Reusing soil

chubbos

Is there any reason you cant reuse soil,I have been repoting some trees and the soil looks great .Can i screen it again and use it . It consists of lava,turface,bark,and chicken grit. Thanks Mark.

Advertisement

Jay

Mark,
Are you're trees worth taking the chance? Old soil has lost some of its nutrient value and more importantly has 'possible' picked up who knows what. If you really want to reuse it, I would first bake it at high temp to kill anything that may be in there....the cost and effort sort of negates the cost saving....


my 2 cents
Jay

__________________
A Bonsai student living with his trees at N 44.37 W 77.49...
Think before you act... then think again... no good comes from rushing

Mortalis

I would not reuse anything organic.. If your useing totaly inorganic material like me just soak it in a 1/10 bleach solution then let it sit a few days until its bone dry then you can use it again.

Bleach is just clorine it evaporates just like the water does.

rlist

As long as you don't have a break down in the components - i.e. decomposed bark, broken down oil dry or akadama - and the trees that you the used soil comes from are healthy and happy, then there should be no reason not to re-use soil. I typically re-use my grow box soil (pumice, lava, oil dry, turface and/or bark in a variety of combinations) - where I pull the tree out, sift, add back in lava and/or pumice, and then repot the tree. Tree was in there to begin with, no reason not to put it back into it.

Note, I won't do this more than twice with the soil, and I also will not do this in finished pots or on specimin trees where I want to control my mixture ratio and quality. But, with maples a year or two out of the field and potted in a flat - as long as the soil drains and looks good to my eye, then I don't sweat it.

__________________
NW Oregon, Zone 8a
Check out my new blog here...
Both gold and muck come out of the same shaft...

Mortalis

Oh yes.. be careful to remove any bits of dead roots if you do not bake..

Mcspeed

And if the soil stops being free draining mid to late summer and it's 95 out and the forcast is more of the same hot and sunny for the next 2 weeks what do you do - EMERGENCY REPOT. Da da da, da da da, da da da da da da!

Use your "used soil" for field growing in a "loose" mix of fairly known value" . Otherwise you are taking a chance with your stock, it's not a good place to be penny wise or pound foolish.

rlist

You bring up a good point that if you do not understand soils and how they act in your environment, then yes, you might run into troubles. Based on the ingredients that Mark listed, and the fact he lives 20 miles from me, my only question would be if the mix is appropriate for specific tree species. As I said, I would not hesitate to reuse these ingredients - nor would several world class bonsai artists that I happen to know...

__________________
NW Oregon, Zone 8a
Check out my new blog here...
Both gold and muck come out of the same shaft...

rockm

It always amazes me that people are willing to scrimp on the thing that it the most important component of growing bonsai. Sure, you can reuse soil, you run the danger of propagating all sorts of nasties, not to mention the soil's ability to drain--yeah even high akadama breaks down given time, freezes and agressive roots.

For heaven's sake with bulk components so cheap--a 50 lb bag of crushed granite is what $9? A five gallon bucket of haydite is another $15? A bag of swimming pool filter sand is $10, a bag of composted pine bark is $5?--you can make 200 lbs of soil, enough for dozens of medium sized bonsai and several large bonsai in training for $40 or so. You will avoid all the issues that you have with reusing soil in doing so. Why get all tightwad on the basic thing your trees need not only to live, but to thrive... There's frugal and then there's cheap and pennywise, pound foolish...

PatArizona

Chubbos...

My thoughts...

If you are confident that you are qualified to "certify" that the used soil is "clean", then go ahead and reuse it...

However, before you reuse it, read or reread Rockm's post.

Then think about it...is it really worth the risk? I think not.

Thats what works for me...

Pat

__________________
BONSAI isn't about surviving in a storm, rather, how to dance in the rain.
THE ONLY WAY: Always remember, and don't ever forget, that whatever you read here is not cast in concrete... the intent of any advice is to help. In no way should you feel that I’m saying that my way is the only way…heaven forbid! I've seen far too much of the "my way or the highway" attitude in bonsai as well as in other areas of life.