How To Re-Use Old Potting Soil - 4 Methods for Recycling || Black Gumbo

From the North of England. I am 85 , my grandmother was born in 1884 and we always used the same method and used the soil over and over . A hand full of bone meal and a hand full of fish, blood and bone , and you are set for another year ! Cheap and it works !

Ernie died in the 80's, and had a compost pile, and I heard he had pride in his compost. I decided to throw it in the garden about the year 2000, and plant tomatoes. I got multiple grocery bags of tomatoes, and was drowning in tomatoes, in my first garden. It was actually too easy. I think it warped my thinking, that you could plant, and things grow. (lol). I also took his 20 year old seeds, and threw them out in the garden I was not using. Things grew out of control.

I am an adult home gardener but had difficulty finding a true meaning of “weed”. A weed is ANY plant that you don’t want to grow in your garden. 😊Thanks

Just amazing! 1.9 million views. Just proves that people need to know how to do stuff. I plan to do more videos like this next year. God bless!

I dumped all of my old soil from pots into a raised bed, added coco coir, dried mint leaves, some organic tomato fertilizer and azomite. Why mint? Because it smelled good 😊and I was hoping it will keep bugs away. Tomatoes grew to over 8 feet tall and had unbelievable harvest from 7 plants enough to fill a small chest freezer and more to give away.

This may be the best 20 minutes I've spent learning about growing healthy plants, and the science behind it. He's thorough, very well spoken, and presents easily understood, very useful information. The video is great, and shows all the details very clearly. Sharing this with friends. Much appreciated!

This is the first of your videos I've watched. I wanted to thank you for the high-quality information.

I had a very serious tomato nematode issue last year from re-using expensive potting mix. This year I have been placing my old mix-filled grow bags into 5 gallon buckets with a few small drainage holes in the bottom. Then I pour about 2 gallons of boiling water on top of it all to kill out soil virus and critters. It all stays very hot for some time. Then I pour it all onto a large, heavy duty plastic sheet in the garage and let it dry our a few days. It no doubt washes out some remaining nutrients thus I re-fertilize before planting. So far so good. I have harvested over one-hundred tomatoes plus Kale, Arugula, Basil and green onions out of my spare bedroom this winter so far...more coming! I use cheap LED grow lights over the 2x8 foot grow area and surround the whole thing with cheap reflective "space blankets."

Okay, this entire video is gold. I have struggled so much understanding the micro-happenings of soil because it’s always taught so objectively! I FINALLY am getting it!! You are a fantastic teacher, thank you for doing as soil life does to compost: breaking it down! Adhd/Autistic people like me have accessibility to this important science when educators take time like you do!

Human bodies need all these minerals as well! Our soil is SO DEPLETED! Can't get it from commercial food. Thank you for sharing!

An absolute benchmark of how to make a great YouTube video. Thank you.

I see this video is 2 yrs old and you wanted 100,000 subscribers now you have 2.4 million that’s great 😂 I really learn alot from you thanks for the info.

Very good1. I'm a lifelong container gardener & this info is just what I need in my small patio garden.

I know a couple who rake up their leaves and place them in a black plastic bag. Placed against the house in the sun. After the winter, they then dump into their raised beds and place their starts directly into the leaf mold. No soil. Their plants grow fantastic. 😮

I put my kitchen scraps in food processor and mix in used potting soil. By next spring it is great. And I put in the shells of the sunflower seeds I feed the squirrels for aeration.

Perfect! No more arguing with the wife about using last year's potting soil mixed in with fresh bag soil. Thank you, sir.

Last year, I acquired a new, very large, and very deep raised bed. It was going to cost me a small fortune to fill it. But then I had a stroke of genius. My mom had numerous pots she wanted dumped out into the blackberry brambles. Instead, I dumped them into the new bed. I added kitchen scraps all winter long. When the time came to plant potatoes, I simply added 3 inches of soil to the top and planted them. I then filled the rest of the bed with straw (Ruth Stout Method) and watered everything down. I didn't spend a fortune filling the bed with soil, and the extra height of the walls keeps the straw in place over the potato plants. That bed is THRIVING! Our compost bins are always growing potatoes, so I figured they would probably do ok with a compost "bin" for a foundation layer. It appears that I was correct. At least so far.

Over 2M views and only a little over 190,000 subscribers?? Come on people. Give his channel some love and subscribe!!

I love that you reinforce what I've learned and also reminding me of something. lol.

Really excited to reuse old potting soil!. Thanks, Scott.