soil Five Year Old Potting Soil Rejuvenation

The_NorthEast_ChileMan · Dec 3, 2016

The_NorthEast_ChileMan said:
PS. I use buckets & recycle the potting media.............

I was asked in a PM by Masher what "process" I used to rejuvenate old potting media. I did this for another pepper forum so re-posting here was easy to reproduce and I thought others might be interested. The basics are... 5 gal. pail with 20 or so 3/8" holes for drainage, 2" layer of pea stones, landscape fabric to segregate media from stones (And make it easier to remove media for rejuvenation when necessary.) and products listed in instructions. Ready?

This is the pot with 5 year old "fallow/compacted" media.

Note 6-8" gap from rim where media was originally..

Grab the landscape fabric, yank it out of the pail and placed in wheelbarrow.

Last time it was Serrano, note how faded the plant marker is.

`

Note liner prevents media from mixing with stones and plugging drain holes.

Separate the landscape fabric from the compacted media.

The media is so compacted it looks like mud!

Bring on rejuvenation materials, new commercial potting media,

Some good quality compost,

Don't forget peat moss.

I usually mix them up at this point for easier progress on smaller additives.
Mix rates I used was pail of old compacted media - 1/3 each of new media.

Now perlite.

And additional time release ferts!

Mix it all up....

Put the landscape fabric back in the pail.

Fill pail with rebuilt media, lightly tamp on hard surface to mildly compact.

Pot up your pepper plants as you normally would.

Another question asked was the root mass in the media which was not present in this fallow rejuvenation. Basically, when you yank the landscape fabric filled media and empty it in the wheelbarrow the media/root ball are easy to separate and any smaller root debris I leave in media to compost.

Hope this helps!
NECM

Wimpy69 · Dec 3, 2016

Nice tutorial. Thanks.

mwdxx · Dec 3, 2016

Very good I totally agree
Thanks

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BSH · Dec 3, 2016

"Fill pail with rebuilt media, lightly tamp on hard surface to mildly compact.

Pot up your pepper plants as you normally would.

Another question asked was the root mass in the media which was not present in this fallow rejuvenation. Basically, when you yank the landscape fabric filled media and empty it in the wheelbarrow the media/root ball are easy to separate and any smaller root debris I leave in media to compost.

Hope this helps!
NECM"

For the past few years, when transplanting, I have really been packing down the dirt. I figured why not get as much dirt in as possible? My plants have done well after but only for a month and then they seemed to have nute deficiencies...now I am thinking it's because I have packed the dirt way too hard. When I killed off my plants this year, there was basically no root ball under the initial transplant. I would fertilize and then end up burning the plant (with fish fertilizer) which seemed weird but now it makes sense. The roots couldn't penetrate the dirt I had packed and there was so much dirt that when I watered, it would hold it all and not drain.

Thanks for your post...I have all this dirt that probably doesn't even need to be fertilized. I'll just add perlite. I am looking forward to next year and having well draining soil and a good root ball!

PepTalk · Dec 3, 2016

I concur, as long as the root ball isn't too big, if so its off to the compost pile!

solid7 · Dec 3, 2016

BSH said:
For the past few years, when transplanting, I have really been packing down the dirt. I figured why not get as much dirt in as possible? My plants have done well after but only for a month and then they seemed to have nute deficiencies...now I am thinking it's because I have packed the dirt way too hard.

If anything, you want to do the complete opposite of what you've done. Once a month or so, it helps to give the whole thing a "loosening". Basically, you just mash the container from all sides, and break up the packed potting mix. Normal watering does a lot to compact potting mix, you certainly don't want to help it by tamping until firm.

mwdxx · Dec 3, 2016

I planted my Trinidad Scorpion Butch T s and compacted my soil lightly because I germinated them properly but to have them come above the soil it takes sun and water to listen the soil but lightly compacting makes it easiest to get through your top layer of soil and protects them from being washed away

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Jase4224 · Dec 3, 2016

solid7 said:
If anything, you want to do the complete opposite of what you've done. Once a month or so, it helps to give the whole thing a "loosening". Basically, you just mash the container from all sides, and break up the packed potting mix. Normal watering does a lot to compact potting mix, you certainly don't want to help it by tamping until firm.

And I thought I was the only one that does that! Lol

When I initially pot up my plants I give the whole pot a little jiggle just to settle the mix and fill in any air gaps. But I never push down on the mix or else it will compact.

I agree with Solid7 on the fact that normal watering does significantly compact the mix. I use a couple of inches of mulch, one reason is so that the water gently trickles into the soil. Other reason is to keep the soil cool and moist which means watering less often in the first place.

Pepzi · Dec 3, 2016

Thank you for sharing the info.

Masher · Dec 3, 2016

Thanks for the tutorial Chile ;-)

solid7 · Dec 3, 2016

Deleted response, as info was moved to a new topic...

Zonengorg · Dec 4, 2016

Since my post got moved. Thanks for sharing, again

jedisushi06 · Oct 27, 2017

Miracle gro :rofl: