Used dirt question-

[JDU]

Just wonderin how well y'all clean your used dirt of fiber root?
Thoughts on whether it will decompose & provide nutrients or if it will take up space that would've been better served bein filled with compost......??

[Rwise]

I let it rot in the soil tween uses, and the big ones are going into the shredder then compost.

[SoOrbudgal]

I do like Rwise does. I dump the pot into my big soil tub with a lid and do a little tearing apart of the fiber roots then just put the lid back on it. It's real warm in the tub and cooks everything steams it in there. If i still have wads i just toss the bundle of roots out into the garden compost pile.

[OldManGrower]

Yep, I'm with Rwise and SoOrbudgal. I pull the plants and shake off the soil back into the pot. This one step reduces the amount of soil by 40%. I put some of the used soil into a mixing tub and the rest into plantings around my yard.

[JSH1973]

Is there much point in reusing soil/coco coir?
I was just planning to throw it out in the garden and start fresh every time as 3 to 4 of the 3 gallon pots won't exactly break the bank to fill up

[dalvis]

I was considering the same thing as I’m getting close to harvest but I can see the benefit of not having to flush new coco and your Ph should also be set from the previous grow. Just a thought.

[Mr.furley]

I reuse coco and replace it once a year, the last two weeks of a plants life in my garden they get calmag water only so once the roots have been removed it's already good to go again. I spent roughly 140$ for coco and perlite for this grow season, old gets mix with new until its all been run 3 or 4 times, you bet I'll reuse it for as long as I can to help the price per gram to be as low as possible.

[crucialbunny]

I use a compost screen and just roll the root ball back and forth until all I'm left with is a clump of roots. It seems to take an inordinate amount of time for roots to decompose.

[AccidentalGardener]

JDU , this is a great question and now I don't have to ask it - again, lol. I didn't get any takers the time I asked. But now I know to save as much soil from my grows as I can. This makes me happy, as I too want to keep costs down. Also don't want to annoy my water-boys, as they are also my potting-soil boys. Carrying fewer bags of dirt will keep them content to keep carryin' my nutes without too much complaining, lol. I like SoOrbudgal 's tub-lid situation. That would help me keep my indoor stuff from being outdoors, even for a minute. Yay for recycling!

[dalvis]

water boys? 😂😂😂😂 thats so awesome.

[AccidentalGardener]

Lol, **snort** Covid has forced myself and my two grown-up boys together in a space designed for 2 adults who don't annoy each other. We are smoking way more weed than any of us has in the past, so I get 'em to haul 5-gallon buckets of pH'd H2o down the 4 stairs to my grow area so I don't break my ever-loving neck. They like my cooking and my weed and I do both better without my neck broken, lol.

[Cali]

All I do is cut my plant as close as I can to the soil and I let the worms in my soil take care of the roots. A week later or two Ivan easily pull out the rock wool cube with whatever little is left of the stalks. I grow in living soil no till that keeps all the mycelium and microbiology network in place so the soil just gets better and better. When you disturb the soil by mixing it all up you are breaking miles of mycelium apart the they have to work harder to get back in place. In other words I would reuse the soil forever I never seen the soil get replaced in the forests.