I worked with pottery for many years and wanted to address your concerns about heating pots in the oven. Ok..so before you have a pot, you have clay which has silica (glass) in it which is what vitrifies to become hard when firing. There are basically three types of ceramics including porcelain, earthenware and stoneware. Our commercial pots are earthenware which means the vitrification process is not complete and the finished product remains porous. Firing temperatures for this are around 1650 degrees F. Now, if a pot is dry when fired, it won't crack, as the pot is put into the kiln while it's cool and it heats up gradually. Since oven temperatures are way lower than kiln temperatures are, it's safe to put them in the oven (even wet, I've done it dozens of times). What you want to avoid is rapid cooling or heating which can crack vitrified materials. Raku glazing cracks for this exact reason- a red hot piece of ceramic is taken from the kiln and stuck in a garbage can of something like newspaper and removed to air temperature within a few minutes. Even your cracked pot, if put in the oven while the oven is cool and then leave it in the oven until the oven cools, they will be fine. Just don't drop your hot pots into water, for example. However, even if you dropped a 450 degree pot into water, I don't think it would crack, but it's safer to just let them air cool.
Thank you so much. I think putting clay pots in the oven is the easiest and most fail-proof way to clean pots. I also read in an American orchid society magazine that if you stick them in on the self-cleaning setting that even salt deposits get burned away which..well I wish I'd known about that back when I had hard water. No more soaking in vinegar to remove salts, then soaking in plain water to remove the vinegar, then sterilizing.
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I can verify that my clay pots did not shatter or crack when I put them in the oven. And I was rather reckless. I did a major cleaning and put them in the already hot oven one after another, especially the wet ones because they dry off so evenly. And a bonus: those very stubborn salt deposits at the bottom and the upper rim tend to leak and form a film that I could just wipe off. This only works when you put in soaked pots. No need for scraping. This method is very convenient, no need for time consuming precautions and preparations. Also less chemicals for yourself and the environment.
If you hate bleach as much as I do then bake your pots in the oven. It's the least pain-in-the-back way to do it. Some of my pots are cheap too and the oven doesn't crack them, you should try it with a couple.
This was quite accurate. In the lab you usually desinfect using a 4% bleach solution, so 10% should be quite quite strong actually. Long exposure to bleach kills most things you could worry about so in my opinion with the lab experience I have that is more efficient than all the other methods you mentioned. I haven't tried, but for hard to remove algae or salts bicarbonate of soda scrubbed first, then a bit of vinegar and scrubbing again should do the trict :)
If you want to try boiling, there are a couple of tricks you can use. First, if you're afraid the vibration against the metal pot will cause cracks, or make existing cracks worse, you can put a folded kitchen towel in the bottom of the pot of water to provide padding. Next, if you're afraid of 'thermal shock' from putting a cold clay pot inside boiling water, you can put the clay pot inside the metal pot, fill it with cold water, and then bring the whole thing up to a boil. Slowly bringing the clay pot up to a boil should reduce the risk of cracking from the heat. I like your bleaching technique and I would probably just use that myself. I just wanted to provide some options in case some people are really really anti-bleach :)
Hi Danny! If you'd like a faster way to disable chlorine from the pores of your ceramic pots, try adding some ascorbic acid crystals (vitamin C) to your soak water. The results are almost immediate. This is one method Water Utilites here in the States, neutralize chlorine and chloramine when they have to discharge large amounts of chlorinated water into the environment. It's also great for removing that chlorine smell from your hands, should you get chlorine on them. I've used it before to remove chlorine from water, before adding it to my fish tanks. By all means, look it up online... this will save both water and time! 🌱
Brava! This is excellent! You addressed every issue I could think of and then more that I hadn't thought of. You get an A+ from this self-appointed safety inspector!
Hello, do you think that the bambus stakes which come with the plants could be disinfected with bleach also? How long should the stakes be in the solution? Or is it not safe and it is necessary to throw them away? The problem is, that I did put all the used stakes together, just spraying them with hydrogen peroxide. But now I found that one of recently purchased plants has fusarium so I cannot reuse any of the stakes if I cannot thoroughly disinfect them before reusing. And what about plastic pots? Is it ok to just wash them thoroughly with alcohol or bleach solution? Or is it necessary to leave them in the bleach solution for a longer time? Thank you.
cant you use alcohol to disinfect? i'm guessing that these pots are the ones from the dead orchids, but when you repot the other orchids are you going to damage the roots when prying them of the pot or are you planing to smash the pot in peices and put it all in a new pot? =)
You mentioned placing your pots in the sunshine to dry out. We have not had any sun for 23 days. Main question is: we are going into our deep-freeze for winter - -13 degrees C during day, but sunny. Nights -20 C - My orchids are on a very large windowsill. Should I move them forward during the night, or can they survive (inside temperature at window) or can they survive 12 degrees C ? We have 2 feet of snow and it is going to get really cold. What suggestions can you offer?
+Marcella Miller well depends on the Catts, some can actually take lower temps, like Laelias, but to be safe I would strive for a minimum of 15 C just to be safe.
Bleach is really very good. I sterilize my humidity trays and pots with that. Here they sell pure bleach, and also some with fragrance, and it's good to check before buying to make sure it isn't scented. Is it cold there?
Brown or yellow? One or two yellow leaves is normal if they're the bottom leaves. They'll eventually fall off, and it's part of the normal lifecycle of the plant. If they're brown, or not the bottom leaves, I would suspect rot or a fungal infection, or maybe sunburn. Are they mushy or dry and leathery? Do they have brown spots, brown tips, or is the whole leaf brown?
I worked with pottery for many years and wanted to address your concerns about heating pots in the oven. Ok..so before you have a pot, you have clay which has silica (glass) in it which is what vitrifies to become hard when firing. There are basically three types of ceramics including porcelain, earthenware and stoneware. Our commercial pots are earthenware which means the vitrification process is not complete and the finished product remains porous. Firing temperatures for this are around 1650 degrees F. Now, if a pot is dry when fired, it won't crack, as the pot is put into the kiln while it's cool and it heats up gradually. Since oven temperatures are way lower than kiln temperatures are, it's safe to put them in the oven (even wet, I've done it dozens of times). What you want to avoid is rapid cooling or heating which can crack vitrified materials. Raku glazing cracks for this exact reason- a red hot piece of ceramic is taken from the kiln and stuck in a garbage can of something like newspaper and removed to air temperature within a few minutes. Even your cracked pot, if put in the oven while the oven is cool and then leave it in the oven until the oven cools, they will be fine. Just don't drop your hot pots into water, for example. However, even if you dropped a 450 degree pot into water, I don't think it would crack, but it's safer to just let them air cool.
Indoor Orchids and Tropicals versions français svp
That was exactly what I wanted to say! It is all about rapid cooling... Nice description by you!! :)
Thank you so much. I think putting clay pots in the oven is the easiest and most fail-proof way to clean pots. I also read in an American orchid society magazine that if you stick them in on the self-cleaning setting that even salt deposits get burned away which..well I wish I'd known about that back when I had hard water. No more soaking in vinegar to remove salts, then soaking in plain water to remove the vinegar, then sterilizing.
Voulez-vous dire mon commentaire? Voulez-vous dire que vous voulez des versions françaises de mes vidéos? Vous pouvez utiliser 'Google translate' pour traduire tout texte.
I can verify that my clay pots did not shatter or crack when I put them in the oven. And I was rather reckless. I did a major cleaning and put them in the already hot oven one after another, especially the wet ones because they dry off so evenly.
And a bonus: those very stubborn salt deposits at the bottom and the upper rim tend to leak and form a film that I could just wipe off. This only works when you put in soaked pots. No need for scraping.
This method is very convenient, no need for time consuming precautions and preparations. Also less chemicals for yourself and the environment.
If you hate bleach as much as I do then bake your pots in the oven. It's the least pain-in-the-back way to do it. Some of my pots are cheap too and the oven doesn't crack them, you should try it with a couple.
This was quite accurate. In the lab you usually desinfect using a 4% bleach solution, so 10% should be quite quite strong actually.
Long exposure to bleach kills most things you could worry about so in my opinion with the lab experience I have that is more efficient than all the other methods you mentioned.
I haven't tried, but for hard to remove algae or salts bicarbonate of soda scrubbed first, then a bit of vinegar and scrubbing again should do the trict :)
If you want to try boiling, there are a couple of tricks you can use.
First, if you're afraid the vibration against the metal pot will cause cracks, or make existing cracks worse, you can put a folded kitchen towel in the bottom of the pot of water to provide padding.
Next, if you're afraid of 'thermal shock' from putting a cold clay pot inside boiling water, you can put the clay pot inside the metal pot, fill it with cold water, and then bring the whole thing up to a boil. Slowly bringing the clay pot up to a boil should reduce the risk of cracking from the heat.
I like your bleaching technique and I would probably just use that myself. I just wanted to provide some options in case some people are really really anti-bleach :)
Hi Danny! If you'd like a faster way to disable chlorine from the pores of your ceramic pots, try adding some ascorbic acid crystals (vitamin C) to your soak water. The results are almost immediate. This is one method Water Utilites here in the States, neutralize chlorine and chloramine when they have to discharge large amounts of chlorinated water into the environment. It's also great for removing that chlorine smell from your hands, should you get chlorine on them. I've used it before to remove chlorine from water, before adding it to my fish tanks. By all means, look it up online... this will save both water and time! 🌱
+Laurie Paris oh thanks for the tip I'll check it out definitely! :D
Brava! This is excellent! You addressed every issue I could think of and then more that I hadn't thought of.
You get an A+ from this self-appointed safety inspector!
Thanks! It's a really clear video - keep up the good work!
Hi Danny, sounds good to me. You convinced me that bleach is really the best way to disinfect the pots !
Thanks for sharing.
Happy growing !
I'd rather bake them then add any chemicals to my pots!
Going to try this method for repotting my 2 orchids since I don t have a pot replacement for now due to quarantine so this will do.
How about a slow heating up in the oven, gradually increasing temperature so the wet pots don't crack? An experiment?
What about plastic pots? Including new pots that I've put the ventilation holes on them.
Hi Danni! What about disinfecting seramis and other inorganic medium?
Hello, do you think that the bambus stakes which come with the plants could be disinfected with bleach also? How long should the stakes be in the solution? Or is it not safe and it is necessary to throw them away? The problem is, that I did put all the used stakes together, just spraying them with hydrogen peroxide. But now I found that one of recently purchased plants has fusarium so I cannot reuse any of the stakes if I cannot thoroughly disinfect them before reusing.
And what about plastic pots? Is it ok to just wash them thoroughly with alcohol or bleach solution? Or is it necessary to leave them in the bleach solution for a longer time? Thank you.
Thank you.
cant you use alcohol to disinfect?
i'm guessing that these pots are the ones from the dead orchids, but when you repot the other orchids are you going to damage the roots when prying them of the pot or are you planing to smash the pot in peices and put it all in a new pot? =)
You mentioned placing your pots in the sunshine to dry out. We have not had any sun for 23 days. Main question is: we are going into our deep-freeze for winter - -13 degrees C during day, but sunny. Nights -20 C - My orchids are on a very large windowsill. Should I move them forward during the night, or can they survive (inside temperature at window) or can they survive 12 degrees C ? We have 2 feet of snow and it is going to get really cold.
What suggestions can you offer?
+Marcella Miller well depends on the Catts, some can actually take lower temps, like Laelias, but to be safe I would strive for a minimum of 15 C just to be safe.
Thanks
Bleach is really very good. I sterilize my humidity trays and pots with that. Here they sell pure bleach, and also some with fragrance, and it's good to check before buying to make sure it isn't scented. Is it cold there?
+Orchids & a Dutchy Indeed, better go with the cheapest one :)) and not really but I'm always cold if temps go under 25C lol
what size are these pots and width
length diameter pls
Where did you get your gloves?
Love your videos. ..
Hi Danni, can you please help me! Some of my phal leafs are truing brown
Brown or yellow? One or two yellow leaves is normal if they're the bottom leaves. They'll eventually fall off, and it's part of the normal lifecycle of the plant. If they're brown, or not the bottom leaves, I would suspect rot or a fungal infection, or maybe sunburn. Are they mushy or dry and leathery? Do they have brown spots, brown tips, or is the whole leaf brown?
Do I have to disinfect a new clay pot with bleach? Is this step necessary for a new pot?