So even though I had a very nice harvest for my first time with the carribean red habs, I decided im going to uproot the plant and discard them. Not because they suck but because Im scared of cross breeding my new Jolokias that are a couple weeks old. I know nothing of isolation, my yard isn't big enough and I want to try them as original as possible. Anyways, Im left with pots that have ant civilizations living in them (and god knows what else) and I dont know what to do with this soil. Can I reuse it and if so, how do I get rid of possibly thousands of ants?
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soil Reusing Soil
- Thread starter misterbrownstone06
- Start date
There's a good many ant killer solutions and sprays and whatnot.
Another option is that you can always bake the soil. That usually kills most eggs and seeds of any weeds that get in there. On a hot day you can use foil or reflective material to focus the heat on soil and get it nice and hot.
I'm sure others will chime in with better suggestions.
Another option is that you can always bake the soil. That usually kills most eggs and seeds of any weeds that get in there. On a hot day you can use foil or reflective material to focus the heat on soil and get it nice and hot.
I'm sure others will chime in with better suggestions.
Sounds like you're misunderstanding how cross pollination works, but don't feel too bad that's a common mistake. Even if the bhut jolokias get cross pollinated, which is fairly rare to begin with, it won't affect the fruit on those plants at all. It's only if they get cross pollinated, you save the seeds from those pods, and then grow those seeds into plants, then the fruit from those plants could be affected (probably only about a 10% or less chance of that happening even if planted close together though). No need to throw away perfectly good Caribbean Red plants!
cool! ill save the plants!
I have a similar question but it's for potting soil. I want to reuse some potting soil from plants that have been repotted into bigger containers, root pruned, or dead and use it to top off other containers and perhaps use any remains to fill an entire container (for a new plant). I'm concern that roots remaining from the last plant will decompose and possibly taint the soil, can this happen or am I wrong on all levels? I tried to pick out as much root remains as possible but there were too tiny root particles to try and sift them all out. I would say I've gotten at least 75% of the root particles out.
Should I just stop being cheap and use fresh potting soil or is this OK?
Should I just stop being cheap and use fresh potting soil or is this OK?
^ You are wrong on all levels. Put the roots back, they are organic matter and keep the soil from compacting and decay to provide nutrients.
The issue with reusing soil is what you take out of the soil. In other words it was good soil but then you pick peppers off = nutrient loss, and you pull the plant out = nutrient loss, and the roots = nutrient loss. So now, you need to add organic matter and/or prepared fertilizer to put back what was lost.
Not only is it not necessary to get new soil every season or year, some of the best soil is that which you work over adding compost to each year so it becomes the medium you want it to be rather than whatever was most cost effective for some company to sell to you.
The issue with reusing soil is what you take out of the soil. In other words it was good soil but then you pick peppers off = nutrient loss, and you pull the plant out = nutrient loss, and the roots = nutrient loss. So now, you need to add organic matter and/or prepared fertilizer to put back what was lost.
Not only is it not necessary to get new soil every season or year, some of the best soil is that which you work over adding compost to each year so it becomes the medium you want it to be rather than whatever was most cost effective for some company to sell to you.
Capsicum
Banned
I reuse potting soil only in one season. So I may use the soil from a spring crop to grow some fall crops for example. But never much more then that. Potting soil does not last long because it breaks down to small particals decreasing air porosity in no time.
If you really went through it and it seems fluffy still I would use it again. Do not be afraid to use H2O2 while feeding plants make sure to use the correct amount of H2O2.
Keep the plants, move them as far away as possible, red habs are a nice pepper to eat, not as hot as some super-hots but plenty hot enough to enjoy. Put some ant poison in the pots, the type they take back to the colony and it makes them sterile. That type works on ant hormones and isn't harmful to humans opposed to old school insecticides. The other option to just kill them and waste the plants is to spread it out in a shallow layer and let the sun dry it out, what ants aren't killed by this will have moved the colony elsewhere since they can't stand totally dry soil.
I usually remove most of the roots like you did, break/dig the soil well and add some worm castings or compost on top. I let it sit for some weeks watering sparsely.
You can eventually mix the old soil with 25% fresh potting soil before using it. No issues so far.
Cya
Datil
+1 on what everybody has already said about reusing soil. The only exception is if your plants had any kind of disease problem. Many pepper diseases survive in the soil for months or even years, so if your plants caught something nasty and they were in pots, throw that soil away. You also should sterilize the containers with a mild bleach solution before repotting.