Can I Reuse Soil From a Dead Plant
Yes, You Can Reuse Your Potting Soil Instead of Tossing It at the End of the Flavor
Bagged mixes for containers aren't "dirt cheap," then here'southward how to brand the nearly of it.
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When your flowers fade, and the temperatures drib, it'due south time to empty your containers and put them away for the winter. Information technology's tempting to keep and reuse the old potting soil, which can be pricey, specially when you accept a lot of potted plants like I do. Just this lightweight mix of compost, peat, perlite, and other materials doesn't last forever. Plants use upward the nutrients in it as they grow, and the mix tin become compacted and filled with roots. Sometimes pests, diseases, and weeds can take up residence, ready to pop back up when you replant in the mix. Nevertheless, yous tin can remedy each of these issues and get another apply out of your potting soil with a fiddling extra work.
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How to Reuse Potting Soil
It's mostly fine to reuse potting soil if whatever yous were growing in it was healthy. If you lot did detect pests or diseases on your plants, it's best to sterilize the mix to avoid infecting next twelvemonth'southward plants. Offset, remove whatsoever roots, grubs, leaves, and other debris from the old potting soil. Then, decide on the best method for banishing microbes and insects.
Ane technique for sterilizing soil is called solarizing. Information technology involves putting old potting soil in lidded, v-gallon buckets ($eight, The Habitation Depot) or black plastic bags that are tightly tied shut and leaving them in the sun for 4-6 weeks. The heat builds upwardly inside the buckets or bags just enough to kill bugs and pathogens.
Y'all also can sterilize one-time potting soil in your oven. Place it in an oven-rubber pan, comprehend with foil, and broil information technology at 180 to 200 degrees F for 30 minutes. (I tried this one time, only didn't like the earthy olfactory property it created.) It's also important to check the soil temperature with a candy or meat thermometer ($21, Williams Sonoma) to brand sure it stays below 200 degrees. Higher temperatures tin release toxins. When information technology's done, take the soil out of the oven and go along it covered until it cools.
Microwaving is another option. Put onetime, moistened potting soil in quart-size, microwavable containers. Encompass them with microwavable lids (never employ foil) that yous can poke ventilation holes in or tin can leave cracked to allow steam to escape. Oestrus at total power for most 90 seconds per two pounds of soil. Remove the containers, cover the vent holes with record, and let the soil absurd completely before using it.
One time your quondam potting soil has been sterilized, you'll need to replenish its nutrients. You can do this by combining equal parts of new potting soil with the sometime and adding a dose of slow-release fertilizer pellets ($18, The Domicile Depot) according to package directions. Or, y'all can mix in one part compost to three or four parts of your old potting soil. Also calculation nutrients that plants demand, both the fresh potting soil and compost will assist keep the mix from compacting.
What to Exercise with Used Potting Soil
Reuse your clean potting soil in containers for vegetables, flowers, houseplants, or whatever you'd like to grow. If you're not up for sterilizing and refreshing quondam potting soil, y'all still tin can put it to utilize instead of throwing it out. It can be dumped directly out of your containers and into established beds and borders. I like to use mine in my raised beds or wherever I need to fill in holes or eroded areas in my thousand. It can also be mixed into compost piles. The old potting soil you reuse can help you salvage money for what all gardeners desire: more plants.
Source: https://www.bhg.com/gardening/yard/soil/how-to-reuse-potting-soil/
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