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Reusing this year's soil
Stuoobs
Posts: 10
Hello
It's nearly time for me to empty my tomato grow bags and patio pots. My question is what can I do with the the soil in these grow bags and pots that are full of roots.
Can I add them to my raised beds or do I need to bin them? I am concerned that the roots may interfere with next years crops. Will,the roots degrade into the soil over winter?
Any advice would be much appreciated and hopefully save me a messy trip to the tip!
0
Posts
I always use mine again, usually just add to garden beds and have fresh new stuff for the next lot of pots. Nothing scary seems to have happened.
I mix mine in with the compost heap too. I don't use grow bags, but if I did I would.
Cheers guys. I don't actually have a compost heap....just raised beds....but I guess it will still be fine.
I often just add the contents to beds/borders, but I roughly chop up the roots first if there's a lot of them. Any really congested bits go in the compost bin or the garden waste bin for collection
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
If the compost in the pots is too solid with roots, just leave it in the great outdoors over winter and by spring you should be able to dig it into the raised beds with no problems.
I sift all the roots out and then add to the borders as a soil conditioner.
I bang the compost off the roots then add some FBB and use it for my bulb pots. Then next year it goes on the veg plot or compost heap.
I'm with everyone else - remove as many roots as possible then split it between the compost and the rest of the garden, particularly under shrubs. I've even kept some to use in the very large containers the following year. With the latter, if you use all fresh compost it costs an arm and a leg, so I put crumpled newspapers, old thin plastic seedling pots in the bottom third, used compost (as above) in the next third and then fresh compost for the top third. It works every time.
Lydiaann, I keep all my newspapers and junk mail, etc and use those on the bottom layer of big pots. Surprising how quickly they build up, esp the Sundays.