Again, another pro vid to save us money and to prevent wastefulness. Will definitely implement these strategies. And off topic, love the TPB remix you use in your vids. Perfect for a Canadian gardener!
That tree in your backyard looks like an old old man. Thank you as always for thorough explanation I hate throwing away soil so learning how to amend it and keep it thriving is exactly what I love learning about!
I always bought new potting soil mix every year. Been putting it in same pile for 20+ years. This year decided to reuse. Dug lots out of pile. Been under old oak tree and had lots of organic materials. Old decayed plants and tree roots, even some native soil for microbes. Ran through 3/4 inch mesh, then 1/2 inch mesh. Great consistency. Ended up with about twice your swimming pool. To this I added 4 bags composed cow manure, 30 pound bag of worm castings , blood meal, bone meal and azomite. This took some time to do but mixture looks great!
I read from a soil bag that they advise soil to be replaced early in a greenhouse... That sounded very much like a marketing ploy💸 I have a container balcony garden and I had smelly soil in them. I emptied the soil of each smelly container to a bucket and mixed it many times a day to add air in let it dry in the sun. Then added dry peat and then it smelled like a normal soil. I added horse manure pellets, worm castings and organic slow release fertilizer. I actually even reused houseplant soil in the balcony containers and I think the soil mixes made for indoor plants aren't too bad for outdoor plants either... I always felt really dumb for throwing out "used" soil, and it turns out it was!
I'm definitely glad to be reusing potting soil, although I did put my Monstera Adansonii, the pot and the soil in the garbage on your advice because of what I was pretty sure was powdery mildew. Other than that, I've always mixed it in with new or at least put it outside in a garden area to let nature reclaim it.
Below is all the links for different resources you may need based on the video. Website DIY potting soil recipe: gardeningincanada.net/diy-potting-soil-recipe/ Predatory Nematodes: geni.us/PH2kb0i Mycorrhizae geni.us/tHnwek Let me know if I missed anything. Also for the Earths Medicine go here: gardeningincanada.net/earths-medicine/ to grab the discount code and links
Great video! I always wondered whether watering with chlorinated city water affects the natural soil biome , it must in some way, esp for potted plants.
Great vid! How do I know I have microbes in my soil? I believe you have a playlist on building soil especially for container gardeners like myself, are you able to link it? Thanks
The best gardening tool I have ever bought is an insulated hot composter. I have a Juraform JK270. I dump everything organic into it, even leaves and plants with powdery mildew along with kitchen waste including meat and diary. I also throw any pots of soil which may have gone anaerobic from overwatering. Key to using the Juraform composters is to also add wood pellets which helps to aerate the compost as well as adding carbon. I buy bags of cat litter wood pellets from the pet store. The quality and speed of making home made compost is amazing. This was a huge game changer for me. Having your own supply of home made compost should be the first objective of being a gardener. Making compost becomes a hobby in itself.
@@GardeningInCanada at the time about GBP 300. They have gone up in price since but you can make a low cost DIY hot composter using insulation sheets/boards. Get some inspiration from this lady: th-cam.com/video/DkFR5qnLMso/w-d-xo.html . Whichever method or tool you use to hot compost, it doesn’t matter as long as you hot compost. I don’t know if you have done a video on the merits of hot composting but perhaps that’s a future video for you.
I use the same Kidde pool to mix soil for my 5 gallon bucket garden. That size pool will hold about 20 buckets of soil. I make 10 buckets at a time in mine. I found a big yard cart and I put new wheels on it and I found a plastic bread rack/flat that fits on top of the cart. The bread rack has one inch holes in it. When a plant is done I dump the bucket on the rack and break up the soil ball and sift the soil and let the soil fall into the cart. The greenery and roots go in the compost pile or the trash can depending on what it is. I mix it up and add one bucket of pearlite and one bucket of rabbit manure to 10 buckets of soil. The soil is half chicken coop soil and half well rotted wood chips. Then I add fertilizer, blood and bone meal or fish meal depending on the plant. I don't really know what I doing just going by my gut. Any suggestions? John Davis
I have been using two, large plastic kiddie pools for three years to keep my grow-bags soil in, between seasons. I mix in some peat moss, perlite, packaged compost or "garden soil" mix, and 5-4-3 granular fertilizer, and some sulfur, before refilling my grow bags each year to renew vitality and enlarge my garden soil supply for my young garden. (My native soil is 7.5-7.75 pH. Base layer is limerock.) I've got enough soil now, but my health has deteriorated, and mixing & refilling 50 grow bags each year is now beyond my ability. I intend to leave all my grow bags in place next season and refresh & fertilize the replanting holes and soil top surface, next time, followed by an inch of compost and some macerated dry leaves as mulch. Do you see my plan as sufficient, or have you any advice, short of dumping, remixing, and refilling all my bags?
If I don't have any earth medicine fertilizer, can I just use a good all purpose granular fertilizer? Like a down to earth 4-4-4? Nice video btw, very informative. Thanks
Thank you for this video! I have 5 20-gallon grow bags where I planted tomatoes last year. Can I rejuvenate the soil in them and reuse and grow tomatoes again this year?
@@GardeningInCanada thank you! Glad you said yes (whew!) because we actually already did and amended the soil by adding compost, peat moss, perlite, bone meal, blood meal, gypsum, worm castings and organic vegetable fertilizer. Let’s see how it goes!🙏🤞😊
Just subscribed!!! Thank you so much for all the info! I need to rewatch and take notes! Will share your channel! One question: I compost and vermicompost with red wigglers, I was wondering if I could add a small amount of almost finished compost and worms to the mix to liven it up for a month or two? Then harvest the soil the way I harvest worm castings. Would it do anything beneficial?
I’m glad you are find it so helpful! Share away please, helps tremendously. And yes absolutely that’s beneficial, nothing wrong with that at all. Biggest concern would be regulating the heat.
@@GardeningInCanada thank you! I won’t add a whole lot from the compost bin just enough to keep enough organic matter for the worms to feast on all while adding some microbes from the halfway composted material. It’ll be blended in and I will keep an eye out for temperature. So excited for your channel, Houston’s nextdoor gardening groups are very active and always bouncing information back and forth. Can’t wait to share your channel with them all.
Pure peat moss is also hydrophobic, but with regards to hydrophobicity there is a simple cure. You know when you open that fresh bag of Pro-Mix, and it soaks up water like a sponge? Only to have water go shooting through the pot when you're watering it 6-8 weeks later? That's because potting mixes have surfactants (wetting agents) added to them, and they only last about 6-8 weeks (your mileage may vary). I'm not going to name any companies, but you have several choices of organic (yucca extract) or inorganic (chemical soaps) surfactants that will refresh your soil's ability to absorb, and evenly distribute, water. With Yucca extract I use a pinch (1/16th tsp) in 20L of water, so a little goes a long way. People also use it for foliar feeding, but I don't foliar feed my plants so I stick to the root drench application. This is also really helpful to add to your fertilizer feeding if you use water soluble fertilizers to ensure an even distribution of fertilizer to reduce heavy concentrations of salts in hot spots.
Hi Ashley, what do you think about people 'flushing' their potting soil? 'Flushing' is deliberately overwatering potting soil to supposedly wash away built up salts. Essentially, you just water the soil until a significant amount of water drains out through the bottom of the pot. Is this something that you think is necessary? If so, any tips on how to do this?... and how often to do this?...
@@GardeningInCanada that's great, thanks. maybe you could make a video on this, or include it in another iteration of the "how to reuse potting soil" tutorial.
Oh wow. I "flush" water containers every time to know that water went all the way through. I have always wondered if it is too much to flush all the time and what is a good amount to do it? Thanks.
Ok, another question... can you presoak your composted manure and add it to soil? If it will inhibit proper water penetration into the soil layers, does that mean top dressing garden beds with compost, or planting directly into compost is ineffective? Sorry, I should have curbed all my questions and comments until the end of the presentation 😥
Presoaking/wetting & rewetting is very important. Best practice is too wet the surface and then dig down to see what is going on water infiltration wise.
Also... a lot of people have a big hate-on for miracle grow and synthetic fertilizers.... are they really that bad? Is "organic" really that good, or different, other than being less bioavailable?
My cat insisted on doing a soil experiment with my planting soil, so I had two containers with the same mix, one that i kept away from the cat, and the other was used as a litterbox. The non-fertilized mix still have an amazing quality and a good color, and the cat-fertilized mix is just plain grey now. It definitely cooked the soil and looks like factory-farm dirt, and it hasn't even been planted in. Now to figure out what part of the yard to put it in, after scooping it out.
At the dollar store, there are some anti-pest tracks to place around your plants. They look like if you put a hairbrush down with the bristles facing up. That might work and the price is right.
Could you do a video on heavy metals in vegetable garden soil? Does growing sunflower draw out these toxins? Came across something here: th-cam.com/video/dcT6IKYWjT0/w-d-xo.html
![ILLSLICK - WINTER IS COMING [Official Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/dwTMeM1zIhQ/mqdefault.jpg)
I appreciate the honesty! Sometimes it's difficult to really get unbiased opinions from youtubers who have sponsors...
That’s true!
Yeah people are corrupted by the love of shekels. The shekel crew have destroyed every nation.
Calling out Epic Gardening! I love Kevin’s channel, but I trust you a lot more!
Yeees I've been trying to tell her!!
I’m scared too 😂 I don’t want a bad wrap
Shhh I don’t want a bad wrap
@@GardeningInCanada I love it!
❤️❤️❤️
Again, another pro vid to save us money and to prevent wastefulness. Will definitely implement these strategies. And off topic, love the TPB remix you use in your vids. Perfect for a Canadian gardener!
Haha that’s awesome! And thanks so much glad you enjoy
That tree in your backyard looks like an old old man. Thank you as always for thorough explanation I hate throwing away soil so learning how to amend it and keep it thriving is exactly what I love learning about!
Hahah sometimes I wonder how old that tree is.
Thank you for speaking on heavy planters and leaving the used soil in the planter to reuse. You are the only person I found to address this. ❤️❤️❤️
Oh god yea! I am not made of money hahah
I always bought new potting soil mix every year. Been putting it in same pile for 20+ years. This year decided to reuse. Dug lots out of pile. Been under old oak tree and had lots of organic materials. Old decayed plants and tree roots, even some native soil for microbes. Ran through 3/4 inch mesh, then 1/2 inch mesh. Great consistency. Ended up with about twice your swimming pool. To this I added 4 bags composed cow manure, 30 pound bag of worm castings , blood meal, bone meal and azomite. This took some time to do but mixture looks great!
Nice!!! I’m excited to see the results
That sounds wonderful.
Regards from Scotland.
I read from a soil bag that they advise soil to be replaced early in a greenhouse... That sounded very much like a marketing ploy💸 I have a container balcony garden and I had smelly soil in them. I emptied the soil of each smelly container to a bucket and mixed it many times a day to add air in let it dry in the sun. Then added dry peat and then it smelled like a normal soil. I added horse manure pellets, worm castings and organic slow release fertilizer. I actually even reused houseplant soil in the balcony containers and I think the soil mixes made for indoor plants aren't too bad for outdoor plants either... I always felt really dumb for throwing out "used" soil, and it turns out it was!
I'm definitely glad to be reusing potting soil, although I did put my Monstera Adansonii, the pot and the soil in the garbage on your advice because of what I was pretty sure was powdery mildew. Other than that, I've always mixed it in with new or at least put it outside in a garden area to let nature reclaim it.
Yes! Powdery mildew is one to watch for the only real fix is a specific type of lady bug.
Thank you for another great video. I learnt so much. I love that I won’t have to dump all my pots out, just amend in pot. 💚🇨🇦
Woohoo! Glad you’re learning
Below is all the links for different resources you may need based on the video.
Website DIY potting soil recipe: gardeningincanada.net/diy-potting-soil-recipe/
Predatory Nematodes: geni.us/PH2kb0i
Mycorrhizae geni.us/tHnwek
Let me know if I missed anything.
Also for the Earths Medicine go here:
gardeningincanada.net/earths-medicine/ to grab the discount code and links
(Edit) I found the discount code, its in the link's attached video. For others, it is GARDENINGCANADA10
Okay awesome thanks so much!
Will the nematodes also kill earthworms?
Really grateful for the tips in your video, very informative, definitely learn lots of useful idea from it,, thanks for sharing
Glad you are enjoying! You’ve watched a lot of videos at this point.
Very informative and helpful, thank you!
And I just gotta say, you remind me of a young Charlie Dimmock, only much more informative. Thanks again!!
Thanks for watching!
Love this material! I like to save $ and like to recycle. I have a very small space and do a lot of vertical gardening.
Yea absolutely
Great video- sooo helpful!
Glad it was helpful!
Do you have a video on how to reuse succulent soil? Or what I add to old soil to revive it. Thank you. Love the channel!!!
I have my potting soil recipe for succulents over at gardeningincanada.net
Great video! I always wondered whether watering with chlorinated city water affects the natural soil biome , it must in some way, esp for potted plants.
It won’t be anything severe. But collecting rain water is always the best.
Great vid! How do I know I have microbes in my soil? I believe you have a playlist on building soil especially for container gardeners like myself, are you able to link it? Thanks
I don’t have a video but I can definitely do one that’s a great idea.
As for testing your microbes go here th-cam.com/video/kKMYyxYZmR0/w-d-xo.html
The best gardening tool I have ever bought is an insulated hot composter. I have a Juraform JK270. I dump everything organic into it, even leaves and plants with powdery mildew along with kitchen waste including meat and diary. I also throw any pots of soil which may have gone anaerobic from overwatering. Key to using the Juraform composters is to also add wood pellets which helps to aerate the compost as well as adding carbon. I buy bags of cat litter wood pellets from the pet store. The quality and speed of making home made compost is amazing. This was a huge game changer for me. Having your own supply of home made compost should be the first objective of being a gardener. Making compost becomes a hobby in itself.
That would be very nice. How much did that run you ?
@@GardeningInCanada at the time about GBP 300. They have gone up in price since but you can make a low cost DIY hot composter using insulation sheets/boards. Get some inspiration from this lady: th-cam.com/video/DkFR5qnLMso/w-d-xo.html . Whichever method or tool you use to hot compost, it doesn’t matter as long as you hot compost. I don’t know if you have done a video on the merits of hot composting but perhaps that’s a future video for you.
great video cant wait for the one on organic and inorganic fertilizers in conjunction especially will be great for those transitioning :)
Yea absolutely true
I use the same Kidde pool to mix soil for my 5 gallon bucket garden.
That size pool will hold about 20 buckets of soil. I make 10 buckets at a time in mine.
I found a big yard cart and I put new wheels on it and I found a plastic bread rack/flat that fits on top of the cart. The bread rack has one inch holes in it.
When a plant is done I dump the bucket on the rack and break up the soil ball and sift the soil and let the soil fall into the cart. The greenery and roots go in the compost pile or the trash can depending on what it is.
I mix it up and add one bucket of pearlite and one bucket of rabbit manure to 10 buckets of soil.
The soil is half chicken coop soil and half well rotted wood chips.
Then I add fertilizer, blood and bone meal or fish meal depending on the plant.
I don't really know what I doing just going by my gut. Any suggestions?
John Davis
I have been using two, large plastic kiddie pools for three years to keep my grow-bags soil in, between seasons.
I mix in some peat moss, perlite, packaged compost or "garden soil" mix, and 5-4-3 granular fertilizer, and some sulfur, before refilling my grow bags each year to renew vitality and enlarge my garden soil supply for my young garden. (My native soil is 7.5-7.75 pH. Base layer is limerock.)
I've got enough soil now, but my health has deteriorated, and mixing & refilling 50 grow bags each year is now beyond my ability.
I intend to leave all my grow bags in place next season and refresh & fertilize the replanting holes and soil top surface, next time, followed by an inch of compost and some macerated dry leaves as mulch.
Do you see my plan as sufficient, or have you any advice, short of dumping, remixing, and refilling all my bags?
If I don't have any earth medicine fertilizer, can I just use a good all purpose granular fertilizer? Like a down to earth 4-4-4?
Nice video btw, very informative. Thanks
I watched the first video you did on this and used your advise this year. 😁
Awesome! Good luck!
That transition from you talking to music at 3:50 was LOUD on headphones. Just as a heads up!
Uh oh! Sorry
Thank you for this video! I have 5 20-gallon grow bags where I planted tomatoes last year. Can I rejuvenate the soil in them and reuse and grow tomatoes again this year?
Yea absolutely!
@@GardeningInCanada thank you! Glad you said yes (whew!) because we actually already did and amended the soil by adding compost, peat moss, perlite, bone meal, blood meal, gypsum, worm castings and organic vegetable fertilizer. Let’s see how it goes!🙏🤞😊
Haha awesome! Let me know
Just subscribed!!! Thank you so much for all the info! I need to rewatch and take notes! Will share your channel!
One question: I compost and vermicompost with red wigglers, I was wondering if I could add a small amount of almost finished compost and worms to the mix to liven it up for a month or two? Then harvest the soil the way I harvest worm castings. Would it do anything beneficial?
I’m glad you are find it so helpful! Share away please, helps tremendously. And yes absolutely that’s beneficial, nothing wrong with that at all. Biggest concern would be regulating the heat.
@@GardeningInCanada thank you! I won’t add a whole lot from the compost bin just enough to keep enough organic matter for the worms to feast on all while adding some microbes from the halfway composted material. It’ll be blended in and I will keep an eye out for temperature.
So excited for your channel, Houston’s nextdoor gardening groups are very active and always bouncing information back and forth. Can’t wait to share your channel with them all.
Pure peat moss is also hydrophobic, but with regards to hydrophobicity there is a simple cure. You know when you open that fresh bag of Pro-Mix, and it soaks up water like a sponge? Only to have water go shooting through the pot when you're watering it 6-8 weeks later? That's because potting mixes have surfactants (wetting agents) added to them, and they only last about 6-8 weeks (your mileage may vary). I'm not going to name any companies, but you have several choices of organic (yucca extract) or inorganic (chemical soaps) surfactants that will refresh your soil's ability to absorb, and evenly distribute, water. With Yucca extract I use a pinch (1/16th tsp) in 20L of water, so a little goes a long way. People also use it for foliar feeding, but I don't foliar feed my plants so I stick to the root drench application.
This is also really helpful to add to your fertilizer feeding if you use water soluble fertilizers to ensure an even distribution of fertilizer to reduce heavy concentrations of salts in hot spots.
Great video
Thanks ❤️
@@GardeningInCanada your welcome much love xoxox
Hi Ashley, what do you think about people 'flushing' their potting soil? 'Flushing' is deliberately overwatering potting soil to supposedly wash away built up salts. Essentially, you just water the soil until a significant amount of water drains out through the bottom of the pot. Is this something that you think is necessary? If so, any tips on how to do this?... and how often to do this?...
Yup! I love it and think is has its place in your plant care routine
@@GardeningInCanada that's great, thanks. maybe you could make a video on this, or include it in another iteration of the "how to reuse potting soil" tutorial.
Oh wow. I "flush" water containers every time to know that water went all the way through. I have always wondered if it is too much to flush all the time and what is a good amount to do it? Thanks.
good info!!!
Glad you found value!
i like your channel!
from Vinton Quebec Canada
Awesome!
Is it recommended to add dolomitic lime?
Ok, another question... can you presoak your composted manure and add it to soil? If it will inhibit proper water penetration into the soil layers, does that mean top dressing garden beds with compost, or planting directly into compost is ineffective?
Sorry, I should have curbed all my questions and comments until the end of the presentation 😥
Presoaking/wetting & rewetting is very important. Best practice is too wet the surface and then dig down to see what is going on water infiltration wise.
I always throw it in the composter. Or top dress the veg garden. Would it be suitable to spread it over the lawn for those who don't have composters?
Yea absolutely no issues with that
I can't seem to find pumice anywhere near me. What kind of stores would carry pumice?
So hydroponic stores are likely to carry it. Do you have any in the area? Are you in Saskatoon by chance
What about the environmental impact of using peat moss? Is there any good alternative in Canada?
"What the hell just landed on my shoulder" moment 😀6:02
If people don't reuse their soil, how do they dispose of it, especially if space is limited?
Can you Bokashi compost to recharge the soil?
Also... a lot of people have a big hate-on for miracle grow and synthetic fertilizers.... are they really that bad? Is "organic" really that good, or different, other than being less bioavailable?
No lol it’s identical the plant takes up very specific compounds s the source doesn’t matter. I can do a video on it but it’s it a bad product
@@GardeningInCanada Hi ... I am not sure I understand your reply: "it's it a bad product." Would you mind clarifying please?
My cat insisted on doing a soil experiment with my planting soil, so I had two containers with the same mix, one that i kept away from the cat, and the other was used as a litterbox. The non-fertilized mix still have an amazing quality and a good color, and the cat-fertilized mix is just plain grey now. It definitely cooked the soil and looks like factory-farm dirt, and it hasn't even been planted in. Now to figure out what part of the yard to put it in, after scooping it out.
Ahahah! My cats do the same science experiment 🙄
At the dollar store, there are some anti-pest tracks to place around your plants. They look like if you put a hairbrush down with the bristles facing up. That might work and the price is right.
That’s a good idea too. Cats would hate that
How about old soil with lot insects like reb buds, fungus gnats, small white spider...
use biological controls like this th-cam.com/video/ZsfFt0udleA/w-d-xo.html
Here pumice is super cheap than perlite, but I'm a balcony gardener and pumice is heavy
Pumice is mega heavy that’s truee
In UK, pear moss isn't used anymore
💚💚
❤️❤️❤️
Could you do a video on heavy metals in vegetable garden soil? Does growing sunflower draw out these toxins? Came across something here:
th-cam.com/video/dcT6IKYWjT0/w-d-xo.html
oh yes i can. its called hyperaccumulation. cabbage grabs radioactive isotopes
I cant fathom this philosiphy of new soil every time......so wasteful. Plus living soil gets better over time. Ppl are missing out.
Yup! That’s a good point. Especially in an organic setup you want aged soil.