How To Reuse Old Potting Soil - FOUR ways!
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 1 มิ.ย. 2024
- Reuse Your Old Potting And Container Soils To Save Money! Container gardening is fun, easy and has numerous advantages. One disadvantage however, can be cost. Potting soils are not cheap and even just a modest amount of container veggies can send expenses through the roof.
In this video, let's look at two ways that we can repurpose old, spent potting mix to save money in our garden. And on top of that, let's discover even two more ways to revitalize and recharge the soil from our old containers from last year into a brand new potting mix, just as good as any on the market!
DIY Ultimate Potting Mix:
• Make Your Own Potting ...
If you're just starting out gardening in 2020, this inexpensive set of tools from Amazon can get you and all your new veggie plants up and running this spring! I know there is a fevered and renewed interest in gardening and many of you are seasoned vets. But remember that there's a whole population out there that hasn't gardened before. Let's help them out and encourage as much as possible! Affiliate links below:
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If you're just starting out gardening in 2020, this inexpensive set of tools from Amazon can get you and all your new veggie plants up and running this spring! I know there is a fevered and renewed interest in gardening and many of you are seasoned vets. But remember that there's a whole population out there that hasn't gardened before. Let's help them out and encourage as much as possible! Affiliate links below:
Amazon USA: amzn.to/2xXLfbG
Amazon Canada: amzn.to/3aoN1AN
Amazon U.K.: amzn.to/2XrQA5A
The 10x20 nursery trays are a gardener's NECESSITY. Use the Amazon Afilliate links below to find the right ones!
Amazon USA: amzn.to/2JFB4uM
Amazon Canada: amzn.to/2wQCeBd
Amazon U.K.: amzn.to/2xepyEi
The Ripe Tomato Farm
I always reuse soil. I mix in wood ash, aka potash, which contains potassium, broken egg shells for calcium, new compost and a few bits of leaves to add nitrogen as they break down. Why anyone would discard soil is a mystery to me, nature does not.
Buy fertilizer 10-20-10 or 12-24-12 and it will cheaper.
I add coffee grounds, crushed egg shells, Epsom salt, part of a bag of manure, part of a bag of peat moss. Mix well, with the dead dirt, from your containers. You will get rich soil, ready for planting, from the tired, useless container dirt.
Having horses, chickens, goats and rabbits I usually just mix it into the manure pile.
Oh my God thank you! My budget is so tight right now due to my industry being impacted by COVID-19. I thought I was going to have to give up my container garden which has provided so much solace during this time. This information is more helpful than you'll ever know. Great channel, new subscriber.
Its amazing how sharing what we know helps others. Pay it forward. May God bless you with the best garden ever! 🌿
@@AcornHillHomestead So true Janette, and I will pay it forward. 🙂
@@cvmitchell9368 - Sorry to hear what you are going through. I am in the same boat as you. Hope life will be better for all of us soon. Hang in there and things will better. ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
@@cvmitchell9368 how is your garden doing?
@@saraitomblin9246 I ate, and over pruned everything so I am starting over.
I've always mixed my own potting soil, and I've used the same soil in the same fabric pots for 3 years. My maintenance plan is simple: About twice a year, I top off the soil with fresh compost and peat, sprinkle in some granular fertilizer (e.g. Osmocote), mix it all up, and plant a new crop.
So far so good, no fuss, and very cost effective.
Thank you. I like how you go straight to the point, still explaining why you're adding certain amendments (and their purpose/what they do for the soil), it makes it SO much easier for newbie gardeners - shared this video with my daughter (her first time gardening) & she called me (and wouldn't stop nattering on & on 😆), she was, at that moment, standing in front of the fertilizer/amendments/etc at Lowe's & was feeling so overwhelmed & frustrated by everything & their seemingly repetitive uses (her words) of what to her was "of the same one thing, with different packaging pictures" (She said it seemed that soil acidifier & rose feed were the only two for specific purposes). Helps me, too, since I'm getting ready to reuse my old soil!
Omg, that's so great to hear! Thanks for letting me know and best luck on the garden this year!! :-)
I love the way you speak! Every sentence ends with an exclamation mark! I'm Australian LOL
Hey, thanks for the kind words and support! You guys are coming up on summer, hope your garden does well for you!
@@TheRipeTomatoFarms Yep and it's bloody hot already LOL! I'm currently trying to grow paw paw / papaya from seed from some fruit my neighbour had a few weeks ago. only 1 has sprouted so far LOL
UP-TALK was popular 10 years ago here in England. Why ? No Idea. I just mix a handful of Bone Blood and Fish meal into my potting mix. Cheap and effective.
Great vid. I love your enthusiasm. And I can say from experience that your advice is solid because I've been using the same basic container mix for over a decade. In all likelihood, all that remains of the original mix is the perlite. :-)
Anyway, I grow tomatoes and peppers in about half of the soil mix. The other half is in a large barrel-sized planter with nooks on the sides for salad crops. After my final fall harvest, I'll top the containers with leaves for the winter. The leaves decay.
In late February or early March, I remove the leaves that haven't broken down, and dump the soils into tarps, keeping the batches separate. I leave the roots in, and they just decay. I amend with homemade compost (about 1/5 of the remaining volume), a few shovel-fulls of our heavy clay soil from around our shrubs for minerals, and a couple handfuls of organic fertilizer. I mix, and then "rotate," putting the tomato soil into the salad crop planter & salad soil into the tomato pots. Then I top with unfinished compost and mulch with leaves.
By the time planting time comes around (April to May here in Ohio, depending on the crop), the unfinished compost has finished, the leaves are breaking down, there are worms galore. The transplants take off like rockets.
Right on Leo! Love the accelerated compost! I bet the plants do too!
Another amendment I like to add when revitalizing my soil and or making my own potting soil is seaweed. I like to rinse it to remove the salt, dry it and shred it down to store it.
Thank you i love how you teaches in all of your videos am a FEMALE and in Jamaica where we doesn't have winter but you know soil depreciated each time you put in crops am not a farmer but i try and plant some of the thing i eat organically because of my health as a home gardening. So the pot and raise bed does help plus my land is rocky and maul land so i have to buy dirt from different place and I have to perk it up to do my planting. Thanks alot. One of my problems is getting the vegetables seed in small amounts the farm store don't package it out to sell home gardening. Just the regular plant like tomatoes, those common vegetables. Be bless
For sure Devon, the tropics are great in that you can grow anytime, but like you said, it comes with its own challenges. Every crop will take something out of the soil, but with proper mulching, amending, and then growing cover crops in between, it can definitely be solved! Raised beds work great too!
like the restaurant equipment
I started a worm bin about a month ago, so I can revitalize my container soil in the future and make my own worm tea. I got them from my community garden. There are online platforms where one can harvest worms from an existing worm farm for free or a small service.
Super awesome llias! Love it!
I do not think I will ever forget when 2 years ago the contractor who was hired to take care about the potted plants in the office changed potting mix. They come late afternoon, and I just saw they were carrying away the old soil in plastic bags and filled the pots with fresh. It is a large office building, 3 floors. After 2 weeks we had a huge clogging. The whole ground floor was flooded with shit. Pure shit, believe me. It turned out that the contractor was just too lazy to carry the old soil downstairs, they just dumped all into the toilets and flashed down. Then the whole stuff sat down in the drainage system and caused. Too bad they were called "professional" gardeners.
Thank you for this vid!
OMG, no way!!! Unreal!! They could have been even LAZIER and reconditioned the soil and saved $$ and then worked even less! Instead, they took the easy route. OUCH! Hopefully they aren't contracted anymore, lol!
@@TheRipeTomatoFarms Oh, yes, they are - only they promised not to do it any more and fired the 2 workers who actually did it. Maybe not fired, just reallocated to other sites.
I like the way you think, es. Recycling soil!
Thanks Margot!
Add compost at beginning of each year and at each harvest and you will NEVER have 'Old Soil' just Great Soil. Read Square Foot Garden to know the best techniques.
Loved the Saskatchewan Roughrider hat he was wearing at the begining of the video.
Last week I replanted some chilies, chocolate, and lemon mint in the next size containers for a small 3'x 5' box garden me and my nephew are working on to set up. The old soil is being repurposed to go in. Thank you for posting the extra amendments to add. Have a great morning sir it's almost 8am mountain time here.
Right on Niki, that's how its done! Have a great weekend!
I've used the method of mixing old with new before. It has worked for me.
Definitely works like a charm!
I ordered some coconut fiber as per your recommendation. I mixed it with some amendments and composted material to stretch it a little farther plus some other material that I had to purchase to get my potting mix is going. The one thing I must say about the coconut fibers I ordered 20 blocks It came from a company in California . I had it delivered to my home in Atlanta Georgia. I must say that the shipping charges were more than I spent on the coconut fiber blocks. For a told of....your gonna love this $427. Keep on smiling and sending out your great vlogs.
I like to layer it into my compost bin, that good if for topping off raised beds, for potting mix add some screened compost to the used soil, and some amendments mentioned in the video. Some of These are usually already present in my compost. Nice video, good advice. Can't believe anyone would throw valuable stuff like this away.
I totally agree! Its not like it expires after a season...it just needs a little TLC sometimes! :-)
Great timing. I am just getting ready to empty some 5 gallon buckets I used last year for peppers. I have always just emptied them on my compost pile in the past. Will try the recharge method this year and judge the results. Thanks for the good info and options.
Save a little bit of money for sure....especially with those 5 gallon buckets!
I recycle all my old soil from pots and save money cuz I have no ways of getting soil, but I think I can ask my neighbor who works in farm 😇👍🙏🏻 thanks for this video Jeff. I watched all ur videos I missed 😇👍🙏🏻🥰 it helps to remind me what I missed.
Right on Emy, hope the weekend was good for you!
Alfalfa pellets, $15. for 50lbs = most affordable fertilizer, I have found. thanks for your info! 🌸🌱🌱🌱🌱🌸
Cheers guys, it really is a wonder amendment!! Enjoy!
Rewatching your soil videos...thank you for sharing on how to reuse old soil.
Just the information I was looking for Thanks so much for posting. Great video. Looking forward to watching more
Thanks Caroline, happy growing this year!
I always reuse old potting soil by adding dried crumbled leaves, kelp meal, perlite and new soil. I use it in planters and around in ground plants and it seems to work well.
I just dumped my spent soil into my compost pile and recycled it that way. goes great in a worm bin too.
Good to hear from you! I grow most things straight in the garden BUT do have my ferns and some flowers in pots! Love the restaurant bus run you’re using I have one of those!
Thank you for a great video. I have a lot of old soil that I've saved from containers. I wasn't sure what to mix back in to make the soil useful again. This will really help me get started on recycling and revamping my soil!
Hey, thanks for watching Rose! Hope you can put that old soil to good use!
Thank you alot
Thanks for watching, cheers!
Just what o have been looking for! Thanks fella
Thank you, I will follow all your precious tips :), 🤞🏻I will find all the elements here in 🇬🇧
This is really useful because I always wondered about re-using old potting soil. I like your videos because they are straightforward and encouraging. Thank you for sharing your knowledge.
This is such great info starting my 50 gal potato beds glad I can reuse the soil and just revitalize my soil and since I am just a mile from lake I will put fish in my pots
Great Video, I am fairly new to the gardening scene. Great list of the minerals added to the mix to reenergize the soil. Earlier in the fall I picked up some Azomite. Volcanic rock, covering all minerals from A-Z. I Will be adding your list of ingredient's to improve my growing season. Thank you for all the great videos
Something else to consider when choosing coconut fiber is the way it is processed. It has to be broken down to such a fine fiber, there is a lot of dust created & inhaled by those working there. Workers (in very poor countries) are developing respiratory problems from working in the factories.
Thanks for the info. I just learned people burn their hands so badly in cashew farming and processing 😭
Thank you! This was great explained, and helped me a lot.
Cheers Herlinde, thanks for watching! :-)
Thanks. I container garden so now I know how to reuse some of my soil.
Buy fertilizer 10-20-10 or 12-24-12 and it will cheaper.
thank you
Thanks for the info! Been trying to figure out what to do with my old soil.
Right on man, thanks for watching! Nothing feels better than saving money for less work! ;-)
Thanks for the great tips!
Cheers Ann, thanks for watching! :-)
THAT'S IT! I'm using the box. I was thinking not to, but this tells me.... GO USE THE BOX! Can't wait
Doooo it!
@@TheRipeTomatoFarms So quick question, will this help soil that's been around pesticides? Do I use this same method to make it clean?
@@Neri4x4 It really depends on the pesticides. Some systemic chemicals are so noxious and persistent, no amount of dilution and cutting with new components is going to make it "safe".
@@TheRipeTomatoFarms ok. Thanks!
@@Neri4x4 Cheers!
Informative and entertaining 🍅
I watch this with my son, you explained everything great, i have been gardening for many years, I take my soil with me when i move, ammending it increases amount and is a great medium for growing any garden vegetable, excellent for tomatoes and peppers in pots.
Right on Aime, all the best for you and your garden this season!
great great tips. It is so crazy how expensive potting soil is!!
Buy fertilizer 10-20-10 or 12-24-12 and it will cheaper.
Nice explanation. Good program
Thanks Nizam, cheers!
I smashed the like, supporting your channel
Thanks so much, appreciate the support! :-)
Where do you get those great plastic trays? They are nice and deep.
Excellent video. That’s exactly what I need. BTW, what is the make/model of the watering can you used in the video?
I've been using fabric grow bags for my tomatoes but last summer, I was hit pretty hard by early blight. Two questions, can I reuse the soil in the bags and other areas where the blight hit? Second, can I kill any blight by putting the soil from the bags into large throw-away aluminum baking pans and "cooking it my outdoor grill? Thanks, love your channel.
Hey Wayne, blight can be eradicated even by just spreading the soil out and drying it in the sun. For sure baking it will kill it, but look to inoculating it with good bacteria and microbes after to get it going again! 🙂
@@TheRipeTomatoFarms Thanks for the quick reply.
basically mix EVERYTHING up from bed to bed. keep transporting and mixing. bury your food over winter n this will bulk up your soil by spring coming. also add sharp sand and compost all your leaves in spetember. this bulks up even further
Definitely! More organic matter the better!
It works for me too👍👍
Any way we can get and edge with our gardening, we should do it! Cheers Mark.
Add shredded leaves, home made compost, eggshells, worm castings - then bag it and leave over winter. Perfect in the spring like a whole bag of worm castings. If you rake moss out of your lawn - use that too.
Thanks, from germany 👍
Sag Mir Vo die Blumend sint Vo sind sie Gebleiben ? Sag mir vo die blumend sind , Was ist geshcheine ? Und so weiter und so Fort. ! Thanks from England !
Hi, just stumbled across your videos last week and subscribed 🤗. If you don’t do your own composting, what store bought compost would you recommend? Thank you for your videos, very informative.
Hi blessing to you ,I have learned a lot from you keep up the great job. If ur old dirt has a lot of ants in it what can I do to get rid of them
Thanks so much! Glad to help! For ants, manual removal seems the best bet.
Hi, excellent video, but what about old soil that has bugs that looks like centipede, are they good bugs? How do i get rid of them naturally? Do I discard my soil and start all over? Thanks
Once I left my used pot soil covered and untended over a winter time and next year I find out it was full of worms and perfect
Excellent! Nothing easier than that!
Bravo
Thanks! Cheers.
Thankyou! If the old soil has lots x 500 weed nodules in it - should I take these out before use? The soil is still dark but filled with weed nodules. It's those nodules if you touch them tone breaks into like 50 balls...
If your plants got powdery mildew can the potting mix still be reused?
I have few old big pots of soil but full of weeds. How can I make sure weeds won’t grow anymore if I re-use these soil? I enjoy watching your videos. Thanks!
I get that a lot Oz.....what I do, in those cases, is I re-use the soil at the BOTTOM of the pots. That way the weeds and weed seeds just get smothered. Some may make it through, but for the most part it keeps them in check and you get to re-use the soil!
Love this info but what is the amount of amendments ratios.
Around the 4:20 minute mark in the video
I must say that although we all hearing about how Peat Moss is being harvested where there are "limited resources" you will also hear that it is being farmed in Canada where there is a good supply of it.
And then, YOU will maybe hear about how "Coconut coir" is being made from a limited supply of coconut palms, in some place in the tropics.
I have heard BOTH of those claims, I have NO idea which are true.
People replace their soil? I'm new at this but "old dirt" doesn't really seem like a thing. I look at it like an alive thing so I feed it and love the critters I find there.
Soil in pots definitely gets "spent". Without a proper ecosystem and sub-soil team of life, container mix has a finite lifespan, especially with overhead watering. Its not about it being alive or well cared for. Container soil isn't like your garden soil.
My potted veges get ,what we call lawn grubs. They eat the roots of the plants. It needs sieving and the grubs killed.
@@redtobertshateshandles up, seen that before. It's never a "one solution for all".... Thanks for bringing that up buddy. Hope you have a great season!
@@TheRipeTomatoFarms thanks mate. You too.
Peat moss is not unsustainable if you're buying from Canada. The amount harvested does not even scratch the surface. There are so many bogs that haven't even been touched.
Could you consider expanding on plants with disease or if rotation crop for the new soil is needed with your method. I have 5 earth boxes with tomatoes and trying to find info about container/self watering and how to ammend it the same way since i don’t have the same Microsystem like worms to help it.
Hey there, I haven't come across any soil-borne diseases in my gardens yet...so I've been lucky to not have that decision arise where I question keeping or throwing out the mix. Because I mix mine back in with fresh stuff, I also don't worry about crop rotations...doesn't really seem to matter. What type of tomatoes are you growing and what stage are they at?
Giaga green
The rock dust? Love the stuff!!
Would you be able to use spent soil as bedding for a worm bin?
100% most definitely! It's a great base to start a vermipost bin!
I don't have a large farm and can't buy or afford these additions. Is there a premixture you could recommend?
Thank you....very informative!
Alfalfa meal and rock dust are the big two and they are the CHEAPEST. Readily available for $20 per 50lb bag....and you only need to use a little bit. Mix those two in with any organic commercial mix and you'll be off to the races! Cut it down with another 20-30% coconut fiber/coir and you'll save even MORE money! :-)
Thank you SO much you,re a doll!
@@csomething2701 thanks so much for the kind words.... Best of luck!
Darn it! I just tossed flower seeds inside some old soil. I didn’t know you’re suppose to do all that
It can still work Summer! All is not lost!
Anyone knows - typically where to find all those ingredients the guy told us, like Alfa Alafa, Rock Dust, Oyster Flakes, Canola flakes, Rock Phosphate, Dolomite Lime and Epsom Salt. I just need one or two stores' name (at most) to get those in Chicago area. Thanks for your advice.
Feed stores and garden nurseries Syamal. :-)
I use grow bags. what is the best way to store the potting soil over the winter?
Hey Dan... Do you mean the unused potting soil if you made a big batch? I just store mine in giant 10 gallon bags
@@TheRipeTomatoFarms I was speaking about the old soil in my grow bags at the end of the season. I guess I could use a plastic trash can or bags as you suggest?
I had a container garden last year and I want to start with new soil. This may be a dumb question, but i need to know. Is it ok to dump the old soil around my oak tree or is the soil missing too many nutrients to aid my tree?
Yes, for sure. Using old soil as a mulch is a great idea
Can you bury kitchen scraps in the old soil to revitalise it?
The amendments he uses to revitalize the old potting soil isn’t even available in my area, so I have always added my compost. But I can never make enuf compost to treat my garden and flower pots. I keep all the grass from my 100 x150’ lot along with the tree leaves in the fall.with all that material it only makes about 8-10 wheelbarrows full of compost for the next yr.
There are tree trimmers in this area that just dump a pile of woodchips by the side of the road... maybe in your area, too.
Thanks for the FYI on how to reuse old container soil.
For recharging the soil with all 8 ingrediencies, what are the ratios?
Thanks Todd. I keep the ratios even, added up to 10% of the total mix......so add all of them together....either all 8 or 7 or however many you can find for cheap enough, then get them to 10% of the volume of soil you're recharging and boom...instant nutrient-rich soil! :)
Where can you look to purchase all these ingrediencies in Canada?
@@toddkong7945 feed stores like buckerfiekds carry all of them...
@@TheRipeTomatoFarms
Ok thanks 👍🏻
Your videos are so informative & very clear to understand 😀 helps those of us starting out & newbies to gardening
HOW do you know if you've "hit that level" at position 7 min ?
this all requires buying new soil. where does that soil come from? how do we have regenerative soil practices within our home or use compost to have our own cycle?
Can we reuse the old soil which has spoiled the previous plant roots? By adding any organic fertiliser to the soil?
If the soil was TnT cause of spoiling the old plants, I would not reuse it. I'd start over.
@@TheRipeTomatoFarms okay Thanks for your reply
@@mrsrajininathan1990 cheers, best of luck!
I have a large raised bed that was originally filled with compost and drained water faster than the plants could use it, followed by straw bales perched on top of the compost (which did work), and then has been the recipient of the old potting soil from every container I have. I live in Phoenix, so soils above ground get very dry very fast; this stuff will not rehydrate; the water even from soaker hoses on low flow just drains out. Any ideas on how I can get this thing back for my herb garden?
Hey Lesley... Organic matter is the only way. It's the only thing that grabs the moisture and hangs on to it. The more things you can "grow" in unsure the better. Root systems can hold gallons of water and keep it in the soil profile. And make sure to mulch. The mulch will absorb water, as well as take evaporation rates down to zero
Yup i always reuse my old soil i mixed half of the soil and half fresh soil. Nope i never throw it away.
Do you need to sterilize the soil first before using them?
Usually full sterilization is not necessary unless you know your old soil is host to serious disease like fusarium wilt. You can pasteurize it a couple ways as a good precaution against disease and pest transmission. I was hoping he would cover that here instead of just basic recycling. Serious hot composting, baking, or steaming are ways I've seen/heard people pasteurize soil, though I've only baked or composted.
Hi, where can I find the Canola Meal, having a hard time finding that???
Feed stores usually have it. If not I put an Amazon link in the description. Cheers!
@@TheRipeTomatoFarms The link you have for the American Amazon is for Kelp instead of Canola Meal unfortunately.
Dirt Guru!!! Great informative video! Ty 😊😎
Thanks Shannon!!
I know this is late, but what’s wrong with mixing the potting soil into a separate compost bin? I mean, if it’s already gotten the water and nutrient retention values that normal soil doesn’t; what’s wrong with decomposing food scraps in it and having the nutrients flow back into it?🧐
Yup, if you have no immediate need to re-use the potting soil AS potting soil, the next stop is to bulk up the compost. That's generally what we mean when we say "throw away"..... We're not meaning to actually throw in the garbage, LOL.
The Ripe Tomato Farms lol thanks for explaining I actually thought for a second that it’s normal to throw away used potting soil into the garbage
@@DanielW607 definitely.... Some people do! And it's a huge waste.
Potatoe grubs killed my crop this year. I took out all the grubs I found. My question is can I refuse the mixture or do I need to toss it. I had my plants in a raised bed.
Great question Claire. No way to be sure that the soil is clear and free. Maybe repurpose it as a container mix for other plants? Ones that the grubs can't affect?
Cook the soil, it smells but kills everything so pick out any worms first
Planted tomatoes in bags this year. They had a fungus problem. Would you reuse soil?
How often do you replace your soil?
Never, and after every crop. LOL. That is, after every crop (in pots and container), the soil gets replaced...but....it gets incorporated into a new mixture and reused.
Is there significant risk/concern of spreading seeds of weeds and/or disease unintentionally? I guess I'm more concerned with diseases, since weeds can be removed manually or suppressed with mulch/ground cover ... ? Or is disease management more addressed via an IPM (integrated pest management) philosophy centered around the actual plant I'm trying to grow and ensuring it's healthy/well fed/watered etc. so that it can fight off diseases that way ... ?
What about putting it in the compost bin and use your compost as part of the new potting soil?
Yes...definitely. Any old soils that don't get used right away become part of the compost.
Plant spacing is often overlooked until it is too late and you're staring at an overgrown jungle. Check out the basics of spacing out your veggie garden!: th-cam.com/video/I-PUYO3w9tQ/w-d-xo.html
Can I rid old soil of weed seeds, insects, moulds... by baking in the oven?
Its probably one of the most common methods to sterilizing soil Mark. :-)
Okay, in MY situation, I have some RAISED beds that are also considered to be "containers" also. To make it more understandable, I had bought 2, 6 foot long livestock troughs that are about 20 inches deep and about 2 feet wide these are approximate numbers here.
And, I had drilled many holes for drainage all along the length of them, THEN, I had filled them with "potting soil" and some compost. I had gotten some great plants out of that soil for the last year. I am NOW wondering HOW to rejuvenate that soil without replacing it all.
I now have some weeds on top of the soil, so, I am THINKING that I should try to remove the weeds or as much of them as I can, and maybe THEN us some weed killer for preventing summer weeds.
I will NOT be sowing seeds directly in any of the beds, so, IF I use weed preventer's, I should be.
I have been here waiting to see and hear your "added elements" that should be used to enrich the soil, and I must admit that once I've heard them, I am really disappointed because I am NOT going to find MOST of that stuff, like "rock dust" "Oyster flakes" " "alfalfa meal" "canola meal " "Rock phosphate" I CAN buy some alfalfa "bunny food" and Epsom salts, I can also buy Lime, whether or NOT it is DOLOMITE Lime or not is not clear. I can also get a source of Sulfur also. I have COMPOST also, BUT compost will only be as good as the ingredients you have put in it. I have been putting veggie scraps in mine, plus alot of woody bits and fall leaves. I also have both peat moss and coconut coir that I can add to any potting mixes.
The BUNNY POO will add many things that may be in that "alfalfa" meal. PLUS, after the bunny has eaten it, maybe the alfalfa will NOT heat the soil microbes up as much as if you add it to the soil fresh.
These additives to the soil should be added early before you will plant in the soil, right? At least I have always heard that IF you add something high in nitrogen to soil that you should NOT plant in that soil for a while so that the nitrogen can be "processed" (for lack of a better word) in that soil.
Once the "soil additives" have been in the soil long enough, then we can plant in the soil.
Don't use weed killer. Not if you're going to grow FOOD. Simply sheet mulch the top, suffocating the weeds, adding a new skim coat of fresh mix for the new plants. And the mulch (cardboard, newsprint) breaks down, the roots of the new plants will find their way down. Amend with Alfalfa Meal, Rock Dust, Rock Phosphate, and more compost. Should be really easy, really inexpensive and not labor intensive at all. Amending giant beds like that and getting them back to working order is really quite simple, which is nice. :-)
@@TheRipeTomatoFarms Okay thanks.
Never had any luck w old soil. Plants just don’t grow as fast and aren’t as healthy even with mixing it in w the new.
I hear you Joe. Don't disagree at all. In some cases it is nice to save the $$ for plants where it doesn't make a huge difference though. :-)
What about the bad bacterial organism that still stays in the soil with the good bacteria?
can i just add it with a bag of black kow cow manure?
Love your videos; great information on the soil amendments!
I have a question for you:
If you find some insects, like aphids, on your lettuce (or other veggies or flowers) that were in your container, even after removing the crop/flowers and weeds, roots, etc., could you STILL reuse that potting mix or should you first treat it with neem oil (for example), or is it better to just dump it and clean out the container before planting something new so as not to risk another infestation or their eggs in the soil?
Thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience!!
Why do you put newspaper in the bottom the pot before putting the soil in?
Great question Von. I do that because newspaper acts like a coffee filter. That is, it lets the water through, but not the soil, beneficial microbes, and organic matter. With many of my pots on my deck and patio, the last thing I want is a flood of mud and dirt every time I water.
The Ripe Tomato Farms Ok that makes a lot of sense. I'm going to do that the next time I plant something, thanks.
so I have to order all those additives? Isn't there one product to cover most of what is needed?
Definitely don't have to order anything... Every region is going to have different amendments readily available and every soil is going to need different things. These are an example of what you CAN add to your soils to recharge them. Skies the limit and it's not confined to just these ingredients.