Cooking outside soil in oven;

[iClown]

time to repot my little plant, since I only have one plant atm and no cash I'm not going to buy a big bag of soil just yet, I was going to take some dirt from outside, cook it in my oven ( to kill pests ) and use that instead, I tried searching the forums and couldn't find anything so here are my questions:

What degrees do I cook at?
For how long?
Does it matter what kind of dirt?
anything I should be careful of?
Anything else I should know?
everythings wet outside, this a problem?
after I cook the dirt, will there be any nutes left at all in the dirt??

Imo I would put the dirt in a bowl, put in the oven at like 300F for 5 minutes, let cool and use, is this good or no?

 

[BBFan]

Sorry iclown- no experience here with cooking soil.

I think the important thing would be to make sure you at least add some peat or some vermiculite to your soil if you plan on using regular dirt out of the garden.

 

[slowmo77]

i've read about tihis before heres what i remember. it smells really bad. you wanna heat the dirt very good. 375 for like 30 minutes. but the dirt needs to be loose. not in clumps i mean when you put it in. when its done let it cool and it should be cleaner than it was. as for outdoor dirt, where i live i wouldn't plant anything in it. its pure clay. you can find a cheap bag of soil for under 7 dollars at most local nurseries. i won't be FF but its better than yard dirt imho. after you bake the soil your still gonna want to amend it with perlite and lime atleast. good luck i'll think of more later

 

[Lemmongrass]

wrap it up thick in foil and build a fire over it outside... that is if it starts to stink up too much in the oven.

i dug 65gal of dirt outta my gf's dad's garden(permission in hand) instead of buying dirt. i made this stupid mix of 3:1 shroom compost to sand the first time i planted and it totally didn't work out. i didn't even cook it and aside from the random couple sprouts when i give the pot nutes, no problems what so ever. the dirt is also the product of annual diligent gardening and composting. the plants i planted in it instead of the 3:1 mix are as big as the old ones in size but have half the number of nodes! infact i got a fungus gnat problem from the home depot dirt.... nothin but a random rolly polly from the garden dirt.

 

[iClown]

thanks guys still need a couple more posts though haha yeah lotek my very first grow I used dirt outa my old garden outside and didnt even do anything to it and the only problems I had was rolly pollys ( i call em tater bugs ) and some random weed sprouts, the plant didnt have a problem growing nice a big and growing lucious ( lush us, sp ) big buds.

 

[Lemmongrass]

yup. the garden is the only thing keepin me from hydro. the father works in landscaping so there has been several hundred species cultivated in it every year(50'x100') then tilled back into it along with the rotten fruit bodies.

 

[leafminer]

compost is what you want. free, organic, lovely compost.

 

[iClown]

Thing is my little plant is getting too tall for its dirt puck, its becoming very loose and wobbely, so I need to transplant soon, this isn't going to be a good grow or anything just a test plant to see what my BC bud look like. I will definitly use good compost, and good soil mixed in with lots of good stuff, just curious on how to cook some bad quality dirt.

 

[bluealein56]

cooking dirt?
why?
i bought mine for 5 dollars at the nursery. and it has proven worthy

 

[greenthumberish]

I've been a cook for 10+ years Set it on 425 for 45 minutes mixxing it about every 15-20 mins or so, to make sure all of it gets done and everything in it dies, and make sure it's nice and loose, broken up and such.... this should kill all fungus, bugs, etc. Then you can take your dirt, and mix it with whatever, generally perlite and vermeculite. Most of the time dirt from outside unless you live in a really lush rich green area like the west cascades of Washington State....yer dirt quality is gonna be more dense..and that's bad, you want yer soil to be loose and airy. Anyway, that's all ya gotta do to cook dirt...use like a turkey pan or whatever to bake it.

 

[Lemmongrass]

i wonder if this is kosher under serve safe XD

 

[CasualGrower]

yup. the garden is the only thing keepin me from hydro. the father works in landscaping so there has been several hundred species cultivated in it every year(50'x100') then tilled back into it along with the rotten fruit bodies.

Yep growing up, My Dad had a big garden, we had a few neighbors that would bag all their clippings, ( we are talking 1+ ACRE lots ). we would use all those clippings to till into the soil and to mulch with throughout the year and then till them in. After a couple years, that garden soil was SOOOO lush, it was like walking on a sponge and we deep tilled it, almost a foot deep. I wish I still had that garden heh.

 

[Growdude]

Ive also heard of microwaving dirt to remove pests, not sure how long you have to do it im sure as long as the middle gets to 145f its good enough.

 

[Locked]

I think I will just stick with store bought soil or go 100% hydro next time...
interesting info though...

 

[iClown]

I've been a cook for 10+ years Set it on 425 for 45 minutes mixxing it about every 15-20 mins or so, to make sure all of it gets done and everything in it dies, and make sure it's nice and loose, broken up and such.... this should kill all fungus, bugs, etc. Then you can take your dirt, and mix it with whatever, generally perlite and vermeculite. Most of the time dirt from outside unless you live in a really lush rich green area like the west cascades of Washington State....yer dirt quality is gonna be more dense..and that's bad, you want yer soil to be loose and airy. Anyway, that's all ya gotta do to cook dirt...use like a turkey pan or whatever to bake it.

Thank you my green thumbed friend, this is what I was looking for, thank you everyone for your input. Yes I live in the mountains of BC so all the dirt around here is pretty good stuff.

 

[greenthumberish]

Thank you my green thumbed friend, this is what I was looking for, thank you everyone for your input. Yes I live in the mountains of BC so all the dirt around here is pretty good stuff.

Ahh good ole' BC I lived in Washington for quite a while and got my dirt from Snoqualmie...top soil there was nice and black, and filled with lotsa goodies for the plants. Now I have to make my own compost mix. In summer I have a large garden of veggies and any of the bi-products from that go into the compost pile, I also added top soil rich in nitrogen, coffee grounds, egg shells, etc, and threw a 20lb bag of vermeculite into it and kelp, and mix it every 60 days or so (not during winter however) and my dirt rocks Instead of something like a tomato plant, i have tomato trees hehehe, my family says my plants are mutants because they get so huge lol.