Throw away my Organic soil or reuse it? <contaminated>

We are talking about indoor growing not outdoor. I am switching to 100% organic growing using "Teaming with Microbes" technology and I decided that won't use any chemical salts not even pH up/down anymore. I think I should throw out all my old soils and start fresh cooking up some real organic soil for this coming fall.

On my journey to growing organically I took a couple wrong turns. First of all at first I used non organic soil until they were in 3 gallon planters then I switched to Roots Organic so there is already 1/3rd non organic soil in it. But even after switching to organic soils I was using Botanicare Cal Mag Plus, Pure Blend Pro and a couple had a test feeding of molasses. I also used a ph up/down, CaMg+, Humboldt Ginormous, maybe other stuff, hygrozyme at times. This was all > mid flower.

P.S. The plants that grew in this soil had no disease and actually I had an amazing yield. Is there something I can put on the soil to eat up the chem salts?

Just reuse/reamend the soil as organic and the remnants of the chem salts will leach out on their own and in pretty short order. VOE

Wet

Thanks wetdog, I will let this soil cook with new amendments and use it in a couple more runs.

I agree with wetdog. I put most of my chemical soil and rootballs in my compost pile and let the worms and other microorganisms handle it. I put two in the rootball bin I created to recycle and let it breakdown naturally. By the time I reuse it, it should be nice and healthy thanks to time and a few worms.

MeJuana said:

Is there something I can put on the soil to eat up the chem salts?

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Actually, as far as I understand it, microorganisms themselves are the key to sanitizing mistreated soil, and when brought to good levels of diversity can neutralize all kinds of past sins - with some patience, even pesticide and fungicide applications that decimate the good guys we're trying to grow (Elaine Ingham does this in agriculture with her Soilfood Web consultancy) - all the way to binding heavy metals. So promoting their establishment and growth will pretty much take care of everything else.
Think good aerated compost tea for example, I'm a total fan at the moment as I have been seeing how it improves my reamended soil

I think the main thing we need to change is not necessarily our growing medium but more our mindset - away from a throw-away mentality (where does Mother Nature dump ruined soils and start over?) on the one hand and a scarcity mindset on the other, quick-fixes (remediating symptoms instead of looking at the big picture to find the real cause), the idea we need to be in control and to kill our enemies....
And it's quite a journey to kick those thought habits, they keep interfering when you least expect - haha!
So it's great we can help each other out of them on here!

I would just add some very basic soil to it like Fertilome or a Promix. This will help dilute anything leftover.

The microorganisms in Bat Guano are know for ridding soil of chemical salts. It's perfect for top dressings or water applications.

I would relax, puff one, puff another, then add some live worms, and see what they do..if they run for the hills then I'd chuck the soil outside and grow berries or peppers or corn

If they like it, I'd think you're good to go, bud, just switch to water only with nature-type fixes, like coconut and aloe, and rabbit poop or castings, and basic teas..
Aka just castings and unsulphured molasses

I like to rock half strength teas for most my sativas
And full strength teas for cola dominant strains.
(Referring to Tim aka Microbe Man and his researched recipe on his website, do remembahh)

Your soil should get better over time tho. You could also up the aeration to 40-45% to help speed the leaching.. Then cut it back down to 33-35 or 40 or whatever you prefer after you're happy..
Tink of it like a weigh in for for UFC except for plants .. You can always cut aeration up or down at your will

Yes it's fine to use I am still using my FFOF soil that I used to dump nutes on; just hydrate it well and add some living organic material like compost and worm castings. Amend with a high N fertilizer it your choice and some minerals and let it set for a month.. Ez breezy

I leave my used indoor soil/coir mix outside during winter. Stored in large fabric pots. It gets well rinsed and is ready for a new set of amendments come spring. I'm basically friggin' cheap. I have another friend who grows in straight coir and uses chem fertilizers. Same program, store outside in winter and seems to get very well flushed. It may not be OMRI certified organic, but I only use organic tea and soil amendments, so it is close enough for me. I also give it a final rinse with a Yucca solution.

I have been learning from @greasemonkeymann and I am pretty sure that he would say to compost it with grass clippings. I was asking him about "brown" input and he said to just use old soil and mix it with grass to compost. The soil takes place of the "brown" needed for compost. Here is my compost pile, its recycled soil on the bottom and I have been adding grass clippings and leaves. Oh, I have 3 rabbits and I feed them alfalfa hay and there is usually a lot of hay left.

If you compost everything, there is no need to add worm castings later because you entire soil is compost. You can ammend your compost also.

Edit: I meant to talk about the fungi that my rabbit bedding brings. I have been shoveling it into a 50gal barrel and letting it sit before I compost it and it is usually full of mushrooms!

MustangStudFarm said:

I have been learning from @greasemonkeymann and I am pretty sure that he would say to compost it with grass clippings. I was asking him about "brown" input and he said to just use old soil and mix it with grass to compost. The soil takes place of the "brown" needed for compost. Here is my compost pile, its recycled soil on the bottom and I have been adding grass clippings and leaves. Oh, I have 3 rabbits and I feed them alfalfa hay and there is usually a lot of hay left.

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well you guys know me, I compost everything, but the soil does "sorta" work like a carbon, peat, coco, all those soil bases are essentially "carbons", but it's not ideal if you were doing a lot of green inputs but it does allow the pile enough oxygen and space to keep it from getting anaerobic.
but you do still need some sort of traditional carbon, and in your case that's where the leaves come in, in my experience old soil works rather well as a "filler" so to speak, to make the pile the needed size for composting to take place.

MustangStudFarm said:

I have been learning from @greasemonkeymann and I am pretty sure that he would say to compost it with grass clippings. I was asking him about "brown" input and he said to just use old soil and mix it with grass to compost. The soil takes place of the "brown" needed for compost. Here is my compost pile, its recycled soil on the bottom and I have been adding grass clippings and leaves. Oh, I have 3 rabbits and I feed them alfalfa hay and there is usually a lot of hay left.

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Old soil as a brown input? I never thought about that, that's not a bad idea!

@greasemonkeymann I collect coffee grounds from my wife's work (I get like eight gallons of coffee grounds a week). You think composting coffee grounds (as my nitrogen input) with old soil as my brown input would work?

MustangStudFarm said:

If you compost everything, there is no need to add worm castings later because you entire soil is compost. You can ammend your compost also.

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the other thing too, is when it comes down to it, a good compost is damn near castings anyways, at least mine is, I have thousands of worms in my pile, and i'd be silly to think they weren't doing their stuff.
BUT that being said, I do still love my thick mushy fruit based worm castings.
I just use more compost than castings in my soil mix, probably a 2/1 ratio or maybe even a 3/1.

Rasta Roy said:

Old soil as a brown input? I never thought about that, that's not a bad idea!

@greasemonkeymann I collect coffee grounds from my wife's work (I get like eight gallons of coffee grounds a week). You think composting coffee grounds (as my nitrogen input) with old soil as my brown input would work?

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yea i'd say so, can't say I've done that personaly but I bet it'd work, I know coffee grinds n compost piles or wormbins do great.
if your mix has a bunch of peat or coco in it, I don't see why it wouldn't work.
after all, everybodys mix is peat or coco.
just remember to go at a 5/1 ratio or so
soil to grinds
and since it's something that not a lot of people do, i'd recommend getting a "test plant" to use that finished soil on, just in case. But I really think it'll work fine.

greasemonkeymann said:

yea i'd say so, can't say I've done that personaly but I bet it'd work, I know coffee grinds n compost piles or wormbins do great.
if your mix has a bunch of peat or coco in it, I don't see why it wouldn't work.
after all, everybodys mix is peat or coco.
just remember to go at a 5/1 ratio or so
soil to grinds
and since it's something that not a lot of people do, i'd recommend getting a "test plant" to use that finished soil on, just in case. But I really think it'll work fine.

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Definitely lots of peat in my leftovers! Im scared to put the coffee grounds after seeing how hot they made my compost bin! And I've got plenty pulp, scraps from my juicer, and rabbit manure for my worm bin. Ive already got way more food stored then they can eat in a few weeks!

Rasta Roy said:

Old soil as a brown input? I never thought about that, that's not a bad idea!

@greasemonkeymann I collect coffee grounds from my wife's work (I get like eight gallons of coffee grounds a week). You think composting coffee grounds (as my nitrogen input) with old soil as my brown input would work?

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Does Starbucks still give away their old coffee grounds?

Rasta Roy said:

Im scared to put the coffee grounds after seeing how hot they made my compost bin!

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I learned something from this little article just now also, letter G... I turned my compost a little and found this white layer and I thought it was good because it looked like mycelium? I think that I was wrong... Also, I am getting a bad smell. My rabbit bedding smells like a "port-a-john". I didnt smell it until I started to turn it.

http://www.soilfoodweb.com/Thermal_Compost.html
5. Temperature
a. How often the temperature of the pile is taken is based on how fast the pile is heating.
b. In compost that takes 6 to 8 weeks or longer, temperatures are typically taken each morning during the time the pile is above
131 F.
c. Always push the 3 or 4 foot long STAINLESS STEEL thermometer to the same depth each time to more accurately measure
what is going on in the pile. If you very depth of your readings, the differences in temperatures may just be because you are
deeper into the pile, and therefore hotter, or not as far into the pile, and therefore cooler.
d. Always take at least three readings from each pile each time you measure temperature to understand hot/cold spots.
e. The pile needs to get to above 131 F (55 C) within 3 to 7 days from starting. The pile must maintain temperature above 131 F
for a full 10-15 days.
f. Turn the pile when it starts to reach 160-165 F as the organisms are growing so fast that they are using up all the oxygen in
the pile.
g, Turn the pile if a layer of white ashy actinobacteria begin to develop.
h. Turn the pile if there are wet and cold spots, or wet and dry spots. The pile needs to be reasonably uniform at the same
depths in the pile.
i. Turn the pile if there are any bad smells noted.


I thought that this might have been mycelium, but after reading this. I think that I am wrong!!!

MustangStudFarm said:

Does Starbucks still give away their old coffee grounds?

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Not sure! My better half works at a French/New Orleans inspired place.