Gardening -- how often do you reuse potting soil?

Cafe Society
1

I’ve been busy replanting my potted annuals. They are in 12 inch or 14 inch pots. I like to dump the pot into a yard waste tub. Use a shovel to loosen up the soil and pick out the dead plant and roots. Sprinkle in some Miracle Gro Pellets and blend really with the shovel. Dump the potting soil back into the pot and replant.
Rinse and Repeat 12 times for my other pots.

How many times can potting soil be reused?

It’s not that expensive. I just hate wasting anything. The flowers cost a lot more than the potting soil. I wouldn’t want the flowers dying because the potting soil had lost its potency.

I was thinking about buying fresh potting soil every other year? Basically get two summers out of it before replacing.

2

I Voted reuse it once.

But I’m no expert. Just a casual gardener.

3

I’ll reuse it once if it was used for flowers. It gets mixed with fresh potting soil and we’re good to go. For peppers and the like I always use fresh.

4

I vote not reusing.

To get any kind of decent result with old soil you’re having to enrich it anyway, so why not put that cost towards new?

Also, old soil carries a greater risk of harbouring pests and disease.

5

I’ll reuse mine because it’s usually due to heat or neglect (like when on vacation) that a potted plant will die, so there’s not really a problem with the soil itself. I’ll often times keep adding that to some receptacle until I need it. Then I’ll mix it proportionally with new soil depending on the health and value of the plant.

If the used soil appears worn out I’ll add it to any low spot in the yard.

6

How can dirt get worn out? I always reuse mixing with fertilizer.

7

I never thow soil out. The idea is rather ridiculous to me.
Add a little more organic matter and you’re good to go.

ETA: The choices don’t work for me. It’s possible to never throw away pottig soil, yet still buy new stuff as the need arises.

8

Potting soil doesn’t have much dirt in it anymore. :wink:

I noticed coconut husk was one of the ingredients on the Miracle Gro Moisture Control bag. Whatever stuff they use works.

9

I just freshen mine with some mixed in compost before reusing it, and use it over and over

10

You do not specify indoor or outdoor. With indoor plants, I never reuse the soil, as bugs have a tendency to use it as a home or spawning ground. That soil becomes “outdoor” soil after the first use. The “outdoor” soil is basically used ad infinitum, usually mixed in with other soil.

11

For flowers I freshen mine with composted waste as well as slow release food pellets and water retaining granules. I voted for reusing twice but I’ve only just started reusing at all so the number may increase. Tomatoes and other veg always get fresh soil.

Sideways hijack, how many times can seed compost be reused?

12

I refresh with new soil and compost but never throw it away. Throwing away dirt seems. . . ridiculous.

Of course, I did throw away about 6 very large pots of dirt that got infested with, I think, white wing fly. Yeah, yuck to that.

13

I thought about adding some cow manure to my flower pots. But worried they’d stink. I keep eight pots on my deck with flowers. This year I have a potted tomato plant too.

I got two bags of mnure from Home Depot last week for my yard.

14

the store stuff is very light.

you can amend to old mix. you can sterilize old material if desired.

using your own compost and dirt along with manure, sand, moss, perlite you can make any mix you want.

15

I’ve been using the same potting soil for the last decade.
It is made of spagnum moss, perlite, and worm compost.

After each growing season I’ll add a little more of each component to refill from lost soil. I’ll also add micronutrients, guano, and agricultural lime depending on the needs of the individual plant.

16

This

And this.

There is no dirt in potting soil. After each planting (there is no such thing as “seasons” where I live) I stir in more potting soil as needed and add more organic material. Ad infinitum…

17

When I had a yard, I would dump the old soil in some part of my yard that needed more. On at least one occasion during a kill some old plants/pot a ton of new ones, I dumped the old soil in a wheelbarrow, picked out any odd shit, poured in a fresh bag, blended thoroughly and used the mix for all the new plants.

Now in my apartment, I have several pots of dirt containing failed plants. Eventually when I get some new plants, I’ll pot them with a blend of old and new.

18

Seems to me that hardly anyone is really reusing potting soil, they’re just adding loads of material to it to make it viable. In other words it just becomes some kind of bulking agent.

19

The only times I’ve dumped the contents of flower pots has been when it’s gotten so dried out that it formed a pot-shaped lump that I didn’t feel like dealing with, so I’d fling it into the yard somewhere - whether in a garden or among the trees. And it wasn’t a comment on the value of the soil - it was just laziness on my part - starting from fresh was easier than trying to revive the old stuff.

20

I said never, but it’s because we have plenty. We compost our horse manure and use that for 90% of our planting needs. If I’m repotting during winter I will buy a bag of MG.