What to do with used compost/soil? (merged)

arkonite_babe

We have a thread similar to this already, I'll add your query to it so all the replies are together. Posts are listed in date order so you'll need to read from the beginning to catch up

Jake'sGran

fiscalfreckles wrote: »

Or put it in a tub or hanging basket & plant up some winter pansies, or bulbs for the spring.

You should really use new compost in hanging baskets although I admit I have mixed a bit of the other in the odd time or two. Helps too if you add perlite of vermiculite for drainage.

Pippilongstocking

Hiya
With the whole issue around using reducing reusing and recycling I think this is absolutely paramount with substances like growbags, compost etc especially with any peat, etc, in them, and it saves money!! (And perhaps stops global warming etc etc - well if we all do our bit!! - as a gardener thats not keen on peat substitutes I have to think hard before I buy any new grow bags and compost as I prefer it for the growth it gives)

I think that the most use you can make of any type of compost the better - loved the idea of putting it through modern day sterilisation in microwave!! What a fab idea!!
If its sterile and re-fed its as good as new stuff - at work we never bin compost, its churned up through a shredder if it needs to be, either sterilised (not in microwave unfortunately) and reused with additional fertiliser depending on what we are doing. Since we have adopted this policy at work its lead to us using almost half the compost we did previously!!!

Do we get a bonus for the amazing money saving at work, I think not!


Good luck and sorry if I sound all 'lecturish' about peat, I dont mean too!!

nodwah

Well the compost out of my hanging baskets and grow bags is always chock full of roots so I do compost it.
Any loose stuff goes onto the flower beds tho' or I save it in a big bag to use for earthing up next years spuds

Pippilongstocking

Yeah alot of our stuff at work is like that, nightmare eh?
I can't beleive they use to throw it away - finally got them on the cost issue!

Great ideas here, grand to see a few tips i can take - love the sterilising in the microwave, and will try to earth up my tatties with spare stuff, thanks nodwah!!

emujuice

what about using it for bulbs? They have their own store of nutrients so it seems silly to put them in fresh compost that will leach nutrients over the winter with no benefit to the plant. then give them a good feed at the end of flowering for storing into their bulbs for next year.

Zazen999

If you are composting properly you should never need to microwave compost; remember sterilising means you end up with sterile compost. All the good bugs will be killed as well as any bad.

It's a bit like drinking bleach to get rid of a tummy bug.

If you have any major diseases, then burn the foliage and roots and put the ashes on the compost heap.

Old grow bags can be used in compost, for mulching, for another crop, bulking up other beds, adding organic to clay/silty/sandy soil.

Davesnave

Zazen999 wrote: »

If you are composting properly you should never need to microwave compost; remember sterilising means you end up with sterile compost. All the good bugs will be killed as well as any bad.

It's a bit like drinking bleach to get rid of a tummy bug.

If you have any major diseases, then burn the foliage and roots and put the ashes on the compost heap.

Old grow bags can be used in compost, for mulching, for another crop, bulking up other beds, adding organic to clay/silty/sandy soil.

With respect, it isn't like drinking bleach, which is a poison. I wouldn't advocate the use of poisons. I think we've moved on from the days of sterilizing soil with Jeyes' fluid.

I didn't mean to imply that compost treated in a microwave should be used exclusively, because as you say, all the beneficial organisms will be absent, but vine weevil larvae and weed seeds are no great loss. Frankly, with well over a thousand pots to tend at any one time, I'd be courting trouble re-using anything that had viable weed seeds in it. Been there, done it & not doing it again!

The proof of the pudding is that my plants don't die, look unwell or fail to grow, but then 'recycle' probably accounts for only 10 - 20% maximum of their potting compost.