Microwaving soil = bad idea. Oven it to fully dry it out then add moisture back in is different. I've read a research some little girl did back in the day that drew attention to the media and FDA.
This girl did a science experiment using a microwave. 2 pea plants and water. Her question was "will I see a difference in growth using regular water or water that has been microwaved and cooled to room temperature.
well she did exactly that and what she found shocked me. The plant that was watered with microwaved water died within a week while the control which was watered with regular water that hasn't been microwaved is doing fine. This is years ago that I've read it.
I have nats also and i use FFOF. It's not your soil that is giving you the nats, its your growing space. Buy some sticky traps. I use both yellow and blue. I put them towards the middle right above the plants canopy.
I try and do very little with the soil I have as I do not want to kill off any beneficial bacterias and enzymes. Freezing, microwaving, baking will do just that. Yes you might get rid of harmful stuff, but at the same time you will lose beneficial things as well. I think the negatives out weighs the positive for me on this one.
Leave your soil alone unless you picked it up from the back yard. Buy quality soil so you don't have to worry about fungus n nasties. I buy FFOF locally here for 14 a bag, for what it is that isn't bad. Being that I consume my flowers, I'll pay that extra buck to get something I know works. I don't want to mess with the 5$ bags of potting soil.
Walmart soil can get contaminated because of how they store it. keeping bags of soil outdoors will do just that, f it up. Every soil bag has ventilation holes to take care of built up humidity so mold can't grow. By using these holes, bugs can get in as well. I store my soil in rubber maid containers and stir it up every so often.
radiation... can't be good? microwave vibrates water molecules till they vibrate so fast that they generate heat. too fast and it'll explode (vaporize) in which it'll start to steam. All this is done by microwave radiation... I personally try to steer clear from using a microwave.
