White Stuff (not Snow)!

clrosner

It seems that my trees love the water here in Southern New Jersey, and the taste is terrific, but the water leaves a nice coating on the pots.

I know that if you wipe baby oil or Mineral oil on the pots, it does seem to slow down the process of the accumulation of the "white stuff", which I think is Calcium carbonate.

However, sometime one forgets to do the oiling, and the results is never noticed until a tree has been potted.

My question to all of you out there in Bonsai Land, has anyone ever found a commercial product that works? I have tried "Lime away", CLR, vinegar and elbow grease and a few others, but the results are lousy!

My solution is to mount a drill in a vise with a steel brush and slowly grind away the deposits. It does take time, but does not seem to hurt the glaze on the pots. I have used this method on unglazed pots and it makes them look like I had just oiled them.



Any other suggestions for the future? I, and I think a few others would be most appreciative.

Here is one of my Shohin pots, which I wanted to show the before and after results.

Attached Images

pot a.jpg (50.5 KB, 142 views)

__________________
Carl L. Rosner - near Atlantic City zone 6/7
arteacher3725@yahoo.com

CHECK OUT MY UPDATED WEBSITE AT[B]:
www.carlrosner.com

Advertisement

mkonig

I am usually succesful with vinegar. Anything acidic should do the trick with limescale. Maybe its just the length of time you leave it in the solution? I leave mine in a water and (cheap) pickling vinegar solution for up to five days and it all comes off with very little effort.

Saying that, I also use mainly rainwater for my watering so it may not scaling may not be as severe as when you use tap water.

Mike

__________________
I refuse to have a battle of wits with an unarmed person

mkonig

__________________
I refuse to have a battle of wits with an unarmed person

Delboy

I used a piece of wet and dry paper to get this off one of my pots for a show this year. After cleaning apply vegetable oil, brings them up nice.



Your right about that Mike.

Regards
Delboy.

clrosner

I didn't mention that I had 12 pots to do!!!

Just to let you know, I tried soaking a pot in vinegar for three weeks, and all I did was lose the vinegar for my salad dressing. It didn't even make a dent in the scale. I could use a knife blade to scrape it off, but that was a little drastic.

My elbow grease would wear out before the knife blade!

__________________
Carl L. Rosner - near Atlantic City zone 6/7
arteacher3725@yahoo.com

CHECK OUT MY UPDATED WEBSITE AT[B]:
www.carlrosner.com

grampz

Muratic Acid...the type used by the masonary trade properly diluted has worked nicely for me...if I remember correctly there was even a thread in the past on this forum about dipping your plants in a diluted solution, although I have not tried that yet, but it works great for pots...

Regards
Behr

Bart Thomas(deceased)

The thread is:Leap of faith

W3rdSmyth

I use Muratic acid on a regular basis for work, which is the aquarium fish industry. It is used for a variety of reasons, but it works quite well.

imyerhukleberry

Just a thought here....



Try looking in the pool/hot tub section at the store.

...also, in your picture it looks as though the build up occurs in the spots where the water comes in contact with air on the surface of your pot. Maybe a preventative vinegar maintenance now and then will keep it down. That or soft water (if the minerals are coming from your water).