Re-using promix?

[ShLUbY]

You're inspiring me to put some real love into this new hobby/venture. I'm very willing to put in the work to aspire to your level. Do you recommend a good starting point? Perhaps books/videos/writeup to get me started? Internet research is leading to too much information, which is in many ways worse than no information, since I can literally spend days in front of the computer, thereby taking time away from my plants.

3 books: teaming with nutrients, teaming with fungi, teaming with microbes. contains everything you need to know.

Threads to get you started here: the ROLS thread (recycled organic living soils), which contains a lot of methods and basic soil recipes in the first 10 pages. def enough to get you on your feet.

 

[Jajaja725]

3 books: teaming with nutrients, teaming with fungi, teaming with microbes. contains everything you need to know.

Threads to get you started here: the ROLS thread (recycled organic living soils), which contains a lot of methods and basic soil recipes in the first 10 pages. def enough to get you on your feet.

Thank you very much!!!

 

[deep_rob]

Thanks for the details. What's NPS? (I'm newish to growing with salts and am learning about going organic)

NPS = No Pest strip. it's a insect killing strip inside a plastic sheath that u hang in yur room. they are very toxic to living things, but only have a 30min half-life.. so if there is nothing alive(plants & people) in the room, and after u remove the strip, you allow the room to air out for longer than a half-hour, yur good. NPS are a hot-button topic, some hate them, while others swear by them..

 

[Jajaja725]

NPS = No Pest strip. it's a insect killing strip inside a plastic sheath that u hang in yur room. they are very toxic to living things, but only have a 30min half-life.. so if there is nothing alive(plants & people) in the room, and after u remove the strip, you allow the room to air out for longer than a half-hour, yur good. NPS are a hot-button topic, some hate them, while others swear by them..

Oh that's very good to know. Thank you! Does it take care of spores too? I suspect not, but worth asking.

 

[henrystyle]

I'm reusing my pro mix hp for the first time now. All I did was shake all of the old roots out. I put it in a 40g trash can with holes on the bottom with a layer of weed barrier so it doesn't run out. I got my garden hose and flooded it. Let it drain and dry out. When I went to re-pot I just added some myco to it. Done. Works good in my autopots.

 

[m4s73r]

I'm reusing my pro mix hp for the first time now. All I did was shake all of the old roots out. I put it in a 40g trash can with holes on the bottom with a layer of weed barrier so it doesn't run out. I got my garden hose and flooded it. Let it drain and dry out. When I went to re-pot I just added some myco to it. Done. Works good in my autopots.

What do you mean you shook all the old roots out? Like stood there and shook the soil out of the root ball?

 

[henrystyle]

What do you mean you shook all the old roots out? Like stood there and shook the soil out of the root ball?

Exactly. Got all of the pro mix out from the root ball.

 

[m4s73r]

Exactly. Got all of the pro mix out from the root ball.

Well I'm too lazy for all that. If you're lazy too, Do a rotation method. Take all the root balls and put them in a tote. chop em up, water some mycos on em and then put the lid on it. Refill your pots with fresh promix. After you harvest rotate the promix that was in the tote with the used promix. Boom recycled system that you could proly use for a few years. Then if you ever decide you want to do organics just leach out the promix, add some compost, couple scoops of amendments, and Boom organics. Do this for a year and then you can take all the soil you made and throw it in a bed.

 

[henrystyle]

Well I'm too lazy for all that. If you're lazy too, Do a rotation method. Take all the root balls and put them in a tote. chop em up, water some mycos on em and then put the lid on it. Refill your pots with fresh promix. After you harvest rotate the promix that was in the tote with the used promix. Boom recycled system that you could proly use for a few years. Then if you ever decide you want to do organics just leach out the promix, add some compost, couple scoops of amendments, and Boom organics. Do this for a year and then you can take all the soil you made and throw it in a bed. View attachment 5028300

That sounds like more work than what I did. Lol.
I don't like it sitting around for to long. Gives bugs time to setup shop. Flush. Dry. Reuse.

 

[m4s73r]

Really? dump root ball into tote chop into chunks water and put lid on it? It sits while you grow a round. then you dump those root balls in a tote, chop, water put lid on. get the prior tote out and dump that into your pots and go again? What work are you doing other then scooping dirt out a tote into bags or dumping bags into a tote.
You, my friend are standing around shaking dirt out of root balls. If your just going to flush dry and reuse (killing everything in it) why dont use you coco/perlite. Way cheaper then promix.

Sorry man, thought you were doing organics. Why would you ever pull the roots that are full of the soil nutrients out of the soil? Those will decompose and put that nurtrient back into your soil.
Then you dry your soil killing all the microbiology. You may be in the wrong forum.

 

[henrystyle]

Really? dump root ball into tote chop into chunks water and put lid on it? It sits while you grow a round. then you dump those root balls in a tote, chop, water put lid on. get the prior tote out and dump that into your pots and go again? What work are you doing other then scooping dirt out a tote into bags or dumping bags into a tote.
You, my friend are standing around shaking dirt out of root balls. If your just going to flush dry and reuse (killing everything in it) why dont use you coco/perlite. Way cheaper then promix.

Sorry man, thought you were doing organics. Why would you ever pull the roots that are full of the soil nutrients out of the soil? Those will decompose and put that nurtrient back into your soil.
Then you dry your soil killing all the microbiology. You may be in the wrong forum.

I'm not worried about saving any microbes or nutrients. (Reason why I'm flushing it) That can be added back easily. It's all about recycling. Not buying the samething over and over. When I shake out my roots balls it takes me less than 2 minutes each plant. It works for me. My plants are growing awesome. Not changing a thing. More steps involved when using coco like buffering.

 

[Southernontariogrower]

Reuse my promix and all l do is water it once or twice in between plants and pick out roots. Never seen ant sign of salt buildup.

 

[henrystyle]

Flushing with tap water will kill microbes before the drying. I let the pro mix dry so that all the chlorine can evaporate from it.

 

[m4s73r]

The chlorine will evaporate long before its dry.

 

[henrystyle]

The chlorine will evaporate long before its dry.

Ok good to know.

 

[Northwood]

Pro-Mix is a soilless mix.

And I'll be going on 5 years now reusing my Pro-Mix without even disturbing it or pulling roots out. It doesn't look anything like Pro-Mix, or peat moss either anymore though. It's crumbly in texture, black as night, and looks like "soil" now. Maybe sometime I'll disturb a little bit of it and make a video of what happens to it over a long time and continued reuse. But it just keeps on getting better IMO.

 

[Northwood]

NPS = No Pest strip. it's a insect killing strip inside a plastic sheath that u hang in yur room. they are very toxic to living things, but only have a 30min half-life.. so if there is nothing alive(plants & people) in the room, and after u remove the strip, you allow the room to air out for longer than a half-hour, yur good. NPS are a hot-button topic, some hate them, while others swear by them..

FFS, they will not kill spores. And they're illegal in many countries. Plus this is the organic section. Lol

If you've had something like a spider mite infection that has caused havoc, then after harvest just give your tent a rest for 3 weeks. They generally die between 1 and 2 weeks of not having food, depending on their sex. The eggs will hatch in suitable conditions which you should maintain for soil life anyway, and they die even more quickly upon hatching without finding a suitable food source. For PM, other posts have covered this well.