David - this is written in a conversational tone, even though I disagree with you on a couple of points. First, the reason I don't reuse my potting soil, and I start with a soil that has as its primary fraction, large particles of pine bark, which takes 4-5 times longer than peat to break down, is that I have found it VERY advantageous to keep my focus on aeration. There are actually ways to quantify a good soil and compare it to a lesser soil by examining it's total porosity and air porosity at container capacity. Container capacity is the soils state of water retention after it has been completely saturated and has just stopped draining. You cannot achieve a level of either total porosity OR air porosity at container capacity using broken down particles of peat/compost/coir as the primary fraction of your soil, even with a considerable volume of perlite added. If you are left with nothing but perlite, which doesn't seem like something that would occur as a common scenario in normal cases of soil aging, then we really aren't talking about reusing an old soil; rather, we'd be talking about reusing the old perlite fraction, which is something quite different. So, if you are reusing the old soil as a significant fraction of the current soil, its very likely you're putting yourself at a distinct disadvantage because of the inherent reduction in aeration and probable excess water retention. I'm not pointing out these facts to disparage how you grow, only so we can understand that SAYING a soil drains well (or is well-aerated) doesn't mean it actually does (or is). We KNOW that fine particles hold more water than coarse particles (of the same material) and vine organic particles tend to compact, further reducing aeration and increasing water retention. IF you were to use inexpensive pine bark as the primary fraction of your soil, and add enough of your used soil to arrive at a favorable state of water retention, you would end up with a soil that DOES have favorable total porosity and air porosity at container capacity. If the soil is entirely broken down as you suggest it is, you STILL need to buy something to replace the lost volume, unless you're using compost ..... and then you end up right back where you started - so why not buy inexpensive pine bark instead of another finer ingredient? Something I wrote on another thread about rooting in water: Though roots form readily and often seemingly more quickly on many plants propagated in water, the roots produced are quite different from those produced in a soil-like or highly aerated medium (perlite - screened Turface - calcined DE - seed starting mix, e.g.). Physiologically, you will find these roots to be much more brittle than normal roots due to a much higher percentage of aerenchyma (a tissue with a greater percentage of intercellular air spaces than normal parenchyma). Aerenchyma tissue is filled with airy compartments. It usually forms in already rooted plants as a result of highly selective cell death and dissolution in the root cortex in response to hypoxic conditions in the rhizosphere (root zone). There are 2 types of aerenchymous tissue. One type is formed by cell differentiation and subsequent collapse, and the other type is formed by cell separation without collapse ( as in water-rooted plants). In both cases, the long continuous air spaces allow diffusion of oxygen (and probably ethylene) from shoots to roots that would normally be unavailable to plants with roots growing in hypoxic media. In fresh cuttings placed in water, aerenchymous tissue forms due to the same hypoxic conditions w/o cell death & dissolution. Note too, that under hypoxic (airless - low O2 levels) conditions, ethylene is necessary for aerenchyma to form. This parallels the fact that low oxygen concentrations, as found in water rooting, generally stimulate trees (I'm a tree guy) and other plants to produce ethylene. For a long while it was believed that high levels of ethylene stimulate adventitious root formation, but lots of recent research proves the reverse to be true. Under hypoxic conditions, like submergence in water, ethylene actually slows down adventitious root formation and elongation. If you wish to eventually plant your rooted cuttings in soil, it is probably best not to root them in water because of the frequent difficulty in transplanting them to soil. The brittle "water-formed" roots often break during transplant & those that don't break are very poor at water absorption and often die. The effect is equivalent to beginning the cutting process over again with a cutting in which vitality has likely been reduced. If you do a side by side comparison of cuttings rooted in water & cuttings rooted in soil, the cuttings in soil will always (for an extremely high percentage of plants) have a leg up in development on those moved from water to a soil medium for the reasons outlined above. Al

It depends on what sort of potting soil you are using. A high quality, durable potting soil does not need to be replaced every year. But a cheaper, less durable mix - as most commercial bagged mixes are - does degrade and can do so quite rapidly, making it unsuitable for successful growing in future seasons. I grow very heavily in containers, including semi-permanent plantings like trees and shrubs and I certainly do not replace that soil annually. But I do use a very textural and durable soil mix like 5-1-1 and gritty mixes discussed in detailed length on the Container Gardening forum. Even this type of soil mix doesn't last forever and should be replaced/refreshed periodically. If you are using a fine particled, highly organic (and therefore decomposable) mix like Miracle Gro or its equivalents, then at the very least you will want add at least half the volume with fresh soil mix. And dump the entire pot out to get all the soil out before you remix with the fresh stuff. The bottom of the pot is where the worst soil conditions will be. Personally, if using this sort of soil mix I would NOT reuse year after year. It only gets worse over time, not better, despite whatever amendments you might add. And also personally, I would not reuse previously dumped soil. No telling what else has migrated into it and you do not want to introduce insect or disease issues into your containers. Nor do you want to introduce more organic, decomposable material (like leaves, etc.) as that just further complicates aeration and drainage issues most bagged potting soil inherently has. Just spread the dumped soil throughout your garden. It doesn't need to remain in an isolated pile and can help to improve regular garden soil. And don't worry about the nutrient content of the potting mix - it's purpose is to support and enhance root growth via porosity, aeration and fast drainage. All the nutrients should be supplied by you in the form of routine fertilization. Container growing is much different from inground or even raised bed growing and needs to be approached differently from common inground gardening practices. I'd suggest you visit the Container Gardening forum for further direction and insights.

Thanks for the tips. I thought it was going to be a bigger chore, but it turned out not to be too bad. We had a warm week last week so I decided to try and tackle it early. At first it was tough to empty the bags until I realized the soil was still mostly frozen. Waited a few more days for the warm temps to do their thing and gave it another try, then it was pretty easy. Dumped 2-3 at a time into a trash can, broke it all up with a pitchfork, moistened with water, added some amendments, picked out the biggest chunks of stems/roots, and it looked like new. Still a lot of fine roots (they were tomato and pepper plants) but I assume those are OK. My mix was 4-4-1 peat-compost-perlite. Still reasonably fluffy once I got it all refreshed. The compost was good quality variety in bulk from a local landscape yard. Much cheaper that way. I don't have a truck, but I have an SUV that fits 32 gallon trash cans which is a great way to buy bulk if you don't have a truck. Fortunately no gophers around here. Rabbits though. But I do have the grow area fences off with rabbit fencing.

Re potting mixes: https://www.ourfigs.com/forum/figs-home/11847-successful-potting-mix-recipes Re best container to use: https://www.ourfigs.com/forum/figs-home/924-best-size-container I have my figs in 5 gallon buckets and in this mix: 5-1-1-1: 62.5% - 12.5% - 12.5% -12.5% (pine bark - peat - perlite - calcined clay). The buckets have 3/4 inch holes drilled on the sides near the bottom. I bury the buckets in about 9 inches of mulch and the roots come out of the holes into the mulch and into the ground. This lessens the amount of watering that I have to do because they get their water from the ground. In the fall, I use a spade to cut the roots and bring the trees into winter storage. You are more likely to find answers to your fig questions on ourfigs.com than on this forum.