"Sterile" potting mix ingredients! haha

I do a lot of reading online. I found this website and thought the highlighted advice was just hilarious. I didn't read the rest of it, it could be chock full of advice to avoid.

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Potting mix and seed starting mixes are always made from sterile ingredients.

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Mfs see someone talking about letting their soil cook and take it literally not realizing that it just means letting your mix sit for awhile to break down the amendments, compost etc before using it. Then they go and publish a gardening magazine

I did bake potting soil to get rid of gnats. It works but has an interesting aroma to it.

I saw videos of people pouring boiling water over the soil to kill fungus gnat larvae and other pests. But i imagine this would kill the beneficial microbes as well. However, what if you poured boiling water and added microbes in powder form afterwards? Does this sound like a good idea?

Astral22 said:

I saw videos of people pouring boiling water over the soil to kill fungus gnat larvae and other pests. But i imagine this would kill the beneficial microbes as well. However, what if you poured boiling water and added microbes in powder form afterwards? Does this sound like a good idea?

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It's similar to what I do. I use a barrel and let it soak overnight, then when cool, drain through window screen (which is laborious). Provided sufficient water is used (water:mix ratio) it does kill bugs effectively, but the mix will get reinfected sitting in storage, it stays wet for months. I believe the process dilutes any nutrients that may be in the mix, so probably not a good idea unless you're planning on adding nutrients and microbes.