Reusing your potting mix the following season

[cjp1953]

I grew 2 Jamaican Red Hot peppers in 6 gallon buckets using a potting mix.Both plants really produced well for me.I now have those buckets with the soil in them sitting outdoors next to my garden.I have never grown anything in buckets before so my question to those that do,can I reuse it and just add fertilizer in the spring?

[clkeiper]

Go ahead. I don't dump mine. It is not really a cheap product. I top it off and add amendments and or sometimes just fertilizer and plant anew.

[cjp1953]

,Thanks I'm glad you replied,I was thinking about you when I thought about reusing it.Hope all is well for you and your family, have a great Holiday.

[clkeiper]

getting along. I can't believe the season is over and ready to begin the next one. Merry Christmas to you and yours also.

[cjp1953]

Originally Posted by clkeiper

getting along. I can't believe the season is over and ready to begin the next one. Merry Christmas to you and yours also.

I was over my daughter's mother in laws for Thanksgiving.They live just south of Canal Fulton on Forty Corners off of RT21. They have a nice garden and I grew some plants for them last year.She asked if I was going to grow mine again.I told her I would grow extra plants and give them to her.So peppers get started in February.Tomatoes in late March.

[cjp1953]

ContainerTed with my 2 buckets that would not take long.

[clkeiper]

Originally Posted by cjp1953

I was over my daughter's mother in laws for Thanksgiving.They live just south of Canal Fulton on Forty Corners off of RT21. They have a nice garden and I grew some plants for them last year.She asked if I was going to grow mine again.I told her I would grow extra plants and give them to her.So peppers get started in February.Tomatoes in late March.

drove past there on Friday night on my way to menards for work gloves. I didn't see anything for the garden season yet. such a bummer. I have no idea why everyone needs so much Christmas stuff. I need seeds and soil and tools.

[cjp1953]

Originally Posted by clkeiper

drove past there on Friday night on my way to menards for work gloves. I didn't see anything for the garden season yet. such a bummer. I have no idea why everyone needs so much Christmas stuff. I need seeds and soil and tools.

We had a Menards open this past summer about a mile from me.I have not been through the entire store but bought a leaf blower and got a good deal.Do they have a nice garden department when in season?

[ContainerTed]

I used to collect all my store-bought potting soil onto a large tarp at the end of the season - one big pile. Then I would throw in some 10-10-10 fertilizer, some composted manure, and a few handfuls of dolomite lime. This would be mixed well and then bundled up for the winter. I also made sure the whole thing was not dried out, but was not overly moist. This was allowed to remain over the winter during which time I would open it up and carefully mix it again. The tarp kept the winter rain and snow from leaching out the nutrients and also kept any weed seeds from germinating and using up the nutrients.

In the spring, I would open it up and start filling up my containers. Using my largest wheelbarrow, I would add in more composted manure and a touch more lime and fertilizer (10-10-10). I would also add in some new potting mix. My goal was to replace about 30-40% of the original growing medium from the previous season. When all the containers were full, the remaining material was added to the flower beds. I would add MG crystals to the watering for the new season's tomatoes and peppers and enjoyed a lot of really healthy plants.

While this method did not get all of the really small, fine dust-sized particles out, it did get a very high percentage of them out. This was very good for ensuring the mix was not "compacting" itself into a "root unfriendly" environment.

Even now, I have a large wheelbarrow and a large screen sifter that I use to do the same thing for the containers I keep up near the house. And, yes, every three or four years I buy a new 30'X15' tarp. They seem to "biodegrade" into an unusable condition in that timeframe.

[ginger2778]

I solarize my Earthboxes and 7 gallon pots for 6-8 weeks in the summer, then dig out the old fertilizer strip in the Earthbox, add new lime and new fertilizer, top off with new mix. It's reused every year, unless I get something unusual happening during the previous growth cycle, such as a peculiar taste, or the one box actually got nematodes from the yard man kicking up native soil into the openings, with his weed whacker.(a very freaky thing that only happened to one Earthbox, and once in all these years)

[clkeiper]

Its whatever they have supplied by the corporate office. everything from seeds and pots to bale after bale of pottingmix to tools etc. some are deals some are not.

[cjp1953]

I'll have to walk through their garden center.Thanks.

I’ve been growing veggies in fabric grow pots for about 5 years now, and am in the process of switching over to a 5-1-1 mix. Here in North Florida with the rain and humidity regular soil compacts too much, and seems to contribute to my tomatoes going downhill once summer really sets in. My question is - are folks mulching over 5-1-1 in containers?

[Yak54]

When I started growing in grow bags 3 yrs. ago I also wondered about re-using the Pro Mix from them the next season. Upon reading Epic Tomatoes written by our friend Craig, he says not to do it in the interest of keeping soil born disease from transferring to the soil mix. Well my whole reason for having to use grow bags is exactly because of soil disease in my in-ground garden plot that I used for more than 25 yrs to grow tomatoes. So I decided to not risk shooting myself in the foot and take the advice of someone I respect. And I can say I no longer struggle with bacterial disease in my grow bags. I know Pro Mix is expensive but my growing success is worth it. But to each his own.
Dan

Originally Posted by Yak54

When I started growing in grow bags 3 yrs. ago I also wondered about re-using the Pro Mix from them the next season. Upon reading Epic Tomatoes written by our friend Craig, he says not to do it in the interest of keeping soil born disease from transferring to the soil mix. Well my whole reason for having to use grow bags is exactly because of soil disease in my in-ground garden plot that I used for more than 25 yrs to grow tomatoes. So I decided to not risk shooting myself in the foot and take the advice of someone I respect. And I can say I no longer struggle with bacterial disease in my grow bags. I know Pro Mix is expensive but my growing success is worth it. But to each his own.
Dan

I did this for years, too, but now I want to scale up the number of tomatoes I grow and I’m running out of places to dump soil that’s done for tomatoes and already been used for other crops. I’m to the point where mixing, sterilizing and reusing my own 5-1-1 is the only economical way to go. My homemade vermicompost will be enough for all the fruit trees and berries if I don’t use it on the tomatoes.