Reusing soil mix

Somebody mentioned reusing the mix after repotting. I guess that would be that the akadama has deteriorated past the point of usefulness, so take it out of the lava rock/pumice mixture, then replace the akadama with fresh (or, maybe, something else). I would guess that I would sift the old stuff, let the old akadama fall through, and keep the other stuff, which should be just lava rock and pumice. Is that right?

Yes.

Some people "bake" the old soil inside a plastic bag under full sun to sterilize it before sifting and reusing it.

"Full sun" - yes, we have some of that here.

This means get enough components to handle the coming year, and then recycle next year's old stuff to the following year. A summer in the Alabama sun will definitely sterilize it.

Clicio wrote: Some people "bake" the old soil inside a plastic bag under full sun to sterilize it before sifting and reusing it.

Some 75 liters drying at 40C air temperature..

What is that fabric?? I dont get it. I know drying on top of black fabric is really efficient. But under? Doesnt it heat up soil bound water and moist it?

Br
Magnus

how long do you leave it in there? That's just a garbage bag, right?

tubaboy wrote: how long do you leave it in there? That's just a garbage bag, right?

I have 100m of pond liner; someone was tossing a few rolls away some years back. I use this to dry my substrate on. Then, once dry, I put the substrate on one half and fold it over. I left this in full sun till sundown.After an hour the substrate was too hot to comfortably hold my hand in. I would say this is about 1.2 * 3 metres area.. A little bigger than a garbage bag (Unless you produce A LOT of garbage)

Substrate when just drying

leatherback wrote:

tubaboy wrote: how long do you leave it in there? That's just a garbage bag, right?

I have 100m of pond liner; someone was tossing a few rolls away some years back. I use this to dry my substrate on. Then, once dry, I put the substrate on one half and fold it over. I left this in full sun till sundown.After an hour the substrate was too hot to comfortably hold my hand in. I would say this is about 1.2 * 3 metres area.. A little bigger than a garbage bag (Unless you produce A LOT of garbage)

That makes totally sence to me. Thanks for the clarification.

Br
Magnus