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Regarding sterile potting soil

17 years ago

I have about two cubic yards of potting soil that came from old pots with cuttings that didn't make it through my over watering regiment. I lost about 6 or 7 hundred primo cuttings because I let the 1 gallon pots get watered regularly. I now know that just barely damp soil is all that is needed to root cuttings. Anyway. I want to reuse the soil that has been mixed with a variety of other soil mixes and various dead plants. I thought that maybe I would spread out the soil thinly over a large black tarp that is laying directly in our dry, 95 to 100 degree northern California weather for about a week. I fiqure that the heat should cook that soil good and kill any nematodes or unwanted soil pests, although I have never seen evidence of any soil pests as of yet. Any thoughts on this? PS Even though I lost several hundred cuttings, I still got about 500 plants started out of my original batch. I quess some cuttings can take it and some can't. DON'T OVERWATER!!!!!! Figfarmer out.

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Comments (2)

pitangadiego
17 years ago
Yes, excess moisture it the death of fig cuttings!!!!
About the potting soil: use fresh soil for rooting and potting in 1 gallon pots. After that, when you move them up to larger pots, reuse the old soil, and there won't be any problems. By the time they are outgrowing a one gallon pot (with roots coming out the drain holes), they have enough roots that they are impervious to most anything. And you won't have to spend any time trying to sterilize it.
figfarmer
Original Author
17 years ago
Thanks for the reply Pit. When I didn't know any better (last ywo years), I potted rooted cuttings in soil dug up in my yard. It is mostly forest type topsoil, since I live in the mountains and have large pine trees in my yard. All my plants look very healthy but I now start all new cuttings
in store bought topsoil. I'm having 5 yards of premium topsoil shipped up from a Sacramento wholesale nursery. Supposedly, it is top quality. I will be potting many hundreds of 1 gallons into 5 gallons this fall. FF
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