using old soil?

Sorry if I pissed anyone off it wasn't my goal.

i think its fine to re use soil, as a precaution you can spread it on a bag or something and let it dry out in the sun first. and if your fully organic . re used soil is not bad at all ,

BigJon said:

I think the best advice was said in the beginning of this page. Go ahead and buy new soil for your cannabis. It's the best way to ensure the results YOU want and the money you save by buying your own should make it perfectly affordable. If you can't afford to invest money in your soil, I dont know how you picked up a marijuana habit to begin with. lol

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Well, again, in this very specific case, if all the original poster wants to do is replace one young clone in new soil with another clone, it seems a waste to swap soil just for that.

Generalizing more about what to do at the END of your grow, swapping or not swapping soil isn't solely a question of money, but also efficiency. If you're really into "sustainable" organic gardening, then you simply might not want to start again from scratch each time you grow, and if you're already making compost, you may not need to. Not everyone has an outdoor garden they can dump their old soil into for re-use (eg some people do grow in urban areas, for example, nor does everyone with an outdoor garden want to do that.

Convenience is a factor too. Being able to resuse soil can save you a trip to the store (which may not be that convenient or easy to get to), and/or to the dump. Not everyone is shall we say, growing "under license" or in complete seclusion. Some people grow in apts or in other situations with other people around. If so, bringing large quantities of soil into and out of the place every few months may not be exactly "inconspicuous".

In terms of how/when to recycle, that's going to depend largely on what kind of growing you're doing and how. Growing organically is different than inorganically, and indoors is different than outdoors. Yes, every plant has its own type of soil that works well for it, but ultimately cannabis is just another flowering plant that thrives under a wide variety of conditions all over the planet. It doesn't have special needs completely distinct from every other plant out there. Again generalizing, if your soil is good enough to grow common household vegetables, it "ought" to be good enough for cannabis as well.

If you HAVE to reuse your soil for weed, I remember a while back when I first started growing, they mentioned you can bake your soil in the oven at 300 degrees for an hour or so. Sift through it. Then ammend with nutrients.

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Pasteurizing/sterilizing your soil as you describe is especially good practice if you're bringing outdoor soil indoors. Outdoors soil is typically full of insects, other live organisms, and can be full of seeds or spores. You don't want that stuff contaminating your indoor garden if you can help it. Note that many of the commercially available garden/potting soil mixes are NOT sterile in the bag either!

On the other hand, if you've actually tried baking soil in your oven for an hour, you might understand why some people don't like to do it! (Hint, the smell can give new meaning to the term "mud pie"!).

If you start clean, grow solely indoors, and using good growroom hygiene (including quarantine of plants brought in from outdoors or outside sources), then you shouldn't "have" to worry about pests and/or most diseases. If they're not in your room when you start, they should stay out *unless* you bring them in or otherwise let them get in. If they're already in there, or can readily get in, starting with new soil isn't going to help.

Lastly, if you're really going to worry about whether your used soil is good enough or not for your grow, then by all means, change it.

Even if new soil isn't really going to improve the quality of your grow, it may be worth it just to improve the quality of your sleep!

I find this thread funny reason i say this is for the cost of soil its pretty cheap really now i dont know about you but normally when i transplant plants or finish plants theres little to no soil left being its packed with roots

I have literally ripped out huge flowering plants the best I can and then just added some extra humus soil and worm castings and then plopped a new clone into the old pot...with the old roots and all and had no issue...I try to only reuse the same soil 2 times...then I toss it...lol.

Escherichia coli....anaerobic bacterium of the colon and sometimes pathogenic. I knew it was usually tranferred via cooks who don't wash after takin a dump but didn't know how it related to the cannabis plant. Thx RIU!

im thinking that i read that you could maby bake the old soil in the oven to kill off anything abnormal??....i know thats what to do if you use soil from outside on an inside garden...

Good to see tis thread kickin, haha
But i think i got my answer.
And its not organing. Its just sum FFOF.

lighting said:

i dont know about you but normally when i transplant plants or finish plants theres little to no soil left being its packed with roots

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Of course the soil thats in there is packed with roots, but it doesn't just "disappear"!

To re-use you pull out the stems and thick roots, and then (if you like) you can leave in the fine hair-like roots when you break up the soil and re-mix it. The fine roots effectively just aerate the soil and slowly add nutrients back as they decay. Meanwhile the roots from the new plant will grow right through.

In fact, if you're starting with a low quality mix, having a bunch of old fine roots in there probably actually IMPROVES it!

Last time i reused soil for my female WW she caught aids and slowly died, actually she caught some bugs from the soil i guess they had unhatched eggs in it >.<... this doesen't mean you cant reuse soil, you will have to sterilize it though, somewhat similar to the way you sterilize you grow medium for shrooms to form mycelium on