pot cleaning

Every time i hear a new way to get rid of the white stains from fertilizer, I give it a try. My latest was with the product CLR. I followed directions and mixed it 50-50% with water. I soaked a glazed pot for two minutes as directed, and slipped into clean water for a rinse. dried with a towel it came out pretty good. Worst example was unglazed pot. I ran it thru twice. Knocked it back a bit but not up to my likeing. I'm now allowing it to soak for an extended time.
Am I wasting my time trying to get rid of this "scale" or is there a tried and true way?

OK I'LL SHARE!...
When it was time to clean my not glazed pot for competition.
I used several toilet or sink cleaning sticks of pumice I bought at home depot, cheap.
Wet the pot and scrubbed the hell out of it! harder longer on the heaver white areas.
rising as I went along, going over the still white area's around rims several times, not easy!
The pumice quickly takes the shape of borders, lips and feet areas.
Dried the pot off! and some lite clouding here and there could still be seen,
after four hours of scrubbing. So brushed it with pure walnut oil and rubbed it down dry.
no do not leave oil on it, no more is not better, make sure to rub it dry as possible.
with a lint free rag or cloth, I used those blue surgical towels used in hospitals. don't ask!
did I remove old patina? no!, did it scratch the pot? no!...
Did it come out nice? yes!, would I do it again? yes! recommend it? yes!
If you have a not glazed, smooth type quality clay pot! works well! or I would not say so!
This was a high fired Tokoname antique pot, yes I was worried I would ruin it!
but I can tell you now it came out looking great! Found this method in a old note book,
filled with class instructions notes from my Sensei Naka-san dated 07-17-1970
"How to clean off lime on pots"...
stonener
*tried & true*

thanks for sharing

Thanks for the info

T GEORGE

Thanks stonener...will give try

Have you never used one of these??? They work like a champ on unglazed pots. I have all three coarseness options. You gotta try them. You might find them cheaper. Somewhere else. I just wanted to show you what I was talking about. Also great for cleaning rust off tools.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Bonsai-tree-Tools-Cleaning-Block-Kit-/370758098600?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item5652e79ea8

hi Stoner,
do you think it was the combination of the pumice scrub and walnut oil that worked so well ? i end up getting new trees in with stained pots but luckily our water here is so soft that it doesnt happen to the pots that sit on the benches for long.

when i was running aquariums if conditions were set (or changed) from alkaline to neutral/acid the deposits totally dissolved and disappeared. Anyone tried an acidic solution?

cheers Marcus

Try using WD40 on the scale before scrubbing, it softens the scale up pretty good. Takes about 10-15 minutes. I use WD40 on my swamp cooler parts to loosen up heavy duty scale. I can then just scrap it off, with out using it, the scale is like cement and nothing worked.

Mike