How do you remove terracotta stains from patio tiles?

[AussieVanda]

Some of my terracotta pots have stained my patio tiles. So far I've tried calcium/lime/rust remover and also hydrochloric acid at 35%. The CLR had no effect and the acid limited effect. Anyone got some ideas or tips?

[Lani]

Put the pot back in the same spot, stain gone! .... Yeah sorry I've got nothing, hopefully someone else does

[RosieC]

Are you sure it's the terracotta that stained it, or could it have been the fertiliser?

I've had fertiliser colour patio concrete slabs and the colour they've been stained is similar to terracotta (in big messy splodges) while the actually fertiliser was white. It's actually some chemical reaction that causes the colour as I understand it.

Unfortunately that doesn't really help, I've not found a way to get rid of it. In my case it's cheap concrete slabs we've been thinking of replacing for the last 10 years so we've ignored it. In your case maybe putting pots back there to cover it is the only way

[AussieVanda]

Originally Posted by Lani

Put the pot back in the same spot, stain gone! .... Yeah sorry I've got nothing, hopefully someone else does

I'm hearin ya!

The more I think about it, it's probably the media which caused the stain (volcanic rock)

[Leafmite]

The stains will likely fade and go away if it is volcanic rock. When I cleaned a bag of volcanic rock outside on my concrete drive way, it was red for a while but the color is now gone. Same with my front porch. Fertilizer stains are the difficult ones.

[AussieVanda]

Thanks all, yeah i might just shove a big planter over the top.