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| When you change out your container/potting soil for fresher soil, can you toss the old soil in a compost or other pile to use again in a couple of years? (Posting this in Container Gardening forum also.)
Pat |
Follow-Up Postings:
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- Posted by dowlinggram 3 (My Page) on Tue, Jul 10, 12 at 15:15
| In my large pots I never change the soil completely. I shovel it out of the container into the wheelbarrow and mix it with compost so it is approximately 1/3 compost and 2/3 old soil. Then I shovel it back in. I use What I have left to either spread on a flower bed or the garden or fill smaller pots. It works great for me and I always have lush growth in my planters. I have never seen the need to completely change the soil. You don't do that in flower beds. You simply spread compost on top and dig it in. If you don't have too much you can add it to the compost or if you have a flower bed or spot in the garden where the soil is not that great you can spread it there |
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| It can be used again... but in the garden, not a container. You want to avoid any material so broken down that it's composed of nothing but the tiniest of particles. That's a recipe for disaster when it comes to container culture. Tossing it into the compost pile doesn't recharge a worn out potting mix....it decomposes it. My used medium is broadcast directly into the garden or as a mulch over my trees. |
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- Posted by purpleinopp 8b AL (My Page) on Tue, Jul 10, 12 at 16:37
| Ditto Rhizo, pretty much what I do and was going to say. Putting it in the compost would make the compost too HEAVY (for carrying, and for weighing everything down and squashing out the necessary air) even if there was some benefit to putting it there. |
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| Got it. Thank you, thank you. |
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- Posted by ken_adrian z5 (My Page) on Tue, Jul 10, 12 at 17:47
| Tossing it into the compost pile doesn't recharge a worn out potting mix ==>> hi pat thinking the other way.. it might charge your compost.... i used to just toss it anywhere in the beds ... ken |
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| hi ken. rainey kisses to the hostas. |
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