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What to do with soil from pots

Pink678Pink678 Posts: 498
in Problem solving
I'm very much a new gardener, so please excuse this novice question.
I've got a whole lot of large pots with finished tulips and mini daffodils in.
I want to discard the bulbs, and have fresh empty pots to start anew with next year, but I'm not sure what do with the soil inside. I've been googling but can't quite find the answer.
I think it was potting compost that was used.
Can I just dig out the bulbs and remove foliage to put in garden waste, and then just put all that soil back into the flowerbeds? Or is that a terrible idea?
Thank you

Posts

  • PianoplayerPianoplayer Posts: 624
    A perfectly sensible question! Its fine to put it on your beds. Waste not, want not.
  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,090
    You could certainly plant those daffs out in a border and they will come again next year.  Tulips less certain to do that but you could try, or just compost them.

    Use the spent compost to spread on your beds.
    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
    Plato
  • Pink678Pink678 Posts: 498
    Oh fantastic, I'll do that then. The beds are looking a bit spare in soil, so hopefuly it'll beef them up a bit.
    Thank you!
  • Pink678Pink678 Posts: 498
    Obelixx, that's good to know. I might do that, will just have to make sure i'm distinguishing between them. I think the mini daffs would be much smaller bulbs. Could I plant them out in a border right away?
  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,090
    edited April 2021
    If they are still in leaf just water the pot well, lift the bulbs and plant them in the borders to the same depth and water them in so their leaves can carry on feeding the bulbs to build up next year's energy for flowers.  They need at least 6 weeks to do this and a feed of pelleted chicken manure or blood fish and bone would help.

    If all the leaves have died down you can tell them apart by shape and colour.  Tulips bulbs tend to be smooth and white beneath a conker/chestnut coloured skin.  Daffodil bulbs are rougher and paler.  See here where the tulip bulbs have a blue line round them.


    Daffodil bulbs need planting in holes that are deep enough to have 2 to 3 time their own depth of soil above them and tulips do better deeper than that.
    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
    Plato
  • Pink678Pink678 Posts: 498
    Thank you so much, that's really helpful and I do have some chicken pellets. The photo is perfect - I can pick a daffodil bulb out of a lineup now, I think!
  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,090
    Hope it works for you and you get some flowers next year.
    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
    Plato
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