For next season I'm thinking of reusing some of my soil from this year, and of course will need to sterilize it just to be safe. Problem is the fiance seems to have a problem with me putting loads of dirt in the oven or microwave. I was wondering if I could achieve the same results if I fired up the smoker and just kept it hovering around 200 or so for a while? What are ya'lls thoughts on this?
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soil soil sterilization idea?
- Thread starter trwoolsey07
- Start date
Why? I grow in the same ground each year, i do add stuff... but if it was a goot season and no disasters, I would say the soil is good to go. What about some different compost/manure teas to add benificals to deal with the nastys... the net says it so it must be true. I am brewin a batch as I type. Will it work? I'm sure it can't be bad. 
Hang on, are we talking about garden soil or potting soil?
are you worried about damping off of seedlings or something? if so why not just add a fungicide to the soil
Well it being my first year doing this, and money being tight, I would like to recycle as much as I can without worrying about anything I did this season wrong having any adverse side effects.
Unless I know one of the plants I'm growing has a virus of some sort I don't sterilize my soil and it get's "reused" year after year.
The only time I'ver ever sterilized dirt I did it with large amounts of boiling water. That way I not only killed all the bad stuff (And the good which is why I don't do it anymore) it also flushes out any heavy nute build ups.
Over time if you do it right Garden soil will get better and better.
The only time I'ver ever sterilized dirt I did it with large amounts of boiling water. That way I not only killed all the bad stuff (And the good which is why I don't do it anymore) it also flushes out any heavy nute build ups.
Over time if you do it right Garden soil will get better and better.
Lots of good info and suggestions, thanks everyone.
160-170f to sterilize "potting soil" (non-dirt) in the oven, with 180f being the max upper limit supposedly. This is as per a couple of articles i've read recently which claims that 190f or above produces toxic potting soil which kills plants.
Are you in horse or cattle country? see about getting a load of fresh manure and put it ontop of your old soil, cover with hay and or grass clippings all summer long. Let it decompose and generate the heat to sterilize and kill the bad bugs.
If you don't have fresh manure, instead of covering it, try cooking it in a large batch of grass clippings. About 5-6 cubic square foot for each batch 
I cannot imagine trying to sterilize all my leftover soil in small batches with a microwave or pressure cooker! Kudos to those with that much patience. If they didn't show signs of disease the previous season, I use non-sterilized leftover soil with no problems.
Not sure about potting soil, haven't heard of anyone trying to re-use it... that stuff is dirt cheap 
Bad puns aside, I know that in mycology, we often heat the substrate using a pressure cooker. 90 minutes @15 psi kills almost every bacteria,virus and endo-spore known to man.... That might be a little extreme though.
Bad puns aside, I know that in mycology, we often heat the substrate using a pressure cooker. 90 minutes @15 psi kills almost every bacteria,virus and endo-spore known to man.... That might be a little extreme though.
