Should I clean my potato planters?

[stillplayswithtoys]

I have six of the felt planters which I used last year but all the plants got blight. Do I need to do anything to clean them this year before using them again? Any recommendations on how to clean them? (Sorry, total novice here!)

(If it makes a difference I've only just turned out the soil/spuds from two of them - they got left)

Thanks

I was going to say yes always when I saw the title - but not sure how you clean soft planters. I guess you could wash them in washing up liquid, rinse and peg out?

I woudl always try to wash pots between crops.

yes, you need to clean planters if there was disease.
not sure how you would go about it with this material though. maybe with a karcher?

Thanks, I could get a bucket of water and a scrubbing brush but washing up liquid? Diluted bleach?? Or will that just kill the plants? Trying to be organic and don't want spuds tasting of bleach!

Not bleach, I would use washing up liquid on my normal pots.

a quick google tells me thag gardeners use diluted, uncscented bleach (1part bleach to 9part water) or water with washing up liquid and vinegar.

tbh blight is a right pita, so I would go with bleach.

Trying to be organic and don't want spuds tasting of bleach! A plant is a factory for the braking down of any incoming chemicals and reassembling the bits into something different. I wouldn't worry about potatoes tasting of bleach.

Breaking of course

If they'd go in the washing machine I'd do bleach like I've done to sanitise nappies many times. Bleach breaks down to salt water quickly, this is sped up with heat,and is harmless after that. Or you can do it in the bath or something but that's more effort.

Would they survived a 90° wash in the machine? That would probably do it too.

Gardener here.

Blight is airborne, it can’t linger on inert materials like planters. It over winters in infected tubers left in the ground. If you’ve only just cleared two of the planters and they had potatoes it’s slightly possible those potatoes had some blight in them but you’d have known as they’d be slimy and smelly. Remember the seed potato does shrivel anyway, and can rot and look blighted even if it isn’t.

Not all gardeners wash their pots before reusing them, certainly they don't all use bleach and nobody can clean soil outdoors, so being squeaky clean isn’t considered crucial by many - it’s quite an old fashioned approach more in line with victorians who had servants and clay pots, and the post-war maximum crop monoculture-chemical approach. There is more recognition of gardening inevitably involving development of an ecosystem, and that there is good in that as well as the odd pest.

If you are concerned I’d say a good rinse off first then chuck them in the washing machine on a short hot wash with a smidge of washing detergent. Don’t aim for sterility in gardening, it’s just not like that.