A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2004 Re-potting for winter

Have some nice houseplants outdoors which will need to be repotted before taking inside during cold weather. I'm cheap and inclined to recycle soil plus nutrients from houseplant containers into diggings for new outdoor planting.
Do I risk spreading unknown disease/pests by so doing? Is there a recommended sterilization procedure?
Cheap but happy.

Smart boy!

I don't really know what the safe method is so don't go by what I say. But, psssssssst! Lemme' tell ya' what I'd be inclined to do - that is, if I insisted on getting them potted without buying new soil . . .

Sift the soil as much as possible - then spread it on flat pans and bake it in the oven to sterilize it.

I've heard of that - it smells awful, they say, but I guess you could always set an open pack of baking soda in the oven afterwards.

Now don't go doin'it - wait till the others tell you what to do. Maybe I'm right - but then again, maybe I'm wrong.

I'm with ya' all the way. Save money and product wherever possible.

Some plants do well with a few stones in it and some plants don't require much room for a root . . . so you put loose stones in pots before you add your (pre-treated) soil. Wash the stones first so you're not spreading bugs.

Then spray the foliage with a very light solution of detergent (baby shampoo maybe).

:-0

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Wow, Carly...You did great ! All I want to add is Bake the soil at 350 for at least 1 hour.

Karen

Oh, well - surprised myself. I guess I read about it somewhere and it stayed in my mind. I've never tried doing it though.

Hey Carley & Karen:
Thanks so much for you encouraging advice.
Am gonna follow your regimin and hope for the best. Will let you how it pans out.
Cheepie from Huntington

Huntington,
Carly wrote this;
I heard from the Paul James "The Gardener Guy" on HGTV, he said he had same thing and it stunk up his oven and kitchen really bad and his wife was really mad at him, but then he said, if you do want to still do this method, do it in your outdoor grill, it's easier to get the smell out of that place than it is the oven/kitchen....

For my own personal soil, I dump all of my old pots of soil into my compost....
then when I get the compost rendered down, it's filled more with good dirt and compost and I don't feel like I'm wasting it...

We have a couple of stores here, that sell some bags really cheap (*when they are getting rid of seasonal items, and I'll pick up some bags and stock pile them) for doing up some hanging pots with half compost in them!!!

Weezie