hey there welcome to black gumbo
southern gardening
let's revitalize some old potting soil
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so i've been asked the question can you
recycle your old potting soil
and when is it smart to do so after all
if we're
growing in containers and and your pots
are are your main
garden then you know you don't want to
be buying soil every single year
and throwing out the old stuff that's
not economically very
very wise nor feasible so i'm going to
show you a few methods today on how to
revitalize your old potting soil
and we're going to talk a little bit
about when it's safe to do so and when
it's not a good idea
and i'm going to give you a few methods
okay check out these two pots as
examples
this pot had flowers growing in it i had
several uh three different kinds of
flowers some alyssum
i don't even know what the rest of this
stuff was but
i'm pretty sure that these flowers have
probably dropped seeds into this soil
and i'm okay with that because the
the seeds that come up here i might want
them i can pull them out and transplant
them if they look like they're
interesting flower seeds that come up
otherwise they're just weeds a weed is
any plant that you don't want growing in
your soil
so yeah this is a candidate for
recycling because
it was heavily mulched these flowers
here were not real heavy feeders
and yeah there's roots and stuff all
down in there so we'll just clear this
out
and get the mulch off the top get the
snails out
and we will recycle this stuff truth be
told i recycle
almost everything in potting soil the
only way the only time that i won't
recycle
my potting soil is if i had a diseased
plant
and then i won't recycle the potting
soil and by disease i really mean
you know a true disease not a pest now
some pests you don't want to recycle
the soil if you had pests that are
soil-borne pests and you'll just have to
kind of research
uh what what what does the life cycle of
the pest that you dealt with
but if they overwinter in the soil you
might not want to recycle that for a few
years
uh just let it sit for a while let it
sit through a season
or put it in a bin a dark garbage can
and let it sit in the heat through a
summer
and that should give you a usable soil
this other one here
this one has some weeds growing in it
but there's not a lot of weeds growing
in it so i'll just pick those out
and we'll just recycle this as it is
because it looks like it's in pretty
good shape
i don't remember what grew in here but
the root system down below there might
tell me
if it's still there maybe it's composted
in place already
but this soil looks pretty good and i
didn't have any diseases in my potted
plants last year
or last summer so i can reuse all of
this
this is the soil that i used in my
single seed challenge
and you can see the remnants of the rice
hull
mulch that i used on top now rice hull
mulch
can also be a substitute for perlite or
any other kind of stuff you might add to
your soil to give it aeration
and so you don't really have to remove
your mulch if it's just this
this rice hull but
i'm going to remove a lot of it but i'm
not going to worry about any remainders
like that stuff down there
there were spider mites on my single
seed challenge this year
and while spider mites are a pest they
do not overwinter
in the soil and their eggs don't
overwinter in the soil so i can use this
soil
uh i can reuse it again without worrying
about the mites
so that's what we're going to do with
this stuff now one of the things that
you can do with your potting soil
especially if you have heavy roots in
your soil
is to screen that soil into a
wheelbarrow or a wagon
and i've got this screen this compost
screen that i've used and i've shown you
how i made this in another video
but i'm going to screen some of my soil
through here
just to take out any of the the bigger
roots and
every now and then you find a grub in
there as well so it comes in handy you
don't have to do this but
i'm i'm going to screen my soil just to
see what's in it
that's some nice earthworms in there
i don't see any big roots in here and
that's what we're looking for
big roots big rocks like that take that
out
big chunks that you don't want passing
through grubs
pests anything that might be in here
that you don't want to put in your new
soil
now like i said i like to take the mulch
off there's not much of this mulch left
and the problem with mulch is it's a
high carbon material
whether it's leaves or wood mulch you
don't want that
in the midst of your soil while it's a
good addition to your compost
if you leave it in your soil and mix it
in it's going to bind up nutrients
as the bacterial life and the fungal
life go to work on this
they utilize the nitrogen in your soil
that the plants need
to break this down that's why mulch and
leaves and things like that on the
surface are fine because that's just on
the horizon where that nitrogen is being
robbed
where the mulch meets the soil but you
don't want to mix it in
let's see what's in this one all right
we've got some mulch down at the bottom
hopefully that'll filter out got some
roots in here
you can see these are the kinds of
things you don't really have to worry
about if you don't want to
these things will compost in place
there we go it looks really good doesn't
it
a couple weeds down in there now there
are probably weed seeds all in this
but again with mulching you can minimize
the germination of your seeds whether it
be in a garden bed
or in a container the absolute most easy
way that you can
reuse your potting soil is just to reuse
it
just plant right into it with whatever
you're going to grow in that pot
potting soil and most soils while they
are depleted by the plants that grow in
them
usually are not fully depleted for a
number of seasons
when i do my garden beds i put one layer
of compost on them
for each time i plant in them and that's
pretty much all the amendments my garden
beds
as a whole get every year they do get
spot treatments with liquid fertilizer
and slow release fertilizer in the holes
when i plant some things
sometimes but for the most part all the
fertility in my soil in my main beds
comes from
a twice annual application of about a
half inch of compost on the top and
that's it that keeps the soil life happy
and grows good plants in our pots pots
are a smaller sample
and sometimes that soil can fill up with
roots and those plants can really zap
the the soil of its nutrition and so
if you're going to plant directly in old
potting soil
which i don't necessarily recommend but
sometimes that's all we got
stay on top of those plants as they grow
with a very regular and a very good
water-soluble fertilizing regiment you
want to give your plants the food they
need
and by fertilizing them you you can help
them to grow healthy even in bad soil
so that's the first method just use what
you got the second method is to
add some fresh potting soil to your to
your old potting soil
i would recommend about a 50 50 mix but
do whatever you got
what's in the fresh potting soil are
some of the amendments
they put in there like the compost
sometimes there's manure in there
this organic stuff has all kinds of good
additions to it
um that you can read on the package that
will help to revitalize your soil now
it's not the
full strength stuff but it's a way to
extend your old potting soil
and and that that 50 50 mix will give
you at least a boost of of nutrition
to help that soil life come alive and
give nutrition to your plants
again if you're going to do this method
also stay on top of your plants with a
pretty rig rigorous fertilizer regiment
as they grow
water-soluble fertilizers are
immediately available to your plants
and i recommend them the next method i
would recommend
as we climb up the ladder of fertility i
guess you could call it that each method
is a little bit better than the previous
one
instead of just adding potting soil to
your depleted
potting soil add something with a little
more kick
i've got here some compost this is
finely screened compost that i made this
past year
and this is good stuff compost is very
diverse
and well compost depends on what you're
putting in it
i've put everything but the kitchen sink
in my compost
and so it's very fertile stuff it's got
a diverse
bunch of nutrients in it and it's good
for the soil and compost
pure compost you can grow straight in
that but if you add compost to your
depleted mix what you're doing is you're
putting in organic material into your
soil
that the bacteria and the fungal life in
that soil
can go to work on and that's actually
what feeds your plants it's not the
compost itself
the plants eat it's the byproducts of
the
soil life breaking down your compost
they make the nutrients and the
elements in that compost available to
your plants
and so that's what you want you want
healthy soil life you don't want just
dead soil it's got to be healthy
well you got to feed that life and
compost is
one of the best ways to feed that life
so you can put some compost in some
depleted soil
a ratio of three part soil to one part
compost is really all you need
and that will help to revitalize your
soil
and bump up the nutritional value of
that soil
and make all that soil life happy if you
do this method
just adding some compost to your
depleted soil you could probably
get away with growing your plants
through their whole life without
fertilization
although i still like to fertilize
especially if
i don't have really high quality compost
so that's the next method and i'm going
to do a little bit of that so i'm gonna
take
about three gallons of compost you can
see that's my
finely sifted compost and i'm gonna add
it to my soil and mix it in real well
but one thing i wanted to show you i had
some peanuts get into my compost this
year
and as the peanuts have uh sprouted
i've got these little peanut plants in
my compost
so interesting huh these are going back
into the compost so we can
eat these peanuts in our next vegetables
that feed off of this stuff
okay well that was easy that's
revitalized potting soil now
it's one part of compost
and three parts of depleted potting mix
and it looks just as good as
store-bought stuff
now the addition of compost to that soil
will kickstart the biological activity
in there but if you really need to use
it really quick
um one way is to take some compost tea
and water that soil saturate that soil
with compost tea
and that really makes a a really nice
potting mix that's ready to plant in
right away
otherwise you might want to let that
soil sit for a few weeks and let that
that compost start to break down let
that soil life bump up into activity
but really it doesn't matter some people
say you should wait
some people don't i'm gonna wait a
little while because i'm gonna put some
lettuce in containers
and my lettuce isn't ready to be planted
up yet so
that's why i'm waiting so the fourth
method is an attempt to add into the
soil
a little bit more of what your plants
need let's talk about soil briefly what
is soil
in the ground and in nature soil is a
combination of organic material
along with inorganic material like
mineralized
you know silt and clay and sand things
that are truly just pulverized rock
and in a lot of places that makes up the
most of the soil
in a forest environment the top portion
of the soil is largely organic material
that's fallen down from the trees and
it's nice and loamy and rich
it's got a lot of life in it but dig
down and frequently you'll hit
the the mineralized portion of the soil
which is either sand
or is clay or a combination of those
lots of silt
that's native soil and your plants
actually need some of that
mineral stuff they need to have some
clay they need to have some
some some of the minerals that are over
time gradually and slowly through
chemistry leeched out of
that rocky material and so it's a good
practice for example if you're making
your own compost to throw some clay in
it from time to time
and let that clay break down in your
compost
it's a good good deal but if you don't
have
that kind of stuff on hand you can
artificially replicate that
and that's what we have to do when we
buy potting soil because potting soil
is not the earth because the problem
with native soil
and all that dense mineralized clay and
sand
it either doesn't drain well or it
drains far too fast if you live in a
sandy area you know about that it just
the water just disappears if you live
where i live we have black gumbo clay
and the stuff's like plastic like gummy
plastic
and you can dig a hole and put water in
it and come back the next day and it
hasn't drained but
a millimeter or two it's and that's
probably evaporation so
you don't want to put that in a pot
potting soil is designed to be
well draining but also retain water and
that's why potting soil is largely made
of organic material
that retains water if you look on a bag
of potting soil like this you'll find
that a large percentage of it is
some sort of water retention medium like
peat moss
this stuff is probably half peat moss or
more peat moss ground wood
coco coir all these things retain water
but they also drain well
and so you that's what we want for our
pots we want to retain water
so your plants can survive but we also
don't want them getting waterlogged
but they still need that mineralization
they still need
the benefit of native soil so what we
can do is we can add that
in with fertilizers like azomite which
is
truly a mineral mixture and
this will give your plants um
calcium chlorine and sodium and soluble
potash
a little bit of trace minerals and
that's what we're really after is all
those trace minerals
you can also use kelp meal kelp meal is
a good source for minerals the
ocean is filled with all these trace
elements that your plants thrive on
um like molybdenum molybdenum i don't
know how to say it i forget i always get
confused
um sulfurs uh cadmiums all these weird
little things that you don't think your
plants need but they do
well in the native soil the clay and the
sands and all that provide that for your
plants
but in our pots we need to add that in i
would also suggest for the very best
potting mix that you're going to
revitalize to put some slow
release fertilizer uh in there and i
often use this dr earth's
and it's got a whole bunch of good
things for your for your plants
including
bacterial elements it's got several
several
types of bacterial it's got several
types of mycorrhizal
uh fungi and this helps to boost your
your pla your soil life and after all
all that bacteria and that fungus in
your soil
that's what breaks down the organic
material to provide
nutrients for your plants and so you
want that this stuff has a lot of it in
there it's not just
npk it's not just npk plus some trace
elements
it's npk trace elements and mycorrhizal
fungus and bacteria that is good for
your soil so i'll add about a handful or
two of this into the
the mix we've just made and that will
help to inoculate that soil
with the good stuff that we need i'll
also add a handful or two
of this azomite which will give some of
the minerals that our plants need and
that soil will be totally
revitalized it'll actually be better
soil than we bought
when we brought one of these bags home
from the store because we've taken care
to put in the soil what our plants need
all right so i'm just going to take a
handful
and another handful you don't need much
of this this
azomite just a little bit
and then i'm gonna take a couple of
handfuls of this dr
earth's and i really like this stuff i
use this every year
it is slow release fertilizer but
remember we're inoculating our soil
with all that other good life so
put that in there mix it in really well
use your hands use a tool use whatever
you want
if you really want to get this going
hose it down briefly get it moist don't
get it sopping wet just get it moist a
little bit that'll wake up all that
bacteria and that fungal life in there
and this stuff will be ready to plant
in a in a couple of days you could plant
in it right away if you want
i'll show you how to plant i have a
couple of brussels sprouts left
over
two of them in one plug we'll have to
thin them
can you grow a brussels sprout in a
container i've seen people grow them in
this size of container
so we're going to try it i'm going to
put this in here
just as simple as that
and i'm going to put some mulch over the
top of it just to keep the weeds down
now brussels sprouts are brassicas
they're pretty heavy feeders so
all that life that we've put in here is
going to wake up
and when i water this over the next few
days it's going to wake up and start
working on that compost that we put in
here
and really give a good chance for this
brussels sprout to get started
and to grow nice and large we'll see
i'm just reaching behind me and grabbing
some of that rice hole
off my single seed challenge pot
well there you have it what's in this
pot is better than what came out of the
bag
we've revitalized old potting soil
saving money
but if you just want to cut your soil in
half with depleted potting soil a new
mix that's one method if you want to add
all the fertilizer and good stuff to it
that's another method
whatever you do you can always reuse the
stuff
and uh so yeah there you go hey like us
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it hey happy gardening to you we'll see
you next time bye-bye
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you