I have two tomato plants in the grow tent, soaking up the light and thriving, right now; along with my herbs seedlings. Both tomato plants have blossoms that have opened and are showing wonderful signs of creating some future garden (home)grown tomatoes. To say I am excited is an understatement.
Just this morning as I watered the plants and seedlings in the tent, I was imagining making some BLTs using these potential future tomatoes. Yeah, it excited me that much!
Here Is The Entire Jungle
You can see both tomatoes plants to the right with my trays of seedlings dotting all over the tent. My recently transplanted catnip is sitting to the left with my eight sunflowers on the edge there.
Later today I am planning on starting some more seeds. I just need to create a new way to have all the existing plants in here, and the space to add more, until I can start moving plants outside to the greenhouse after the last frost.
I spent part of the afternoon yesterday trying to figure out how to add more inside and will hopefully be constructing a makeshift shelf to be able to accommodate all my needs.
Reusing Container Soil
I'm planning on having many container and buckets this year in my garden and have some old containers full of potting soil and dirt from last year's garden just sitting in the shed looking almost pathetic. But I am wondering, instead of having to purchase more potting soil, can I just reuse the old soil?
I'm looking to mainly not have to spend money senselessly and the cost of the good potting and seedling soil can get quite pricey... and I am on a mission to save more money this year.
So I started my research and here's what I found out.
Uses For Last Year's Potting Soil:
- You can always work old potting soil into flower beds
- Use it in vegetable gardens,
- Fill up in your yard
- To add to compost piles
But you have to make sure the older soil has never had a fungus problem, bacteria issue in the past or a mineral deficiency. All these could cause new problems to the area or location of where you're using the old soil.
The soil I am considering reusing never had any of the above mentioned health concerns and I know the soil has a good pH , as I constantly checked the pH of the nutrients I added to the old containers from last year. Although I do want to test the soil one more time this year before deciding where the best use for the old soil would be.
Crop Nutrition has a great page listing all the soil pH balance needs for soil; and for certain plants and crops.
From Crop Nutrition's website, a basic explanation of soil's pH is as follows:
Soil pH is a measure of the acidity and alkalinity in soils. pH levels range from 0 to 14, with 7 being neutral, below 7 acidic and above 7 alkaline. The optimal pH range for most plants is between 5.5 and 7.0; however, many plants have adapted to thrive at pH values outside this range. Because pH levels control many chemical processes that take place in the soil – specifically, plant nutrient availability – it is vital to maintain proper levels for your plants to reach their full yield potential
Have you ever reused old soil from previous containers and buckets? How did it work out? What are your thoughts?
