My potting soil has: sphagnum peat moss, vermiculite, perilite, and other nutrients. I use fresh potting soil for new seedlings. When older plants die out, I take out the plant and dead roots and put the old soil in a bucket to use later for replantings. Is this a good idea or should I always be using fresh soil???
I'm glad you asked this question because I want to know too My co-worker reuses soil and doesn't seem to have very good luck with houseplants, I guess I should call them "office plants". I hate to throw it out but I hate to waste my time on a plant that just struggles. So far I've been adding it to the compost bin Deanna :-D
I add it to the compost bin too or top-dress the flower beds in the garden with it. I rarely, if ever, re-use houseplant soil as the nutrients tend to be drained from it after using it. However, if you DO re-use then I would buy a pack of houseplant mineral supplement powder and mix in with the soil before planting up.
I too compost old soil or spread it into my vegetable garden. I'll also use at as a filler in larger pots of annual flowers, as long as the soil wasn't from a plant that was diseased.
I do pretty much the same as Eileen and Kaseylib...but for me it depends upon what happened to the plants. If they just up and died a "mysterious" death, then I don't do that because I am a scardy-cat for disease. ha ha ha. I don't put it on the compost all the time either, because the bulk of that compost goes onto and into the veggie patches.--my philosophy here being that if it is "bad" I can replace flowering plants if it causes harm, but if it's bad and my crops fail, I don't always get a second chance. Heh heh heh...yeah, I know...this is a bit extreme, but there are just so many unknown factors in a gardening season, I just think,..."why take one MORE chance". :-D
Some florist told me, they do not empty the soil yearly......... Just add when they need more????? I saved some and it isnt hurting anything yet.. b
o.k. so it sounds like I should always just use new good soil. But if it shouldn't be used in compost because it may or may not be diseased-what does one do with left over, used, bad, soil??some people do recycle, is there such a thing of recycleing bad soil??
If it is not diseased soil, then there is no such thing as bad soil. All soil, in gardens, eventually gets leached and have to be supplemented. all that happens is that some of the required nutrients are not present anymore. And as gardeners we remedy the situation.
If my plant had a pest, I throw plant, soil and pot in the trash. Otherwise I put it in the compost or in the flower beds. When re-potting I add new soil. The big plants only get a fresh top layer of soil.
I'm also glad this question was asked. I always reuse my soil. I hadn't thought of the nutrients being washed out, each time you water. I thought as long as I fertilized that was good enough! You learn something new everyday :-D
I toss it if the plant died some kind of weird plant-disease death, otherwise I reuse it with some fresh stirred in or with fertilizer to beef it back up. I've heard of 'sterilizing' dirt by baking it in your oven, but I would think the smell alone would be a bit much (hot dirt for dinner!)
I usually dump the old into the garden where it gets worked in with the existing soil and I put fresh in my pots. I do this with both house plants and outside container plants.
composting is my number one thing to do. But putting it in a pan in a low-temp oven for a couple hours works too. At the greenhouse I used to work at, they built a big wooden box and sealed the wood with fiberglass resin, then laid a heat cable from an old waterbed in it to slowly sterilize the soil. A friend whose family made their name with a nursery says he does the same thing.
Hubby was just telling me something about this baking the dirt. I guess this would be good, its just taking the time to do this then putting nutrients back into it. Maybe its just as easy to rid it to the garden and start with fresh soil. My new baby plants will be happy. Thanks for everyones opinion and ideas.
btw, vermiculite and perlite have no nutrient value to them. Vermiculite is just mica that's been heated so it expands. They are there to keep the soil friable.
