What do you guys do with old soil?

[PopeyeSpinach]

Hey fellas, im new to growing, currently doing an indoor grow in a cabinet. Going to top and scrog. Anyways, so far so good on my grow but ive been wondering what others do with old soil.

I have a compost pile where i put all my fruit and vegetable trim as well as coffee grounds and egg shells, or any vegetables that may have gone bad. I dont even garden but i have a compost pile. I always felt funny throwing all that stuff in a plastic bag that goes to a filthy dump when it can be sent back to nature in my yard. Plus it keeps the coons out of my trash can lol, they can have the compost if they want it.

I was thinking I would just dump my old soil on the compost and maybe do a tomato and pepper garden next year, this whole growing thing has made me like plants.

Another question is, if im dumping all this old FF ocean and happy frog into a compost, could i re-use it for growing some mary jane outside if next year or the rear after? If i decided to do an outdoor grow.

Im terribly conservative and i hate not repurposing things.

 

[DemonicAngel]

Hey fellas, im new to growing, currently doing an indoor grow in a cabinet. Going to top and scrog. Anyways, so far so good on my grow but ive been wondering what others do with old soil.

I have a compost pile where i put all my fruit and vegetable trim as well as coffee grounds and egg shells, or any vegetables that may have gone bad. I dont even garden but i have a compost pile. I always felt funny throwing all that stuff in a plastic bag that goes to a filthy dump when it can be sent back to nature in my yard. Plus it keeps the coons out of my trash can lol, they can have the compost if they want it.

I was thinking I would just dump my old soil on the compost and maybe do a tomato and pepper garden next year, this whole growing thing has made me like plants.

Another question is, if im dumping all this old FF ocean and happy frog into a compost, could i re-use it for growing some mary jane outside if next year or the rear after? If i decided to do an outdoor grow.

Im terribly conservative and i hate not repurposing things.

That's a good idea with old soil. That's what I used to do with it.

 

[Autoflower420]

i.compost and reuse

 

[PopeyeSpinach]

Ok cool, guess ill just have some really good soil outside then....thanks guys

 

[Eeko]

You are suppose to wait until the old roots break down...but whatever. For years I've composted my soils, some times being motivated to add food waste and some years not. I do add a bunch of leaves and organic yard debris and they break down fine. If I stir up my compost and find enough worms to consider selling them I know I have some happy soil. Thumbs up for composting and saving our landfills + saving a bunch of money over buying new soil for outdoor grows!

 

[TheFertilizer]

Well I reused the same Happy Frog for two cycles and then the last one I finally got some kind of mysterious blight. I don't know if it was a pathogen, if the soil just got calcified or compacted, etc. Point is I had to scrap the whole thing mid-way through and I'm still recovering with the one plant I managed to save from the lot. I don't like wasting things either, but when I considered the risk of killing another crop with the reward of having 2 cubic feet of soil on hand, I decided it wasn't worth it leaving it to chance.

But, that being said, a lot of organic farmers re use their soil every time. I think if you compost it out in the sun it will probably be fine, but yeah to me it's like betting $20, but with the losing stakes far worse "bad" than the winning stakes are good. Things go bad, you lose a crop; things go good, you save $20 on a bag of soil.

The penny pincher in me really hated the better safe than sorry answer when I read it, but your perspective changes after losing a crop.

 

[PopeyeSpinach]

If a plant turns out to be male and i terminate its grow, can that soil be used for anything? Maybe for first few weeks and then use new soil when i repot into 3 gallon

 

[coralman]

I plan on doing just this but im scared i will bring bugs into my grow tent from soil composted in my garden.

 

[Eeko]

I plan on doing just this but im scared i will bring bugs into my grow tent from soil composted in my garden.

Just spray them with some chemical stuff to kill them......kidding.....soil that contains life is why it's soil is not sand.....good soil contains all sorts of little little things that we can't see that have bigger things eating them and so on. Of course this theory of mine stops at some point like maybe if the soil has grubs....because after that skunks and all sorts of bigger things are higher up on the food chain and you don't want them in your grow tent.

 

[nivek]

i sterilize my old soil, in the oven in a pan about 3" thick layer of soil, oven at 200 f or so, for an hour or so, forget exact numbers

i mainly do it because i was finding it difficult to dispose of around the yard,, even a few plants adds up sorta quickly. the compost is for compostables, not soil,, tho it does not hurt to put it in there

the sterilized soil is just fine, even with a few rooties in it,

note,, i do make up new soil once in a while,, for sure,, but sterilizing is certainly an option,,

salude

 

[Johnnymarijuanaseed]

Hey fellas, im new to growing, currently doing an indoor grow in a cabinet. Going to top and scrog. Anyways, so far so good on my grow but ive been wondering what others do with old soil.

I have a compost pile where i put all my fruit and vegetable trim as well as coffee grounds and egg shells, or any vegetables that may have gone bad. I dont even garden but i have a compost pile. I always felt funny throwing all that stuff in a plastic bag that goes to a filthy dump when it can be sent back to nature in my yard. Plus it keeps the coons out of my trash can lol, they can have the compost if they want it.

I was thinking I would just dump my old soil on the compost and maybe do a tomato and pepper garden next year, this whole growing thing has made me like plants.

Another question is, if im dumping all this old FF ocean and happy frog into a compost, could i re-use it for growing some mary jane outside if next year or the rear after? If i decided to do an outdoor grow.

Im terribly conservative and i hate not repurposing things.

Get sum amendments, organic of course. Sum green sand sum worm castings and sum down to earth or Gia green all purpose 4-4-4 slow release and Mabey oyster shells or crab meal 50% compost old soil and amendments and ur good to go. It will create a living soil u only half to water and Mabey a compost, worm casting tea with sum molasses unsulfered to feed the microbes

 

[Old Fart]

I throw the soil on the veg garden and roots etc in the composter. Seems to work. lf i Wanted to use it inside again I would probably sterilize it like Nivek. Seems like a good idea to avoid bringing in undesirables.