How do you store soil in an apartment?

DankTankerous · Dec 27, 2016

I have a small apartment and a garage that is really just covering for my car, so I have no place to put my soil. I put it in a large Rubbermaid tub and put it in my closet. Should I put it outside or will the moisture effect it negatively. It is organic soil and I would love for it to keep "cooking" as well there are dead roots, they are small but nonetheless will it effect my grows? I don't think worms would survive in there?

-DT

chemphlegm · Dec 27, 2016

outside is fine, temps/soil contents will decide what survives and what doesnt. humidity is little concern for your stored soil. used soil is tricky. pests multiply, wet soil freezes, goes anaerobic, smells bad, roots rot rather than compost.
properly composting it is better, if you can.

DankTankerous · Dec 27, 2016

chemphlegm said:
outside is fine, temps/soil contents will decide what survives and what doesnt. humidity is little concern for your stored soil. used soil is tricky. pests multiply, wet soil freezes, goes anaerobic, smells bad, roots rot rather than compost.
properly composting it is better, if you can.

True True, damn, it's just such good soil that I don't want to go to waist. 1.5cu ft is 25 bucks plus tax!

greasemonkeymann · Dec 27, 2016

DankTankerous said:
True True, damn, it's just such good soil that I don't want to go to waist. 1.5cu ft is 25 bucks plus tax!

get a bigass smartpot, and add red worms and damp cardboard on top, keeps the soil perfectly moist, doesn't go anaerobic, and the redworms will eat the cardboard and cycle your nutrients,
if it's dry inside (winter usually is) layer the soil with damp cardboard and do that lasagna style

DankTankerous · Dec 27, 2016

greasemonkeymann said:
get a bigass smartpot, and add red worms and damp cardboard on top, keeps the soil perfectly moist, doesn't go anaerobic, and the redworms will eat the cardboard and cycle your nutrients,
if it's dry inside (winter usually is) layer the soil with damp cardboard and do that lasagna style

I have smart pots, but have you used this method? I also have all the cardboard in the world, I just moved

greasemonkeymann · Dec 27, 2016

DankTankerous said:
I have smart pots, but have you used this method? I also have all the cardboard in the world, I just moved

Yes!
and for the record I don't like to suggest things that I haven't tried firsthand
(don't take that the wrong way at all, i'm just very fastidious)
you'll also be starting a wormbin at the same time, do not water them, just re-saturate the cardboard and re add as you go, if it's really dry a loose plastic bag can be placed over top (not INSIDE the bag)
if you have access to it, and your soil has at least a couple months till it's used again, I also suggest getting some fallen tree leaves, shred them, sprinkle them with water lightly, sprinkle them with alfalfa meal lightly, and mixing that in along with your soil, the reds will explode with growth.
and your soil will be a mini compost, loaded with all the microbes you could ask for

chemphlegm · Dec 27, 2016

l too used worms for two years. I had thousands and thousands of them working full time in a dozen
worm bins, eating only harvest/garden trim. it was awesome. good luck with this in an apartment though.
worth a try, it is very fulfilling and marijuana loves worm dirt alot. keep kitchen scraps out of your worm bins though, trust me.

greasemonkeymann · Dec 27, 2016

chemphlegm said:
l too used worms for two years. I had thousands and thousands of them working full time in a dozen
worm bins, eating only harvest/garden trim. it was awesome. good luck with this in an apartment though.
worth a try, it is very fulfilling and marijuana loves worm dirt alot. keep kitchen scraps out of your worm bins though, trust me.

you can easily use kitchen scraps also, provided you bury them, and do not overfeed.
you'll never smell it, nor will you have issues with gnats
BUT, you must bury the food, and you must not overfeed.
But that's for a full wormbin, i'd do just a "inside-compost" type of thing instead.
but if you let a wormbin get away from you.. inside.... you WILL suffer the consequences..

DankTankerous · Dec 28, 2016

greasemonkeymann said:
Yes!
and for the record I don't like to suggest things that I haven't tried firsthand
(don't take that the wrong way at all, i'm just very fastidious)
you'll also be starting a wormbin at the same time, do not water them, just re-saturate the cardboard and re add as you go, if it's really dry a loose plastic bag can be placed over top (not INSIDE the bag)
if you have access to it, and your soil has at least a couple months till it's used again, I also suggest getting some fallen tree leaves, shred them, sprinkle them with water lightly, sprinkle them with alfalfa meal lightly, and mixing that in along with your soil, the reds will explode with growth.
and your soil will be a mini compost, loaded with all the microbes you could ask for

Can I still use my bin? Or does it work better with Smart Pots?

No offense taken brother, I just ask because I have ran into a lot of misinformation as well as flat out wrong advice. Unfortunately there is a lot of that on the net. Thank you for the info.

elephantSea · Dec 29, 2016

Ive been doing it with two rounds for soil for a while now. so while i'm using one, the other is cooking. It's just in a big rubbermaid container on my balcony. I have a worm bin that I migrate a couple hundred worms or so after I break up the rootballs, and ammend. It sits for about 2-3 months until I need it for the next round.

I've been having much better success reusing my soil this way, over trying to use new dirt each time. Goodluck!

DankTankerous · Dec 29, 2016

elephantSea said:
Ive been doing it with two rounds for soil for a while now. so while i'm using one, the other is cooking. It's just in a big rubbermaid container on my balcony. I have a worm bin that I migrate a couple hundred worms or so after I break up the rootballs, and ammend. It sits for about 2-3 months until I need it for the next round.

I've been having much better success reusing my soil this way, over trying to use new dirt each time. Goodluck!

Hey dude thanks for the reply. In your Rubbermaid container do you keep worms in there? My goal is really just to keep the soil cooking, if I can use worms then I will. I am worried that it will become nothing but worm castings. I was just eating worms to eat the dead roots and aerate it

GreenSanta · Dec 29, 2016

I keep my soil outside, around my composting area, right on the ground by trees, gives a chance to the mycorhizae to move into the pile ... but recently, its been way colder than normal and so I had take soil inside the basement to thaw out. I just keep it in Rubbermaid garbage bins. A lot of people are scared of letting their mix go anaerobic but in my experience it has never been an issue, the minute I shove it out of the garbage bin into a 10 gal pots, transplant, never had a plant reacting negatively to an anaerobic mix now you can water at transplant but you want to make sure you let it dry a bit before you water for the second time and almost always the plants take off. I do like to throw a handful of worms in the pot at transplant but it is not necessary.

GreenSanta · Dec 29, 2016

DankTankerous said:
Hey dude thanks for the reply. In your Rubbermaid container do you keep worms in there? My goal is really just to keep the soil cooking, if I can use worms then I will. I am worried that it will become nothing but worm castings. I was just eating worms to eat the dead roots and aerate it

technically, your worms will survive in the garbage bin with the lid on for quite some time. Another thing is one year many moons ago I made a batch and I stored it in garbage cans but I did not water the mix as I did not plan to use it for several months and I wanted to have a mix ready to ''cook''. Well believe it or not I went to water it a couple months later and there was a white film all over it like it had already been cooking with no water added to the mix besides the RH that day...
Technically, you want your soil to be done cooking before you add the worms. worms don't like the ''heat''
Its ok to have dead root that are not decomposed yet into your mix only you dont want too too many. The main reason for using worms is not so that they can eat your dead roots and aerate the soil but simply increase microbes population which will increase nutrients availability to your plants.

DankTankerous · Dec 30, 2016

GreenSanta said:
technically, your worms will survive in the garbage bin with the lid on for quite some time. Another thing is one year many moons ago I made a batch and I stored it in garbage cans but I did not water the mix as I did not plan to use it for several months and I wanted to have a mix ready to ''cook''. Well believe it or not I went to water it a couple months later and there was a white film all over it like it had already been cooking with no water added to the mix besides the RH that day...
Technically, you want your soil to be done cooking before you add the worms. worms don't like the ''heat''
Its ok to have dead root that are not decomposed yet into your mix only you dont want too too many. The main reason for using worms is not so that they can eat your dead roots and aerate the soil but simply increase microbes population which will increase nutrients availability to your plants.

Well there are a lot of dead roots in there. Do I need to add moisture?

iHearAll · Dec 30, 2016

outside in a rolling trash can

organixx325 · Jan 1, 2017

i use the heavy duty construction bags and stack them up. im in a 3rd floor apartment and i have a shit load of soil bagged up and sitting in the closet waiting for the next transplant

DankTankerous · Jan 1, 2017

organixx325 said:
i use the heavy duty construction bags and stack them up. im in a 3rd floor apartment and i have a shit load of soil bagged up and sitting in the closet waiting for the next transplant

Yeah I think I'll stay away from using worms for right now, but eventually I would love to have a worm bin and compost pile.

Chef420 · Jan 1, 2017

I keep most of it in a Rubbermaid bin on my balcony. I also keep a small amount inside in a 5g bucket with a lid. No worries. I use pro mix.
*its cheaper to buy a whole bale but that's a lot soil and tough to store for a small grow. Better off to buy the smaller bags as needed.

elephantSea · Jan 4, 2017

DankTankerous said:
... I am worried that it will become nothing but worm castings

that.... would be incredible!

Avering · Oct 31, 2021

greasemonkeymann said:
get a bigass smartpot, and add red worms and damp cardboard on top, keeps the soil perfectly moist, doesn't go anaerobic, and the redworms will eat the cardboard and cycle your nutrients,
if it's dry inside (winter usually is) layer the soil with damp cardboard and do that lasagna style

I’m extremely late to this, but what could I use besides a smart pot? Thinking of doing separate fabric pots I have but they’re only 2 gal bags and putting the worms on them. Could you just use plastic or would that not be good for the worms? I would want them to be able to breathe and I feel plastic would not allow them to get much aid. Thanks

How do you store soil in an apartment?

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