Re - using your soil ............

[Clonex]

Hi , i would just like to know if anyone re uses their soil ?
Buying decent soil and perlite etc , can prove costly at times and can also be a pain to bring in and out of premises , also disposing used soil can be a real pain ,
any useful tips on re using would be grateful

 

[tellno1]

i dont recycle it ( dont use that much) but know of a couple of growers in the area that do .. they sift out the old roots etc and mix in a little peat and composted soil .. donno if this helps

happy growin

 

[Clonex]

i dont recycle it ( dont use that much) but know of a couple of growers in the area that do .. they sift out the old roots etc and mix in a little peat and composted soil .. donno if this helps

happy growin

No thats great and ty , any ideas are welcomed

 

[pabloesqobar]

I use Fox Farms Ocean Forest . . . and have re-used it. I just make sure all the roots are out, stir it up, and add a little new stuff if needed. Works just fine.

 

[Clonex]

I use Fox Farms Ocean Forest . . . and have re-used it. I just make sure all the roots are out, stir it up, and add a little new stuff if needed. Works just fine.

So any old rootage left behind is bad for the plants i take it ?

 

[mellokitty]

if it still smells like soil, yes.
if it smells like pee or rot, no.

and yes. breaking it up (aerating) is key.

 

[Gastanker]

I reuse soil after a thorough composting and then adding amendments. Compost your old soil just like you would compost anything else - I tend to add a small bit of organic nitrogen to speed things along. Once your roots have been broken down add whatever you like. If you just want to get it back to where it started that's generally just a bit of bat guano and some earth worm castings.

 

[MJstudent]

Hi , i would just like to know if anyone re uses their soil ?
Buying decent soil and perlite etc , can prove costly at times and can also be a pain to bring in and out of premises , also disposing used soil can be a real pain ,
any useful tips on re using would be grateful

i dont re use soil, i know alot of people do and its usually because theyd have to bring in 250 bags of dirt every couple months. haha i just finsihed helping my bud replace his dirt after 2 years :O it took a day and a hlaf off 3 of us taking out old dirt getting new stuff putting it back in the room.

 

[ohmy]

one way to look at it is do farmers change the soil in the feilds or just disk it ,fer and replant

 

[Clonex]

one way to look at it is do farmers change the soil in the feilds or just disk it ,fer and replant

good point

 

[DrFever]

for all to learn i did a grow this summer and after the grow i re used the soil only adding a little bit of new soil to the mix and my end results were devastating so do you re use soil NO and as for above post do farmers re use there soil
come to think about it it was the europians that came up that making square sections in your land why is this cause they would change there yields either barley or corn etc most farmers now a days will not gorw same thing 2 tmes in there secions of land cause it will ruin there soil farmer will add 2 to 3 times in 5 months ferts and pesticides to there crop we in turn grow indoor our soil doesnt bleach out like farm land does our soil gets used obviously the op has hardly grown to even mention re using soil most of good growers there soil in the container will practicly used up do to roots in there pots

By the time it comes to harvest i got one fckin huge root system in my pot with hardly any soil left to re use )

 

[ohmy]

for all to learn i did a grow this summer and after the grow i re used the soil only adding a little bit of new soil to the mix and my end results were devastating so do you re use soil NO and as for above post do farmers re use there soil
come to think about it it was the europians that came up that making square sections in your land why is this cause they would change there yields either barley or corn etc most farmers now a days will not gorw same thing 2 tmes in there secions of land cause it will ruin there soil

damn so your telling me the farmer that grows 12 foot corn stalks next to me every year for long as i can remember to feed his animals has been doing it wrong?. the soil does not get used up . only the nute's do. after harvest they prep soil by mixing it up and adding lime and other ferts and he has the best looking crops every year.. maybe if someone does not want to take the time to prep the soil it would be easy for them to use new and go....edit so i do not get beat up... by preping soil. take out the big root mass ad your lime,bat shit,kelp meal and other nutes you would use in your supper soil.Mix and let sit for two weeks and all the lil roots will break down like in compost pile.far as harvest plant and replant i would say no.I am set up with double soil that i use and when i swap out soil will mix old stuff with nutes so it is ready after next harvest......Peace

 

[Clonex]

Dr Fever , my root balls are big , but given a good shake , lots of earth and perlite falls away , it's this i want to re-use , If the relative nutes and goodness is added back after a flush through , i cant really see a problem , not planning any corn or barley grows this year !

 

[DrFever]

go ask your farmer ohmy really Corn fields are hard on there soil

 

[DrFever]

clonex in all seriousness most of our indoor soil is used up no need for the cost im telling you i am prob only one of the few on this site that grows in the excess of thousands of plants in all stages you can either believe me or not its the net take it all by a grain of salt i forgot to mention by the end of most gorws the salt contant in your soil out ways re using it but then again believe it or not up to you

 

[ohmy]

go ask your farmer ohmy really Corn fields are hard on there soil

every year same crop,same feild and he grows monsters. he does spent the money on ferts and takes the time to disk it, not like other farmers who do not do shit or to cheep to spend a lil on good ferts... like the one who just use his cow shit and wonders why his crops yeild less and less every year till nothing. the cheep ones will alt there crops..... If you want to know how i know...yes I have had my fair shair of time farming and playing in bull shit

 

[Clonex]

clonex in all seriousness most of our indoor soil is used up no need for the cost im telling you i am prob only one of the few on this site that grows in the excess of thousands of plants in all stages you can either believe me or not its the net take it all by a grain of salt i forgot to mention by the end of most gorws the salt contant in your soil out ways re using it but then again believe it or not up to you

well i have 400 odd which is enough for me lol, anyway thanks for your input , your a little outvoted by others , but thanks all the same
ps the salts can easily be flushed out.

 

[Gastanker]

clonex in all seriousness most of our indoor soil is used up no need for the cost im telling you i am prob only one of the few on this site that grows in the excess of thousands of plants in all stages you can either believe me or not its the net take it all by a grain of salt i forgot to mention by the end of most gorws the salt contant in your soil out ways re using it but then again believe it or not up to you

How does soil get "used up"? Where does it go? Plants take in trace amount of elements and minerals from the soil but 98% of their mass comes from H20 and CO2. Almost all of the soil you start with, you end with, even if it looks a bit different in the end. Luckily Clonex is already aware that you can flush salts from soil extremely easily but I should also throw in that if you are using organic ferts you will never end up with salt buildups - no real salts to speak of. Add back the trace amounts of minerals and elements and you're back to where you started. And no, old roots don't tangle things up - that's just silliness.

It'll be a sad day when the world runs out of potting soil because it all got used up.

 

[DrFever]

looking into the gran scheme of things Rain exceeds the rate of evaporation, this means that in freely drained areas , soil base materials is washed away which leads to higher concentrations of organic acids in the ground so in general soil is quite acidic and large areas of farmers land needs alkillines ( traditionaly lime to remain fertile ) nitrates are also soulable and soil has no power to hold them so rain rapidly carries them away acid rain woo hoo increases soil acidity but even normal rains tend to be acidic

now were talking about indoor growin MJ where you add massive amounts of nutrients to your soil from veg to flower to get massive yields or least best that you can ????

to me it dont matter clonex you say i am out numbers really dont matter please do reuse your soil to me it dont matter in the real world of things do i go thru 140 cubic yards of soil yup i do do i sterilize my soil yup i bake it do i have massive big yields yup i do so who cares do it man all the power to you

 

[mellokitty]

hey, tell it to those silly amazonians... they've been doing it wrong.... for thousands of years....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terra_preta