How to Remove Calcium from Bonsai Pots

[Random Usr]

Here's how:

DREMEL (Meec, whatever)

Dremel ROTARY BRUSH
This packet contains 2 brushes: One light, one coarse.
The light one will take much longer, the coarse one might damage the pot if your hand is too heavy.

SILICONE SPRAY will protect the pot from further calcium deposits from building up. It WILL NOT REMOVE the calcium. Nor will oil.

 

[Stickroot]

Soak in this. If you are concerned about patina... Dilute it with distilled water.
Also, whale fat/leather conditioner is a 1000 year old protectant, works SUPER!

 

[Random Usr]

I wouldn't try it with a tree inside it. I have mostly large bonsai. A small one could be plucked out while you soak the pot for a day or 2 ... but a large one is a different story.

 

[Stickroot]

I wouldn't try it with a tree inside it. I have mostly large bonsai. A small one could be plucked out while you soak the pot for a day or 2 ... but a large one is a different story.

I have wiped it on pots with trees for years, it wipes deposits right off and no harm to tree. A good rinse when I'm done is good precaution. I use this to adjust to the proper PH to water with, it is for horticulture.

 

[Random Usr]

I have wiped it on pots with trees for years, it wipes deposits right off and no harm to tree. A good rinse when I'm done is good precaution. I use this to adjust to the proper PH to water with, it is for horticulture.

You're saying "wipe on" & "wipe off"? And the calcium is gone? Please forgive me for being sceptical. It's not that I don't want to believe, but ....... Your lower photo doesn't look like calcium. It looks like oxidation.

 

[Anthony]

Hmm, on our side, you would be warned not to u se or drink water that hard.
Can you say gall stones ?

Rainwater or purified water. Most of the island's water in the south is rainwater collected in large dams.
Doesn't spot.
.
Vinegar will remove calcium/magnesium deposits. Perhaps a soak of the pot.

Anyhow, please be careful drinking that water.
Good Day
Anthony

 

[Random Usr]

Hmm, on our side, you would be warned not to u se or drink water that hard.
Can you say gall stones ?

Rainwater or purified water. Most of the island's water in the south is rainwater collected in large dams.
Doesn't spot.
.
Vinegar will remove calcium/magnesium deposits. Perhaps a soak of the pot.

Anyhow, please be careful drinking that water.
Good Day
Anthony

I bought the pot (second-hand) in Albania ...... with the calcium deposits. It's their water what done it.

 

[rockm]

Here's how:

DREMEL (Meec, whatever)

Dremel ROTARY BRUSH
This packet contains 2 brushes: One light, one coarse.
The light one will take much longer, the coarse one might damage the pot if your hand is too heavy.

SILICONE SPRAY will protect the pot from further calcium deposits from building up. It WILL NOT REMOVE the calcium. Nor will oil.

Whatever you do, if its a decent pot DON'T take a dremel to it. You will pretty much ruin the pot.

Soaking in low pH bath will work, but it will take time.

When I get stains like this on a good bonsai pot, I bury it in the backyard under pine mulch. This is the slow-go method, but it removes all of the stain, completely. You have to leave the pot buried for at least a year though. Not a solution if you plan on using the pot in that time. If a cheap grow pot gets stains on it, I don't give a crap, mostly.

I would also not try to "protect" decent pots with crap like silicone spray and grease. You WANT some character to build up on it.

Of course if the pot isn't a decent one, removing the stain mostly like polishing a turd. ;-)

 

[Dav4]

Whatever you do, if its a decent pot DON'T take a dremel to it. You will pretty much ruin the pot.

Soaking in low pH bath will work, but it will take time.

When I get stains like this on a good bonsai pot, I bury it in the backyard under pine mulch. This is the slow-go method, but it removes all of the stain, completely. You have to leave the pot buried for at least a year though. Not a solution if you plan on using the pot in that time. If a cheap grow pot gets stains on it, I don't give a crap, mostly.

I would also not try to "protect" decent pots with crap like silicone spray and grease. You WANT some character to build up on it.

Of course if the pot isn't a decent one, removing the stain mostly like polishing a turd. ;-)

Peter Krebs and Michael Ryan Bell espouse cleaning pots on a regular basis then applying an oil (MRB uses WD-40) as a means of building up the patina more quickly while avoiding mineral deposition.

 

[Random Usr]

Whatever you do, if its a decent pot DON'T take a dremel to it. You will pretty much ruin the pot ........ I would also not try to "protect" decent pots with crap like silicone spray and grease. You WANT some character to build up on it.

What are you talking about? I don't know where you get your ideas & biases, but ........... I disagree with you completely. My pots look good and they have more character than you can shake a stick at. Bonsai (the art that it is) is not a Fascist enterprise.

 

[rockm]

What are you talking about? I don't know where you get your ideas & biases, but ........... I disagree with you completely. My pots look good and they have more character than you can shake a stick at. Bonsai (the art that it is) is not a Fascist enterprise.

Facist I may be, but Just sayin dude, scrubbing bonsai pots with power tools probably isn't the best thing for the finish or the value, or possibly the esthetics.
https://peterteabonsai.wordpress.com/2011/08/28/pots-and-patina/
http://www.bonsaipots.net/index.php?page=patina-on-old-pots

 

[rockm]

Peter Krebs and Michael Ryan Bell espouse cleaning pots on a regular basis then applying an oil (MRB uses WD-40) as a means of building up the patina more quickly while avoiding mineral deposition.

Do they recommend power tools?

 

[Dav4]

Do they recommend power tools?

Ummm, nope.

 

[0soyoung]

What ever happened to rubbing your pots with a nut sack?
Does it apply to polishing turds too?

 

[Dav4]

The idea is to avoid the mineral deposits in the first place. Once they're an issue, they're a pain in the ass to remove without damaging either the glaze or the patina already present. MRB will actually tell you to live with mineral deposits on an old pot with otherwise good patina, rather then screw up the pot trying to fix it.

 

[Dav4]

What ever happened to rubbing your pots with a nut sack?

Ask Adair.

 

[Random Usr]

..... scrubbing bonsai pots with power tools probably isn't the best thing for the finish or the value, or possibly the esthetics.

Some people know how to hold the cue stick, others do not.

 

[Random Usr]

Do they recommend power tools?

To 'apply oil'?

 

[rockm]

To 'apply oil'?

Some people know how to hold the cue stick, others do not.

Is this some kind of Swedish thing?

Here's an American reply

 

[Random Usr]

Is this some kind of Swedish thing?

Here's an American reply

View attachment 112633

Yes, I understand the problem now. In Sweden we value calmness. Maybe that's why I can use power tools without destroying the project. Taking things personally, being aggressive, 'blowing one's top' are frowned upon. In the US it's quite the other way around. It's a very interesting subject.