Does soil last?

I just ordered my first seeds (delicious seeds cotton candy and auto candy kush) and want to make sure I get this right. This will be my second real grow and I have about 20 gal left of some FFoF mixed in 30% perlite. This has been sitting in a rubbermaid tote for about a 10 months. Does soil spoil or like lose nutrients or something?

I've had partial bags of soil dry out, all it takes is a good watering and it was impossible to tell the difference between the last of a dry bag and the beginning of a fresh one. Of all the things to worry about, this one won't be a problem I think.

Some of the beneficial bacteria may have died off but it will still be fine to use. I don't think you will see a noticeable difference from fresh soil. If it were me I would think about adding some fresh worm castings to the mix.

I get a hankering to grow a soil plant every now and then. I use a big bag of FFOF i've had for 2 years now. Works fine every time.

Relax62 said:

I just ordered my first seeds (delicious seeds cotton candy and auto candy kush) and want to make sure I get this right. This will be my second real grow and I have about 20 gal left of some FFoF mixed in 30% perlite. This has been sitting in a rubbermaid tote for about a 10 months. Does soil spoil or like lose nutrients or something?

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looooooooooooooooooooool... soil does not expire... nor have the endo and ecto bacteria in it been killed...... now if its used soil has in used in a grow then no you shouldn't reuse it... you can but it would have to be amended to make it rich again....

If you have any question about your soil in a container... Get some clothesline rope, cut it into 15 inch strips. Get a pair of forceps...

Jam the strings into the bottom of the pot, up into the soil, set your pots on a brick, let strings stand in water in a tray that is being "bubbled" by an air pump. Feed your nutes to the water. It's called passive hydroponics, eventually your soil runs out of it's nutes.


To the forum administrators, if you see this, your anti-bot program, makes it impossible to type. Its extremely annoying.

BenFranklin said:

If you have any question about your soil in a container... Get some clothesline rope, cut it into 15 inch strips. Get a pair of forceps...

Jam the strings into the bottom of the pot, up into the soil, set your pots on a brick, let strings stand in water in a tray that is being "bubbled" by an air pump. Feed your nutes to the water. It's called passive hydroponics, eventually your soil runs out of it's nutes.


To the forum administrators, if you see this, your anti-bot program, makes it impossible to type. Its extremely annoying.

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It would be much more safer to use a Canning Kit instead.

I should add that if you see any mold or fungus after that long in storage it would be a good idea to steralize the soil before use.

If the soil has become bone dry it will have reduced soil organism activity and it wouldn't hurt to ammend it as i suggested before.

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Cascadian said:

I should add that if you see any mold or fungus after that long in storage it would be a good idea to steralize the soil before use.

If the soil has become bone dry it will have reduced soil organism activity and it wouldn't hurt to ammend it as i suggested before.

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What would you amend it with? Would bone, blood and fish meal work?

^^^yes all of those work. composted manure from a garden center and leaf compost are good.....add some ground rock like azomite (70 different elements) available from many garden centers and amazon or ebay also.

I would add some worm castings and Alfalfa meal for the bio life that MAY have been affected over time.

you can use old soil but i have found u may need to add a wetting agent (dish soap) to aid the water to pass through

Cascadian said:

I should add that if you see any mold or fungus after that long in storage it would be a good idea to steralize the soil before use.

If the soil has become bone dry it will have reduced soil organism activity and it wouldn't hurt to ammend it as i suggested before.

.

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Mold/fungus really isn't a problem most of the time. If it gets sterilized it will certainly have reduced soil organism activity.

Thank you so much for some input! The soil has been in a cool closet for most o the duration and it still feels as though it has some moistness to it. The soil is unused, would it be a bad idea still to amend it with some castings and bone meal?

BenFranklin said:

Get some clothesline rope, cut it into 15 inch strips. Get a pair of forceps...

Jam the strings into the bottom of the pot, up into the soil, set your pots on a brick, let strings stand in water in a tray that is being "bubbled" by an air pump. Feed your nutes to the water. It's called passive hydroponics, eventually your soil runs out of it's nutes.

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I am obviously missing something here. When my soil runs low on nutes I water the plant with nutes. To water or fertilize from below I just set the pot in a pan of water, with fertilizer.

What's with the airpump, 15" chunks of clothesline rope, bricks and forceps?

I understand capillary (wicking effect) so no need to explain that. Just why would you even do all this to get fertilizer back in your soil?

Nullis said:

Mold/fungus really isn't a problem most of the time. If it gets sterilized it will certainly have reduced soil organism activity.

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Good point, I mention it because over that time frame I would hesitate to assume any fungus was harmless. I would rather risk killing soil organisms and amending than some other nastiness potentially causing problems.

Relax62 said:

Thank you so much for some input! The soil has been in a cool closet for most o the duration and it still feels as though it has some moistness to it. The soil is unused, would it be a bad idea still to amend it with some castings and bone meal?

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Sounds like it was stored well and you shouldn't have problems. It would help your soil to amend it but isn't absolutely necessary. I recently used FFOF and amended with dolomite lime, blood meal, bone meal, epsom salt, worm castings, and kelp meal. On the next round I am going to add azomite to the soil as well.

If you amend to this much you will want to only fill your pots about half way with it and use straight FFOF or an even milder soil in the top half of the pot.
Don't start your seeds directly in this soil either use a milder seed starting mix. There are many recipes on the site that will give you amounts etc if you choose to amend it.

IMO at a minimum you should add dolomite lime to your soil, it will help it naturally PH balance and add calcium and magnesium.

Good Luck

@AimAim, because you don't want your potted soil plants to sit in stagnant water and fertz, sure fire way of burning rotting/roots/overwatering. Using passive hydro method, it is a simple way to prevent over-watering and is great when you need to leave plants unattended for a while. Not to mention that it is easier to amend the water that you feed to the plant, than it is to amend the medium within the container which may cause more headaches.

BenFranklin said:

@AimAim, because you don't want your potted soil plants to sit in stagnant water and fertz, sure fire way of burning rotting/roots/overwatering. Using passive hydro method, it is a simple way to prevent over-watering and is great when you need to leave plants unattended for a while. Not to mention that it is easier to amend the water that you feed to the plant, than it is to amend the medium within the container which may cause more headaches.

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So this method means the soil only takes the moisture it needs - and no more?
Similar to a process of osmosis (anti gravity force, capillary action...)?

Exactly, it is also easily regulated, you can add more ropes to saturate more, or remove ropes to saturate less.....

So easy, a caveman can do it....

It's just dirt bro you'll be fine.