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Old 14-04-2009, 03:01 PM posted to triangle.gardens
Wes Dukes Wes Dukes is offline
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First recorded activity by GardenBanter: Jul 2008
Posts: 26
Default Reusing container soil

On 2009-04-05, Richard Evans wrote:
Thinking ahead to next year...

Any reason I can't reuse the soil from this year? I built a sieve out
of 1/4" hardware cloth. At the end of this season, I can just toss the
dead plants, then sift the remaining dirt to get rid of roots and
other debris and reuse it next year.


For plants like tomatos, you would have to consider soil rotation
perhaps since some of the diseases stay in the soil and get worse if the
same thing is replanted each year. This only applies to some crops
though.

a crop failure would be a sign of dumping the soil. With care you
probably can minimize the contamination problems or get a couple years
out of it.

I do it with flowers, but mix it 50/50 with new potting soil each year.

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Wes Dukes (wdukes.pobox@com) Swap the . and the @ to email me please.

is a garbage address.