soil Nuking soil

bpiela

bpiela

Hello all,
 
I am preparing to pot up my seedlings into 3.5" pots.   Before I do, I would like to nuke my potting soil in order to make sure there are no living organisms in there such as mites or aphid eggs or the like.  How long should I nuke the soil for?  30s?  1min?  Just looking to hear what others might be doing with this.
 
Thanks!
 
Edmick said:
All I ever do is add boiling water to it and let it cool before adding seeds. Always worked pretty well for me.
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I never thought of doing that. When I use commercial potting soil I never do anything to it. But I might start doing this as an extra precaution.
 
Mr.CtChilihead said:
 
I never thought of doing that. When I use commercial potting soil I never do anything to it. But I might start doing this as an extra precaution.
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I really only do it to my seed starting mix because I put it in a heated propagation mat with a dome and I worry about bad stuff growing in that environment. I don't do it to the soil I transplant them into.
 
I rather add fish and seaweed emultion (SP?) to my soil mixes at least a few weeks early to let the good stuff get working in the soil.
I sprout indoors and then put them in the shade outside.
Whenever I peroxided or whatever/treated seeds it made little difference.
Sprouts were weak etc.
Too much work,better to start new treated seeds.
I DO Always use a very weak fert. mix on my starts.
I use LEDs to start my pllants-you know the ones I made from 1wat. LEDS Years ago. LOL
Everyone said 1 watt LEDS wouldn't work...
 
 
 
Edmick said:
I really only do it to my seed starting mix because I put it in a heated propagation mat with a dome and I worry about bad stuff growing in that environment. I don't do it to the soil I transplant them into.
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How do you know the soil you are transplanting into doesn't have fungus gnat eggs, or mites or aphid eggs in it?  My main goal this year is to avoid pests at all costs.  I can always add ferts and microbes.  I am ready to try extreme methods in order to avoid pests.  Last season was truly painful.
 
bpiela said:
 
How do you know the soil you are transplanting into doesn't have fungus gnat eggs, or mites or aphid eggs in it?  My main goal this year is to avoid pests at all costs.  I can always add ferts and microbes.  I am ready to try extreme methods in order to avoid pests.  Last season was truly painful.
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I only worry about fungus gnats when growing indoors but thats easily solved by adding a fan and not overwatering.  Aphids.. well aphids are gonna happen no matter what you do so just count on that. There's really nothing you can do to avoid so those little bastards so it's best to have a treatment plan in place ahead of time.
 
When i was younger and working in a greenhouse, the owner of the place boiled his homemade soil mix in a huge metal container and heated the whole thing below with some kind of heat source, the rapidly rising steam created from the moisture of soil would "nuke" every moving thing after a while.
 
bpiela said:
Hello all,
 
I am preparing to pot up my seedlings into 3.5" pots.   Before I do, I would like to nuke my potting soil in order to make sure there are no living organisms in there such as mites or aphid eggs or the like.  How long should I nuke the soil for?  30s?  1min?  Just looking to hear what others might be doing with this.
 
Thanks!
Click to expand...
 
I always use fresh potting mix when it comes to transplanting seedlings. If I'm going to recycle used potting mix, it's in the raised beds. Seedlings aren't as established yet and can be a lot more susceptible to pests and pathogens, and I find it's generally not worth the risk. If we're talking about an established plant with a large, healthy root mass in a five-gallon pot, I'm more willing to take that gamble.
 
I've tried nuking soil a few times and always end up stopping it before done due to various things in the soil going off like fire crackers.  Boiling is "more gooder" in my opinion.
 
 
I've never nuked any of my soil yet. However, my bags of soil were leftover unopened bags that have been in the garage below freezing for months now and at below 0F for several weeks in early January. Coldest we got was -35F this season. So I would think that killed off any nasties in the mix. They were rock solid bricks of soil when I brought them inside the house :ROFL:
 
Chewi said:
 
holy crap that is unreal. i can't imagine what it takes to insulate a house in that environment!!!
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Most houses by us now days have blown insulation in the walls and about 12 to 18 inches of blown insulation in the attics.

Still, heat bills in January and February can get pretty high even with natural gas, sometimes in the $150-$200/mo range even for me with good insulation, heating 2000sq ft. We have a wood fireplace in the family room downstairs so I suppliment with that sometimes which heats the entire house no problem if I keep it going.
 
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