Best way to sterilize old soil.for recycle

Typically I use happy frog and add peat.and perlite
I.now have lots.of used happy frog.and use it for.outside plants. It finds the fungus gnats and mites thrips and are worse in used soil.
It’s there a convenient way that doesn’t involve hug amounts of physical.labor …that I can sterilize the old.soil.to.eliminate pests and recycle it.?

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I recycle my soil each round. Sometimes its indoors sometimes it’s outdoors. I used to try to keep them separate but no longer. Now I just deal w whatever arises. My experience has been that the benefits of recycling my soil (ie. increased soil diversity and life) have outweighed the costs (ie bugs and mold potential).

The only time I actually sterilize my soil is for starting seeds. I cook it in a big pan in my oven at low temp. Seems to work well in getting rid of the nasty fungus gnat larva that always try to invade my space. Bt (ie mosquito bits or other comparable product) will help control fungus gnats also, but beware those buggers can become accustomed to the bt in my experience and build a resistance to it.

Other than for seedlings I just collect my used soil after each round and mix it back up, re-ammend w whatever I think it needs and once I plant into it, I give small plants a week to get settled and then I start w my IPM routine.

Sulfur is great for eradicating any undesirable moulds like those that cause pm or budrot. I have successfully reused the soil from infected plants a number of times now, and I can say with confidence that sulphur works. If I am concerned the soil im recycling has unwanted spores or infected roots present; I start w a sulfur spray.

It’s important not to mix sulfur and oils. This mix damages the plant. Sulfur acts fast but is kind of sticky. So over the next week I hit the plants w a mild h2o2 foliar a couple times to help wash off the sulfur. It doesn’t always come off entirely.

Next I go after the bugs I use a mix of Spinosad, neem oil and essential oils plus bronners soap. Depending on what’s present I might alternate all three of those over a couple week period.

The Spinosad is effective against thrips and spider mites that sometimes seem to be able to survive the neem alone. Typically only one spinosad treatment is all that’s needed. I’ve yet to find a bug that survives that plus the combo attack w neem and bronners.

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Neem meal or even the (diluted) oil to drench soil will kill a lot of larvae and mites and thrips, and eventually will decompose. If fungus gnats are your only problem, BTI from Mosquito Dunks will knock out larvae effectively at higher doses.

Sometimes, saponins or soap drenches can drown pests if you arent going to grow in it for a little while.

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I have spinosad and neem.oil.and neem cake…lots.of diatomaceous earth…

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Oh yeah sulfur is good stuff, enough of that will kill almost anything. Go overboard and then cut it back down with new fresh soil and inorganics and calcium sources to get back to normal pH.

EDIT: @catapult has great advice

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I have the Sulphur spray I used to kill mildew on tomatoes and apple.tree…I forget the name.

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And I use the oil.of oregano when they are in bloom.

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I have several bags of great compost that came with a generous helping of fungus gnats.
The simplest method I’ve found is to just leave the bags in the garage all winter… That cuts them down by +90% and what few do hatch are weak and feeble and are easily dealt with.
2 years and there’s nothing left… :+1:

If you don’t want to wait that long a solar cooker will process small batches.

Cheers
G

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I was trying to conceive of a way…to cook them in black bags under the sun.
Also have lots of horse shit that I’m putting in barrels and popping some red wiggler.worms in there and waiting…and waiting…and waiting

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Red wigglers, the Cadillac of worms… :laughing:

I grab a double handful every spring and re-start my worm bin in the garage (200L/50G) to reprocess my winter soil.

Black trash bags should get the temps high enough to cook the critters. flip them over every few days… It will probably take a couple weeks.

Cheers
G

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When you set your dirt out to cook tarp it off or do it in a black plastic tote.The second week of cook water the dirt down with Microbe lift.The Spores will have the last week of your cook inoculated so any gnats living in it will have thier eggs and larvae fried they won’t be able to reproduce and they will die off or get stuck in your sticky traps and they will disappear.Every other week top off with some microbe lift treated water and you won’t have them anymore.The heat from the soil cook and it being capped off in the sun helps out a lot too.I’ve had the middle of my dirt hit 115 degrees and cook for a week like that in the sun

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Stir in a bunch of cinnamon and cayenne pepper. Bugs can’t stand either and enough in the medium they will abandon ship without hurting ur soil

Another suggestion is instead of adding peat add some compost such as my fav of mushroom compost for 2.50 a bag at Lowe’s or home Depot.

Peat is for water retention and provides no nutrients and mushroom compost is gonna give ya the meat and potatoes, great way to add more volume and keep plenty of nutrients available in your medium

Sulphur is a great suggestion as I usually have some of the pellets floating around in my soil but it can swing ph down like crazy so make sure if ur adding it to balance it out with some fireplace ash( my preferred) or lime and not to over do it

I also keep my soil in a soil catch crate that everything get dumped in and left in direct sunlight and keep that medium wet, that helps keep microbes active between runs and keeps and nice cook on it to keep most undesirables out

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When I reuse my soil I don’t sterilize it at all. I just keep my old pots moist for a few weeks/month after harvest to help decompose the roots, then when I dump them in a tote and add more Gaia green 4-4-4 it’s super easy to mix up as the root balls are all soft.

If you have fungus gnats I would suggest sprinkling aquabac over the top of your soil after you pot them and the gnats will be gone in no time.
I used everything from mosquito dunks to neem oil,sticky traps, DE and nothing got rid of them until I used aquabac

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all my indoor and outdoor soil goes in a pile on a large tarp out behind my greehouse.
The area gets full sun all day so it gets covered in a black tarp.
I mix all my soils 100 to 120 gallons at a time on black tarps, using 1/2 the tarp when i form it into a pile after mixing. The other 1/2 of the black tarp is then used to cover the pile. I leave it covered for 2 to 3 weeks after adding back the essential ingredients of my mix.

I add diatomaceous earth and suphur powder to my re-used mixes as well.
Once the cook is done I add mycos , hygrozyme and blackstrap molasses. Hygrozyme will help break down any old root material and turn it into availlable food for the plant.

For veg I spray weekly, alternating with monterey’s garden spray with spinosad, which is safe for the rootzone and h202/alcohol sprays. In flower I don’t like to spray at all but if I do it’s is the h202/alcohol/wetting agent spray.

I think the additon of Hygrozyme helps break down old root material and the molasses feeds the microbial life.

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