my stagings.
JB.

[Geoff]

It's the lumps of dead algae that come loose and block the rose I'm trying to get rid of.

[Johnboy]

Hi Geoff,
I never leave watering cans full of water so I probably do not get the same problems. My watering cans are mainly used in the tunnels and most of the outside crops are on various mist systems manually operated.
Feeding of outside plants is done with spray units and the nozzle sizes allow for some larger particles and the equipment always rinsed after use.
I never use rainwater from the butts for anything other than the lawns.
JB.

[Geoff]

I always leave cans full to acclimatise to where I am going to use them and sometimes that includes food so I suppose that makes things worse. I don't use water butts.

[Ian in Cumbria]

JB

Why don't you use water from the water butt for anything other than the lawn? Is there something wrong with using it elsewhere?

Regards

Ian

[Johnboy]

Hi Ian,
Too many impurities in the water from rainwater butts.
JB.