How do you recycle your soil to use again

[OldG]

I will have about 40 gallons of soil after in the future, What do i need to do to reuse that soil?

I would imagine i need to sift the plant material out and i saw someone mention a 1/4 inch screen. Check ! i have one of them around and i will cut it to fit a 27 gallon commander.

Next it would probably need ammendments and to chill out a while so its not so hot.

Could i use something like this ? I have this and usually add a heaping tablespoon to things if i veg longer than 6 weeks. Otherwise the soil was enough with the odd MC at 700ppm watering.


Ingredients: Insect frass, fish bone meal, dolomitic lime, wollastonite, basalt rock dust, alfalfa meal, gypsum, kelp, blood meal, potash, humid acid

Directions: Depending on plants/strains, use 1/2 tbs - 1 tbs per gallon of soil once a week. apply on top of the soil and water in.

And i have an enzyme i use on coco. Do you need that for soil too or once its dry and you take out the roots, add the top dress i can use it ?

This is new to me. I want to enzyme it up with a bunch of coco to make the needs multi feeds a day formula.

 

[LittleDabbie]

I wouldn't sift anything out, thats good organic material that will breakdown over time and feed the soil..

 

[Willie]

Ha 40 gallons, you'll lose that easily in the garden, I'm north of 300 gallons in pots out there. My method is to cycle the grow dirt into pots, then I'll grow potatoes/sweet potatoes in those pots. At season's end I'll dump the dirt out to get the potatoes. Then I make a pile with whatever dirt I'm recycling. Then crimson clover that pile, turn it and amend it w P & K in the spring/early summer, it will already have N from the clover as well as tilth.
That dirt will now be ready to grow in and normally would go to the guerilla outdoor stuff, or flower beds, or back into the pots they come from to grow something other than potatoes.

I compost the root ball after breaking away as much dirt as possible, but never sift.

I don't bring the dirt back into the house once its been outside unless I sterilize it first. Bugz and shit.....

 

[LittleDabbie]

I'm with willie i'm storing my used shit till spring gets here and using it in teh outdoor garden.

 

[OldG]

This is currently fancy indoor super soil from a bag. (Stepwell Organic Super Soil and Destiny Organic) I would like to reuse it inside.

Ahhh...i should have mentioned that eh.



I also have 2 commanders full of coco i have to deal with too When i threw it out i had more totes...this i know.

 

[Gentlemancorpse]

I've seen people do what your suggesting @OldG but like the others I just compost the whole root balls with my chicken shit and veggie scraps and use it outdoors next season...

At a certain point I always wonder when the plants have used up all the amendments and you've sifted out all the big organic matter (and likely any perlite)... what are you actually saving? All the stuff that made those bags of soil expensive int he first place is gone right?

 

[OldG]

it makes sense to me. And the fancy soil has a lot of perlite in it. My carrots looked like golf pencils so i will make a bed really loose with the soil

it is easy to recycle coco. it is just a messy time consuming kind of ordeal. And that comes in these fancy little bricks.

2 totes of that are going in the outdoor garden too

 

[Willie]

I would def use that soil twice, but at that point it is like promix. Then you use it like promix a few more times, but results suffer after that imo.

 

[OldG]

I will pull out the root balls and shake them off. Would you sift it for indoor?

I think so to get the plant matter out and i will toss it in the worm bin.

 

[Willie]

Once you shake out that root skeleton and then break up the rest of the ball, there will only be fine roots left. I leave them figuring it's just dead organics in there helping.

 

[Jewels]

I just arrange the balls to dry.

Most of my soil work is done in summer.
For a quick turnaround, I spread thin on concrete.
Dry completely, bake , rinse , repeat. This will germinate any foreign seeds and depending on temp achieved, should hatch out any eggs.
I like to treasure hunt for 'compost starters' as some cultures are fungal heavy, where as some are bacteria driven. I pull muck from slough banks , I look for musty leaf litter, and aquarium bottoms, as my go to culture seeding stock.

At that point, I add coco, peat, or sphagnum.
The thinner the mulch, the more surface area it has. Allows for more exposure to oxygen (aerobic process), and higher temps, whereby reducing cycle times.
Rinse to impregnate, final dry. This would be a good time to cut in a pile of BTisreali. It will retard soft winged egg hatching, such as Aphids, rollers, etc.
Unused soil, I will drag over to the edge of the pavement to allow the nightcrawlers to go to work on it.

I just picked up a giant bale of spag. @ peavymart. I am going to cut in at 50:50 with my heavy clay/bunny compost. Worms and all. I need 70 gallons or so , in order to get 2 dozen plants cradle to grave.
Last frost comes late in May,,, I gotta stock a big ol' pile.

With a local phenomena called a 'Chinook', we get random summer days during winter. I will get a chance to turn compost the winter, but the earth will stay frozen.
March

Dude! I left the garage door ajar when I went to snap these photos-- I just spent a minute,, chasing Æthena around the yard.
These photos came at great cost,,,
July 3rd, harvest remnants.


They have been tread down. I have added wood ash, and bunny gold



I can see. The coco fibre in there. Still needs Spag. And brick.
Aand I drooped my phone on a hike last nifht and my touchfgrid is f' d.
I give up editing. Posting now.
Last fall I am dragging coal carts of soil into the cellar, and my daughter says
" Dad,,,you really love your dirt"
Course it was the same daughter who once coined
"I think Dad likes old stuff,,, because he is old"

This can be done during winter as well, in oversized totes, as I believe @JL2G does. Again, velocity of microbial activity is directly proportional to amount of oxygen and heat.

Despite all of this rambling,,,
If you truly want to have the best soil, you gotta ask yourself only one important question.

What colour of bunny should I get ?

 

[Gentlemancorpse]

I dig your methodology @Jewels but I got ask...



Are these like, the jelly bean flavors you don't like or something?

 

[Jewels]

Hah, ‘Clown Puke’ gravel.
That was from an ‘acid trip’ aquarium I took down 17 years ago.

G asked for it,,,
I long game recycle and got wind all day.

 

[Jewels]

I am on my other device now .
In the previous post there was an attachment with a photo that did not fly . It shows my pile cooking on the concrete. Some days the surface temp hits 40° C . Tthat green confetti is Elm tree seed We call them oats . I allowe them to germinate and then turn them under, in a tent to rob their hormones and make Earth tea

 

[RighteouslyGrown]

Idk if this will help but what I do is make a super soil. Once I run that soil I let it dry completely with the root ball and enough stem to grab hold of shake out as much soil as I can. I want the little roots, as they will break down. Then I replace the worm casting and compost that plant used up and let it set for a good month or so. It’s a basic soil like Happy frog at that point. You can add what ever amendments you want after that. I do this 3 times before I run into problems with soil ph. At that point it’s easier to make new soil I feel.

 

[Willie]

Here's my compost pile. It's ready to be sifted..........new pile is started

 

[notyouravstoner]

Does anyone use, or believe in using hygrozyme to break down any root matter left in the dirt?

 

[Jewels]

Still at it , @OldG.

I had been using pine shavings in the rabbit litter box. I need to throw them to the back of the Earth pile, as they break down just as slowly as yard leaf. I have developed a new strategy that plays on two fronts.

I have been loading the litter pan up with the hardest bark I can find. Idaho Fir, is the best I can do.

( I did see a local Arborist ducking into the dispensary the other day. I'm a hit him up for some hardwood bark. Believe it or not it is a very rare commodity around here. )

The rabbit uses a drop through grate to relieve herself.

This is piling up with dung and becoming saturated with urine. Best part about bunny ? is that it is a ready to serve product~ no cooling required. This will start the N process.

The next step is mechanical. You could say it is nuclear powered. It relies on the incredibly strong covalent bonds that exist in water. After these chips are sufficiently contaminated, I take them outside and douse them with aquarium water.
They freeze solid and then thaw.
They freeze solid and then thaw.
I catch them on a warm day and I mash them up a bit. On the coldest days they hold still long enough to crush with the back of an axe. This is keeping a supply of ready-to-use product on hand, all winter.
I could pogo stick my spade across my frozen lawn in this, the dead of winter , the garden media is loose however, as I have been keeping my soil pile moving all season.

I am front loading the full litter pan as ready-to-use media , mixing it in with the spent root balls.
For the moment the spent soil and stable chips will be my only ongoing inputs.
Too much clay vermicompost made it into my original supply. My yields have been getting bigger as I focus on increasing the media volume, while avoiding adding mass.

 

[Gweedo's Growroom]

@Jewels thanks for dropping these tidbits, I'm getting ready to dive in full speed down this organic/permaculture type of growing it just makes sense to me the more I thought about it

 

[OldG]

I have have been reusing my soil and so far so good.

I dry out the planters....get the roots off...add 1 cup gaia 4 4 4 (veg), 1/2 cup of neem and 1/2 cup of karanja and 1/2 cup of kelp and all the recycled soil in a 14 gallon tote. I double it for the 27.

I leave it in there for at least 2 weeks but they just go in rotation as i need them.
2 X 27 gallon totes
2 X 14 gallon totes
That is what i have in play. Currently a 14 is half full and the rest are full.

I do find the soil is a wee bit hot at first...but it calms down fast. I get a bit of rusty leaves from some strains...but some just LOVE it

All this soil is loaded with nemotoads and only 100% organic inputs...i think this round is supposed to grow pretty well.

I will just ensure i use my top feeds more often. Every 2 or 3 weeks with either Gaia VEG (4 4 4) and BLOOM (2-8-4)

This organic stuff is pretty awesome. And I WILL get some yield back...i just need to find a cooperating cultivar and a few decided to come and play.



What really sold me on organic was a half doob. I am not a fan of relighting a doob...roaches go in fire pits i mean half a fat doob. They taste AWFUL.

I fired up some of them recently and with organic buds....they taste better than the fresh gov weed (but its in a twiced burned doob)

Soil forever.