Do you recycle your soil?

[Cannalicious]

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I think the DNA or sex is determined way before that. IMHO, I think stress could cause hermies, but not just males. It doesn't make sense. Why would mother nature do that. When propagation is the primary goal of life. I'm still trying to save some of their pollen from those males by putting some branches in water, hope it works, that can be tricky, I've read. I like that nuking the old soil idea too. I bet maybe small quart size amounts for ~15 seconds?

As a side note, it has been shown in multiple species that DNA does not always determine the sex of an animal.

For example, sea turtles sex is determined by the temperature of the sand that the eggs are laid in. The warmer eggs that are on top and closer to the heat of the sun turn into females and the eggs in the bottom of the nest turn into males.

Also, "A new study has found that male frogs exposed to the herbicide atrazine -- one of the most common man-made chemicals found in U.S. waters -- can make a startling developmental U-turn, becoming so completely female that they can mate and lay viable eggs. " http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/01/AR2010030102331.html

Just random fun facts.

 

[Admiral Canna]

I guess if yer organic then recycling is ok. But for anyone else, no recycling. IMO anywho.

It all goes in veggie gardens, flower gardens, passed on to people who need it for houseplants....or just used for fill. Thats how I roll.

 

[EatMoGrass]

My best yields and most flavorful buds were grown in recycled organic soil. Its not done to save money as it may cost more the first time than buying new soil. I believe I spent well over $100 on amendments like alfalfa, greensand, oyster shell, and a bunch of other stuff when I had been spending about $100 on new soil before. I've gotten out of recycling and building soils over the last two years but I am very excited to get back into it. Store bought premixed soils often are recycled soil, with extras like gnats and other pests.

 

[joe fresh]

my question is a bit more simple, i want to recycle my PROMIX, for the simple reason of not having to cary soo much into the house, promix i believe is a soiless mix, but would it be wise to recycle it? or would i be better off just getting new promix?

the reason i ask is i have to cary 20 big bales of promix into the house, to supply 140 7gal pots, recycling would be less suspicious than carying in 20 or so bales of promix

 

[EatMoGrass]

Well I don't have a garden anywhere near that size but that is one of the reasons I started recycling my soil. Check out the Organic Soil section here. There is allot of work and time needed to safely recycle soil. I always had two batches, one I would be flowering in and the other would be "cooking" with my amendments and live composting worms for 10-12 weeks until needed for the next batch. Might not be something for large scale growers.

 

[whodair]

since i went organic nutes, i switched to recycle. the soil "looks" better to me the 2nd time around. when using chem ferts, my soil looked depleted when done.

my "soil" is amended promix. organic nutes are G.O.

 

[unthing]

My soil turns 5 years old this fall. For nutes I use mostly biobizz and such. Pests can be killed, but if diseases would rise I'd toss it and start again.

Then again I'm a lil' hobby grower. Big timer/supplier/mmj type of situation might not do it as losses would be in another scale alltogether. Better safe than sorry in commercial sounds reasonable.

 

[silentspider]

i recycle my soil from indoors to my compost bin outside, then after that i would use it outdoors for my pepper garden, mmmm they taste great as always

 

[B. Friendly]

soil is to cheap to reuse it. Only organic soil would l reuse, da it gets better with age

 

[bigghead]

soil dont go bad. what you add to it gets out of whack. i clean the roots out then add some perlite flush witht 400ppm till run off is under 500 ppm. use the run off on your lawn. my water is 7 ph. i grow perpetual over 20 yrs without a teardown. the pro-mix i use has never been dumped only added to. when you have the soil dialed why change it.

 

[AcroPhobic]

i recycle my soil from indoors to my compost bin outside, then after that i would use it outdoors for my pepper garden, mmmm they taste great as always

Same here. My jalapeno, mariachi and sweet bell peppers love it and taste yummy!

 

[medmaker420]

soil is to cheap to reuse it. Only organic soil would l reuse, da it gets better with age

soil is cheap?

how big of a grow and how often are we talking about?

Getting 10 bags of soil and 3-4 bags of perlite puts me back pretty decently.

 

[qdavid]

This thread is very useful. I'm just about to mix up another batch for a plant that is in a solo cup, less than two weeks old, but already has 4-5 sets of leaves. I don't mean to hijack the thread or anything, but the soil from the last round got powdery when dry, and muddy when watered. I go all organic and add blood meal, bone meal, EWC, perlite, sphagnum moss, and more FF, to amend. But does anyone have suggestions for a soil conditioner to make it more "bulky" and not powdery when dry and not get muddy when wet? Drains better? Maybe I shouldn't add the moss? That looks to be the powdery problem. Maybe I should ask in the Organic Soils section.

 

[K.J]

soil is cheap?

how big of a grow and how often are we talking about?

Getting 10 bags of soil and 3-4 bags of perlite puts me back pretty decently.

Yup. Not only is it not cheap, but used soil is a pain in the ass to dispose of discreetly, so recycling it eliminates that problem too.

 

[supermanlives]

my soil aint cheap, it starts as a 3.4 compressed bale for about 40$ then i add a big bag castings 20$ then about 8 other organic stuff at like 7 bucks a box each. hell no i aint throwing it away

 

[Lazyman]

It depends, did you use Final Phase, Clearex, Florakleen or any other flushing product?

Did you use Bushmaster or any other strong hormones?

Did you have mites, gnats or aphids in any recent crops?

If so you certainly shouldn't.

Do you have the space, time and resources to solarize, compost, re-amend and store all your soil for several months at a time? If so, go for it. I don't have the time so I buy new.

I'd think coco would lend itself better to reuse since it's all one material that breaks down evenly, but I always bought new coco too because I use Final Phase.

 

[Mr. Greengenes]

Of course soil can be recycled indefinitely. My mix is always 'by ear' and no ingredient is ever measured, I just replenish what I think it needs by feeling and smelling it. It's always been hard to tell whether specific nutrient additives have much effect on the growth of my plants, presumably because there's not much missing. Soilmix definitely improves over time. Many organic nutrients take time to become available, and I think my mixes show that. Other than replenishing what the last crop ate, the main key to reusing the soilmix is getting all the old roots out. No plant likes to live in the roots of it's dead relatives. I wouldn't rely on those enzyme products, just manually get all them roots out with a screen. Preferably soon after harvest when the roots are still strong enough to hold together.

 

[SergeantGod]

I have a very, very clean room and soil EXCEPT for the dang fungus gnats that i control with the sticky sticks.
Yes, i use Final Phase. No, i don't want to go thru the re-amending process.

Starting to experiment with COCO so the gnats don't have any place to live.
........thanks for all your comments.......Sergeant God

 

[TexasToker]

I started dousing my soil with a little Neem. Worked great for preventing the little winged bitches.

 

[bakelite]

This thread is very useful. I'm just about to mix up another batch for a plant that is in a solo cup, less than two weeks old, but already has 4-5 sets of leaves. I don't mean to hijack the thread or anything, but the soil from the last round got powdery when dry, and muddy when watered. I go all organic and add blood meal, bone meal, EWC, perlite, sphagnum moss, and more FF, to amend. But does anyone have suggestions for a soil conditioner to make it more "bulky" and not powdery when dry and not get muddy when wet? Drains better? Maybe I shouldn't add the moss? That looks to be the powdery problem. Maybe I should ask in the Organic Soils section.

qdavid, My guess is that you probably just need more peat or coir. You said you added some peat and FF, you may need more though. The soil breaks down every time you reuse it so you have to replace some of the stuff that holds water (peat, coir etc.) with each recycle.
-bakelite