"Christina Websell" wrote in message
...

"Jeff Layman" wrote in message
...
Broadback wrote:
Thought I would make my own compost for my tubs and save a bit of money.
However is there a practical way of sterilising fairly large amounts,
say about the amount that large shop bought bags contain?

I've heard that one way to do this is to use a steam generator (such as a
wallpaper stripper) to force the steam through the compost. No idea if
it works, or how much steam you would need for it to be fully effective.

I must say that I've often wondered about the necessity of using
sterilised soil. I guess that if you are trying to germinate seeds, then
sterilised soil has the advantage that what comes up is what you have
sown, rather than a lot of weeds. But in terms of sterilisation to
remove bacteria and fungi, well, perhaps it does more harm than good.
Many plants require - or at least make use of - certain fungi to enable
healthy growth. If those are not present the plant will struggle.
Perhaps try using unsterilised compost and put it in a propagator for a
month before you put your seeds in. You could then pull up anything
which germinates, or grows from a piece of root, before putting in your
seeds.


I tend to agree. I've heard about steam sterilising - from the past- but
can't think of any easy way to do this at home. ISTR my grandfather
sterilising soil for his greenhouse with Jeyes Fluid but as it contains
phenol I would not recommend it now.
I have a wonderful compost heap which has had in it annual weeds, lots of
chicken poo, tea bags, woodash, veg peelings etc. It's broken down into
soil to die for. I just accept the weed seedlings I might get and pull
them out. If they are edible for chickens they get them as a snack which
improves the colour of their egg yolks and then gets turned into chicken
poo which goes back on the compost heap and the cycle continues.

Great, isn't it?

You are making me jealous!!