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Home » Video » P. Allen Smith | Cleaning Terra Cotta Containers

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  • P. Allen Smith's Garden Home

P. Allen Smith | Cleaning Terra Cotta Containers | PBS

Duration: 02:15
Program: P. Allen Smith's Garden Home
Broadcast Date: Mar. 9, 2012

Gardening and lifestyle expert P. Allen Smith gives us a lesson on how to clean and care for terra cotta containers. This video is from season 11 of his public television series, P. Allen Smith's Garden Home. I don't know about you, but I had to grow a lot of plants in containers around here. I like container gardening. But one of the things you may want to think about at the end of the season-- which I like to do it when I can find the time or at the beginning of the season—you want to take care of your terra cotta pots. I've got some small ones here just to illustrate what I'm doing. I like to take a bleach solution. And what I've done here is I've taken about 1/4 cup to 5 gallons of water to bleach. And you just want to Take your terra cotta pots and let them soak in this bleach solution for about 30 minutes. And what this does, it allows the water and bleach to get into the pores of your terra cotta. You see, pathogens can build up in the pores of the terra cotta from one season to the next. And what this will do is eliminate those and will ensure that you will have beautiful flowering containers next spring. Then all you do is just take them out and let them just air dry. You can either store them for next spring, or, if you're doing it in the spring, you can let them dry and then begin to plant them. Now, another thing I want to point out, if you have trouble with a lot of buildup and salts from fertilizer on your terra cotta pots, like you see on this particular ...

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Post Date: March 9, 2012