Watering Potted Plants on Pavers or Concrete leaves stains
If you’ve ended up here looking for solutions and answers. The answer is not to place your potted plants on top of your hardscapes at all.
Just about every paver sealing customer has heard my thoughts on potted plants sitting directly on pavers. Most of the staining left underneath planters doesn’t come from the water it comes from potting soil and the fertilizers mixed into it. The water simply acts as the delivery system, pulling those minerals out of the soil and draining them straight onto your pavers which ends up leaving behind an unsightly stain.
If you’ve started to notice stains around your planter pots which typically show up in a few months those stains are typically organic and can be cleaned off with sodium hypochlorite, or even if you just remove the planter early on most stains will fade by themselves over the next year. Stains from planters that are 6 months to a year or longer can also sometimes be completely removed. If you are trying to remove stains from planters that have been watered in place for multiple years often times those are mineral stains are set deeply embedded into the surface. Mineral stains cause by red clay iron oxide and vanadium which are fertilizers in potting soil may require acids in order to remove. Stains left to dwell for multiple years most likely will not come completely clean with organic or mineral cleaners.
If you absolutely must have potted plants on your pavers, do yourself a favor and use drip trays. There are some great ones out there with threaded drain holes that let you plumb a line and send that runoff somewhere it won’t ruin your hardscape. Try to find drip trays with feet so any trapped moisture underneath can easily escape.
