Freezing soil?/!

[widairyfarms]

So I know if I buy cheap hardware store soil it can have lots of little nasties in it. What if I bought it and lest it outside over winter to freeze through. Would that be a way to sanitize it? Opinions?

 

[bwanabud]

Most natural bugs survive the freezing weather each year, normally soil is sterilized with heat. You can build a DIY rig, I think 140deg for x hours is the norm.

 

[Hushpuppy]

I would get several containers of real high percent Hydrogen Peroxide, mix it 1:1 with water and wash the soil about 1 week before using it. I would flush the soil first with just straight water to remove some of the loose chems then do the disinfectant flush after then leave out in the sun for several days to dry

 

[zem]

I would get several containers of real high percent Hydrogen Peroxide, mix it 1:1 with water and wash the soil about 1 week before using it. I would flush the soil first with just straight water to remove some of the loose chems then do the disinfectant flush after then leave out in the sun for several days to dry

just curious, how would you repopulate the soil with beneficial bacteria after that?

 

[Hushpuppy]

You can buy lots off stuff to do that. The cheapest way is to buy Espoma's Biotone and put a couple cups into the soil and allow them to repopulate. Or you can buy soil inoculant like Mycorrizae and put into the soil. I would just get the Biotone and some molasses. Put the Biotone in and then make up some water with a few Tbsp of molasses and water it. The molasses will feed the microbes and get them going.

 

[The Hemp Goddess]

Can't you just buy good soil to start with?

 

[zem]

Can't you just buy good soil to start with?

exactly

 

[widairyfarms]

I can buy to good stuff to start with but that can we do it cheaper is always there. We all want to grow the best stuff we can but my mission is to do it with minimal cost. Like the guy at my garden center said"sometimes you spend more trying to fix being a cheap *** than if you had done it the right way to begin with". I agree with that 100% but I always say that the best lessons learned, are the hard ones. Let us not forget there is a reason they call us newbs

 

[widairyfarms]

When Richard Dean Andersen comes to your place with a paper clip and a rubber band you get inspired, know what I mean.

 

[zem]

it costs more to sterilize then repopulate soil, than to get new soil. i have seen newbs who got very impressive results from their first ever run because they learned from the more experienced

 

[pcduck]

Feed the soil and reuse it.

 

[bud88]

I can buy to good stuff to start with but that can we do it cheaper is always there. We all want to grow the best stuff we can but my mission is to do it with minimal cost. Like the guy at my garden center said"sometimes you spend more trying to fix being a cheap *** than if you had done it the right way to begin with". I agree with that 100% but I always say that the best lessons learned, are the hard ones. Let us not forget there is a reason they call us newbs

I also learned the lesson by planting a seedling in some organic potting mix that I was given...Now I am trying to save it from being compost....So then I paid $17 for 2.5 cu ft of Fox Farm Happy Frog.... No more issues and pretty cheap too....
:48:

 

[The Hemp Goddess]

I can buy to good stuff to start with but that can we do it cheaper is always there. We all want to grow the best stuff we can but my mission is to do it with minimal cost. Like the guy at my garden center said"sometimes you spend more trying to fix being a cheap *** than if you had done it the right way to begin with". I agree with that 100% but I always say that the best lessons learned, are the hard ones. Let us not forget there is a reason they call us newbs

I found it costs more to build your own soil than it does to buy it. For instance, you need to start with some kind of good base soil like Sunshine Mix anyway. Then you have to add about a kazillions things to it to make it "supersoil" (actually I think the super soil recipe has about 12 additives). I think that I spent about $200 for the ingredients for supersoil. It really is not that easy to create your own soil and it has to cook, which it really can't with freezing temps. You also cannot just throw things in willy-nilly. You should know the N-P-k of everything you put into your soil and how long it takes to break down.

The guy at the garden center is correct. You will get out of this what you put into it. The experienced growers are here to help you avoid the newby mistakes.

I also love to be able to create something from nothing. I MacGyver a whole lot of things, too. However there are things you can make and things you can't. There are things you can scrimp on and things you cannot. Starting with a good medium is critical. Making up your own soil is difficult. I recommend buying soil and then spending your winter researching organics to understand how many nutrients things have in them and how they break down. It is a science unto itself.

 

[PencilHead]

Espoma bio-Tone Starter Plus is pretty good stuff. I was buying this and that to get all the goodies I needed and stumbled across Bio-Tone in an Ace Hardware. Hushpuppy, note that Espoma changed the recommended amount from 1 pound/3 cups per cubic foot on the original label to 1 cup per cubic foot on current labels. I can make a simple coco mix from stuff at my local store for about $8 per 1.5 per cubic foot which is what's in a bag of Roots. My stuff's better than roots when Roots is running over $20 here.

Here's the Espoma label:
Bio-tone® Starter Plus
F A C T S H E E T
Bio-tone® Starter Plus!
For Difficult Soil Conditions
• Microbeenhanced all natural plant food
• Includes both Endo & Ecto Mycorrhizae
• Grows larger root mass to help plants
establish fast
• Promotes bigger blooms
• Reduces transplant loss
• For everything you plant
Non-Plant Food Ingredients:
Contains 1,341 colonyforming units(CFU’s) per gram of bacillus proven to enhance
plant growth.
Ectomycorrhizal Fungi: 97,440 propagules/gram of 8 species:
Endomycorrhizal Fungi: 2.640 propagules per gram of 2 species:
Application Rates:
Flower Beds: Mix 4 lbs. (12 cups) per 100 squarefeet into thetop 4'' to 6'' ofsoil.
Bulbs: Place 1 tsp. per bulb in the hole prior to planting.
Potting Mixes: Mix 9 lbs. percubicyard or 1 cup percu. ft.
New Lawns(Seed or Sod): Apply 25 lbs. per 1,000 sq. ft. prior to seeding
or installing sod.
Planting Trees & Shrubs: Mixthoroughly with backfillsoilat therates below.
4-3-3
GUARANTEED ANALYSIS Total Nitrogen (N) ....................................................................4.0%
1.6% Water Soluble Nitrogen
2.4% Water Insoluble Nitrogen
Available Phosphate (P2O5) ....................................................3.0%
Soluble Potash (K2O) ..............................................................3.0%
Calcium (Ca) ............................................................................4.0%
Total Magnesium (Mg) ............................................................1.0%
0.6%...Water Soluble Magnesium (Mg)
Sulfur (S) ................................................................................2.0%
2.0%...Combined Sulfur (S)
Derived from: Hydrolyzed Feather Meal, Pasteurized Poultry Manure, Cocoa
Meal, Bone Meal, Alfalfa Meal, Greensand, Humates, Sulfate of Potash, and
Sulfate of Potash Magnesia.