Reusing / Recycling used Soil Mix??

[Elmar]

OK another newbie question: Would you / do you Reuse or recycle your soil?

So, you work on your trees, repotting some, slip potting another - theres always soil that falls out or is removed from that tree.

What do you do with it?

Do you collect it, sweep it up and put it back in to your 'stockpile' to reuse on the next tree?

Do you collect it, sweep it up and put it back in to a quarantine pile; treating it with something (sterilisers??) and reuse it in 12/ 24/?? months?

Do you sweep it up and put it in the bin?

The stuff isn't necessarily expensive but I could conceive that throwing away the spillage or used soil could be expensive in the long run...

What do YOU do?

[DustyRusty]

I sieve mine and reuse it, replacing the lost coco peat when I come to use it again.

I have some books that tell me to sterilise bonsai mix. I never understood why if the tree is healthy, why sterilise?

[alpineart]

I re-use and recycle all my mixes as they only need washing and sieving before addatives like more pine bark is added . Currently adding diotamite for weight saving and for no other reason .

Cheers . Alpineart

[dansai]

If you're using mostly or wholly inorganics then reusing is fine. If you are using organics such as found in commercial potting mixes then it's probably not a good idea.

I use a potting mix of 80% composted pine bark and 20% sand as I have a nursery and grow more many different plants and most of my bonsai are in grow on stage and it holds more water than the more open mixes used by many members here for their bonsai collections. So when I repot I stock pile it for the garden and to mix into areas where I will be ground growing.

I am currently looking for a local supply of some inorganics such as diatomite, scoria or crushed granite that doesn't have as much fines in it and then I will definitely reuse.

[Josh]

I reuse everything I can. Cuts down on cost. Obviously if the tree is not healthy then I wouldn't. Sieve and add whatever is needed to bring it to the same consistency as the rest.

I sieve mine and reuse it, replacing the lost coco peat when I come to use it again.

I have some books that tell me to sterilise bonsai mix. I never understood why if the tree is healthy, why sterilise?

DustyRusty, I think in a commercial nursery sterilising is used where high turnover of stock/repotting is done. I worked for a nursery years ago and they sterilised all their perlite (in a special oven/boiler with water heated to 100 degrees) after transplanting cuttings. This was to eliminate the risk of decease, not because they had decease.

I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong but I think 60 degrees plus will kill most plant pathogens (not sure how the missus will go with trays of potting mix in the oven ). Weed seeds I think is higher.
Friends of ours where into natural stuff, everything organic and old world plants. He had a large pot on a fire he would boil water in and add soil mix to it to sterilise. Then drain and dry the mix. Sounds like a lot of work to me.

Josh

[Isitangus]

I re-use my mix, it's all organic +bit of zeolite & perlite. However when I'm repotting or anything if it ends up I the ground I generally leave it as I repot on my lawn.

[Elmar]

phheww! Before I went to bed I had 23 views but no replies … thought I'd opened up Pandoras box.

Now I don't feel so silly any longer, especially since I was hoping that I wasn't the only one trying to recycle my soil.

Mine is more of a distance consideration as the nearest Bonsai Nursery is 2000Ks away!

Thank you for your input. One of my Ficuses has just died (newbeeitis!), so I was considering reusing the soil from that.


Newbeeitis: Deciding (in my wisdom) to defoliate and root prune at the same time as we headed into our hottest season - because thats what you do!

[thoglette]

I reuse everything. But hierarchically. Best plants get new mix when repotting; old mix ends up in grow pots; grow pot mix ends up in tomatos other pot plants; finally that mix ends up in garden beds.

Inevitably there's mixing of old and new on the way down the hill.

As others have said, to get back UP the hierarchy involves much washing; drying and sieving. I have good enough access to fine gravel; zeolite ( Vitapet Purrfit from Big W) and the few organics I use (pine fines and leaf litter) to rarely warrant all that work.

Thank you for your input. One of my Ficuses has just died (newbeeitis!), so I was considering reusing the soil from that.

Do you know what killed it? It it was underwatering fine, if it was overwatering (esp. with rot) then it needs to be left fallow for a while.

[Boics]

I remember shibui once upon a time saying that a little time in a microwave will sterilize a mix.

Personally I reuse most of my mix and discard the crappy stuff.

[Elmar]

Do you know what killed it? It it was underwatering fine, if it was overwatering (esp. with rot) then it needs to be left fallow for a while.

"Love" (or the lack of understanding). I pruned the roots shortly after defoliating it... It tried to come back but didn't have enough juice in the tank.


Cheers
EZ
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[Dario]

This year is the first time that I have reused my soil mix. Like Alpine I washed and sieved the old mix before using again, but no sterilisation etc.
Mainly diatamite based mix but some older mixes had pine bark as well. I thought I only reused mix from healthy plants etc. Anyway this growing season I have had issues with a few of my pots getting quickly filled with a black fungus on the soil surface. It hasn't seemed to affect the plant health but it needs to be physically removed or it clogs the mix up and surrounds the trunk base.
I haven't seen this fungus until this year and it may not be related to reusing my old mix? But I think it may be a good idea to dry your mix in the hot sun before reuse.
I am still monitoring the fungus and I have considered treating with a fungicide but still undecided.
Cheers, Dario.

[Elmar]

Hi Dario,
Some fungus has the capacity to go dormant when it's environment is unfavourable, so perhaps you need to keep that in mind.


Cheers
EZ
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[cre8ivbonsai]

viewtopic.php?f=12&t=16399 some more answers for you...

[Elmar]

Thx cre8ivbonsai,
I did do a search before posting but nothing came up!
Your link certainly fleshed out this discussion!


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[raewynk]

Thank you all for bringing the subject up about reusing old soil.

I live in the city Brisbane with an abundance of potting mix available, never real known the difference between one or the other until I started with this forum, (a real learning curb), and doing some research on line with the gardening sites.

But I usually reuse all of mine, only because I am such a miser, and don't have the garden room to dispose of the old soil.

If one of the bonsai's seedlings look a bit sick, then I tend to intergrate some old with some new potting mix.

Rae