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old promix is soggy - what to add?

SichuaneseFoodFan

SichuaneseFoodFan

I left my soil from last season in the pots outside since October. It seems like it's holding a lot more water than when it was new. It will rain, then stay soggy for a week +. Is that normal?

It was mostly promix bx.

I'm going to amend it with vermicompost and tomato tone. But, do I need to add something to make it dry out faster? People recommend perlite, but I've actually read that perlite will *add* moisture retention (?).

thanks!
 
Yes it is normal. The temperature plays a key role as well as the suns power in drying out the soil. I always leave mine outside...
 
I'd wait until it gets warmer before you start worrying about the soil. 
 
As far as how to treat it for outdoor use... you have a couple of options... 
 
1.) You could compost it and feed it to your plants later... and just buy some new soil for use this spring...
 
Or...
 
2.) You have another option with two sub options:
      a.) you can pasteurize the soil by bringing it to between 140 and 160 degrees for 3 hours.... this would kill all of the pathogens.
      b.) you can "flush" the soil by first spreading it thin to dryout in the sun... then running copious amounts of water through it... drying it out in the sun again... and repeating the process a few times.
 
As far as how to amend it for a fluffy texture that provides airation as well as a proper moisture content, I recommend coconut coir, coarse vermiculite, and perlite.   About the perlite... it does hold water because of its tremendous surface area... but it also hold air... so it provides a dynamic function in your soil.
 
I reuse soil indefinitely.  When reusing it for a long time you start to learn that drying it out in between watering is a very good idea.  You maintain a good beneficial bacteria and fungi that work with the roots.  These are all Aerobic which means they need oxygen to survive.  Roots like Oxygen too.  To get more oxygen into your mix you gotta ad loft.  Perilite is the best single solution (I've found) for that.  It's already in Promix.  You almost can't overdo the Perilite so don't sweat it.  I tried almost all perilite one time just to see what happened and sure enough the plant grew fine.  Just go by feel til the soil has a nice loft to it...time to get your hands dirty.  It will just increase the rate the soil dries out the more you add.  
  
If your soil smells like sewage than it's got Anaerobic bacteria in it and has been rotting.  That's not really the right type that you are looking for and will cause problems...I've had vermicompost do that on me.  I let it dry out and get fully processed by the worms before I use it.  Or cook it in the sun.  If it makes your hand stink then don't use it.  But I've never had a Promix type base go bad on me.     
 
As far as soil recharge Vermicompost is great, especially if they were well fed...probably the best, but as you add compost you need to also ad more perilite because worm castings tend to stay real moist.  
 
For Ph and Calcium/Magnesium you might wanna add Dolomite Lime.
   
For the micro nutrients Azomite is pretty good stuff.  Just don't overdo that one.   
 
If your adding something you haven't tried before just don't add too much and only add one new thing at a time so you can actually gauge the results.  I sometimes try just one pot at a time for new ingredients.  
 
There's thousands of ways to garden and nature does it without any secret techniques at all.  Just keep er simple and you'll probably be fine.      
 
I re-use old potting soil to some extent....

I will remove about half the soil out of big pots and add new mix and compost to use for potting up. Most of the old soil i use in my beds not used for peppers or other vegetables. This works for me.

But, it's never soggy....
 
Now you guys have me worried about pathogens.  I only have a stoop in the middle of downtown in the city, so I can't really properly compost it.  And I think I have too much to bake it in the oven, nor do I have an appropriate vessel.
 
It doesn't smell weird...
 
I'd rather not toss it out, but would much prefer to do that than risk my season with blight.  What would you do?
 
You dont bake it in the oven to pasteurize... you steam it or put it in a cloth bag and submerge it in water and bring the water up to that temperature and start your 3 hour timer when the soil on the inside of the bag (middle) has reached those temps.
 
What would I do?
 
If I didnt have a compost bin or worm farm and didnt want to pasteurize it (which I wouldnt even take the time to do either), I would buy some new soil.  Soil that has become boggy at any point is not worth the risk.  There are some products you can buy that both have enzymes that kill pathogens and contain innoculants of beneficial fungi and bacteria .. but they are too expensive to be worth it.  Just pick up a new bale.
 
Yes it could be a little hot, as in full of not so nice anaerobic bacteria. Id spread it out to get some air and add some perlite, compost, EWC, and humas if you can find some near a park or something.
 
Those bad critters die and become Cal, and npk after being eaten by good bacteria.
 
I dried it out fully, then used it unamended with my least priority plants (the crosses I didn't intend). I didn't want to add my nice amendments ($) because I thought it might be possible that the anaerobic bacteria would have killed or stunted the plants anyway. I'm using the last of my maxigrow and it turns out they're doing great.
 
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