3 ways I’ve cleaned nasties from my seed starting mix 

Hmmm, this brings a couple of questions to mind: When using the BAKE method, what spices do you prefer to cook with? When using the Kettle Method, are you more of a Green Tea, or Oolong? So far, I skip the microwave method. mostly, mine is too small, to make it effective. It would take an awful lot of time to Zap all the starter I need. Frankly, I love BOTH methods and now use the Kettle Method, almost always.

Great info for pest-free mixes. Another option is to open your greenhouse door when the temperature falls to -25C and freeze everything... oh wait, that's for my greenhouse. 😄

The nuking method is brilliant!!! Thank you.

What lovely potting benches. Thank you for sharing how to reuse potting soil

Eli I have moved on from neutral seed starting mix to Fox Farms soil. The Happy Frog and Oceans Forest blends have been fantastic and my results are much better. They sell it over there in your piece of the world so give it a shot and show us your results.

Ive only recently come across your channel, its great, down to earth, explanatory and fun swell, subscribed, love your stuff.

Brilliant that really helps. Thank you for the tips! 😊

I use the boiling water method too. It takes care of both moisture and nasties. Thursday we got 40 cm of snow in two hours. And it's still coming down. Now we have milder temps coming, so it will all quadruple in weight. Then it will freeze and everything will get super hard, slippery, AND full of deep tracks. My legs will go bye-bye.

thank you love the microwave idea!

IT’S TRECHEROUS OUTSIDE-STAY OUT OF THE WATER!! 😂😂 Your weather report reminds me of an old (8 yrs) RU-vid vid in Ireland where the weather report lady went viral. 😅 Look it up for a laugh. Question: You used the grill last year and got rid of it this year-Why? I thought that method was great! I Never had bugs until last year I used an open bag of soil-never again! Gnats and aphids! Tried everything and nothing worked until I took them outside to start hardening them off and sprayed with horticultural oil-that did it. I’m surprised Kate let you use the microwave for soil😅.

Do you know if the plastic bags are transferring micro plastics to the soil?

Would you recommend sterilisation for newly open compost/soil?

I've been told so many times not to sterilise my potting mixes because it kills good microorganisms as well as bad... I honestly am not sure which is best.

The microwave method seems easier 😊

Microwaving soil is very slow and appears like a ridiculous task. I prefer the boiling water method because I can make larger batches. I remedy the overly wet mix issue by waiting until after the soil is sterilized to add vermiculite to the mix. This produces a perfectly moist and fluffy seed starting mix every time.

If you want to steralise compost then the microwave would certainly do the Job Eli. Good video

I’m usually a microwave-r as well for smaller batches but this year I tried something new. I don’t usually go the boiling water method because I don’t find I can add enough water for it to be effective (without making soup). This year I embraced the soup. Big old tub, half a bag of compost and 18l of boiling water. It was hot for hours. Then I added a big coir brick which generally is pretty sterile and that soaked up all the water. Came out pretty good. I’ve got about 100l in one hit. Time will tell if it’s worked though

Hi Eli & Kate, lovely shelving & you deserve a treat too. Great tips on how to sterilise your compost. Thanks for sharing and take care 😊

I'm always too lazy/impatient to sterilize the compost in the microwave etc.., what I usually do is every week or two just give a good drenching in the pots with the neem oil mixture. That seems to help :)

I'm watching this as I start to prep for spring bulbs, I've only got a few pots which I'll plant bulbs and direct seeds too later in summer, thanks for the tips!

🐝 Thanks for the great video 🌻

So i can't reuse the bags and heres me thinking of making a nice mud pie 🤣

Could I use a giant glass mixing bowl? It's big enough that it takes up the whole microwave. I'm thinking that I won't fill it up but about halfway and I'll make a big well in the middle. Especially if I can put some water in it and make it about the same thickness all around. Just think of a nice beautiful Oreo pie crust. I'm a baker so I know I can do it up, I'm just wondering is it okay? Will it hurt me to put food in the microwave after? I'm expecting that everything would be completely safe but I wanted your thoughts!

There's peat land a few miles from my house. Years ago, I harvested some to mix with my compost for sowing my seeds. My windowsill in the conservatory was line with pots and trays. A few days later, the conservatory was full of Midges, and my wife threw the lot out. I was read the riot act.

Can you please talk about the onions in the background? (in the greenhouse). U don't grow them from seeds? Peace ✌🏻

Ah that will be why I have little flies in the kitchen. I've recently re-potted the herbs in store bought compost! Maybe I should re-pot with sterilised compost.. Definitely will do this for toms and peppers for starting in the house. No more wee beasties, I will not be popular with the spiders now!

Love the humour on this, made me chuckle, very entertaining as well as informative. I was just recycling some old soil this week using the kettle method, I had just seen your vid and so I was wondering the whole time how you did it in the microwave.

Thankyou for posting this. Its the video I didn't know I needed!!! 🌻

Will be trying the microwave tip. Thanks for the details on how long to “cook” it.

Isn't it a bit ironic that you're trying to kill off everything in the compost when others rave about preserving microscopic soil life?

Never done that Eli but found your video interesting. I'm hoping the freezing temperatures have killed off the beasies at the allotment 🤔🤞 Lovely potting benches 😍 Happy gardening 🍀🥀🌻🌷🌱 ❤️

Was a wee bit worried about using my microwave 😮 but was just fed up living with knats in the house with my early sowings !! Have given it a try ! Fold over the bags don’t seal them …otherwise they pop with the heat in the microwave😮 !!! What a fright !! But all good .. have learned 😅. So let’s see 🤞 ….. no knats !!😊

There is a fourth way, for those who have a wall paper steamer sitting doing nothing in the shed, it wouldn't take much to knock something together, say a couple of containers, and do bigger batches. Keep the videos coming.

I've used boiling water to sterilise seed raising mix. Also the heating/baking method. I don't sterilise potting mix as I want as much soil biology as possible in there - for the outdoors of course, not indoors. Nice info. Cheers!

my favourite sterelising method used to be an upturned bin lid on an incinerater when i had my allotment..........................brian

I microwave mine too.

I've been sterilizing my soil in the bbq for a few years. Some say to only pasteurize and DO NOT sterilize. I don't see the value of that because I can add fresh compost to repopulate the soil with beneficial micro organisms. Thanks for a good idea with the microwave.

😂. My family all left for work so it’s time to bring the small bag of potting soil into the kitchen to bake before planting up house plants to give away tomorrow before I’m living in a jungle. 😂The warm dirt smell will be gone before they’re home because I’m off work today and plan to bake cookies. 😊

You'd think us Scots would have a special word for "haily snow"! Maybe even "windy haily snow" 😂

Is that on a high setting in microwave Eli? And is this just your seed starting mix or do you do it with your potting compost too? Ive huge tubs i used for my potatoes, wondering if i should reuse the same compost, but nuke it first then top up with fresh compost? Or, do i just dump the lot in my garden beds and use fresh for my tatties? Theyre in 50gallon tubs, and ive got 5 of em... oh and i had near 2ft of Snow all week, split sunshine today and its all gone so, i got rest of my garlic planted ( ill with covid in Nov so garlic in very late )

Very interesting. Is this being done with your new store bought seed starting soil mixes, or compost out of your gardens? Do you think having the bags of soil out in the cold (-20s C ) for a week or so would have the same affect? It would be easier for me, and I’ve got weeks of fridges weather still to come. Thanks for letting me know. ❤

Definitely prefer the microwave method, will have to do it when my husband is out at rugby match though.😂

Mmmm, I've never sterilised my compost but I remember watching Ronald do his and wondering if I should 🤔 Now I'm watching you and wondering if I should 😂 You said you had bad seedling success last year, did you not sterilise your compost last year? Love the microwave method. Thanks for the info. Take care 😊

I knew a grower who used an oven that could fit a chair in to sterilize his soil. Obviously he needed something that size for 4 greenhouses with cuttings and seed. On a hot sunny day, a black container should get hot enough to get rid of most of the "nasties" and doesn't need power. I will be doing something like this to get those slug eggs toasted.

Usually use the oven ,but don't often have the time. Never thought about the microwave. Thanks for the tip.

Great video Eli, good to see 3 ways it can be done. The microwave one looks like the easiest. Does it have to be for 4 minutes?

Thank you , Eli . I did not know the microwave method . Yes, I too was intrigued on the last video . I use the boiling water , but will be changing to Micro now. 👍

I prefer the microwave as well. I just find it more convenient and I don't like wet compost either lol

I love the Micro wave idea and if I had a microwave I'd be cooking all I tonne of compost😂.

What great tips, I’m not sure if I’m too lazy to do it though. I tend to not be that organised (wish I was though). Your channel has been so helpful to me since I found it a couple of weeks ago. It’s super helpful because I live near Stirling so your weather/conditions are identical to mine . Thanks again 😊

Thanks for the tips. How wet is the soil when you microwave it. Does it have to be quite moist?

My plastic greenhouse has blown off the poles and the plastic ripped, and half my pots have rolled over!!! Thanks storm Isha😫😫

Let’s try this again! On Thursday this week you have been showing a Live video coming up. I want to join you, but I am time zone challenged. What time are you sitting down in your world to go Live? I ‘should’ be able to figure out what time to sit down in my world then! And yes I have to sterilize seedling mix as well this week, but I am painting the living room!!🙆🏼‍♀️

Great video as always ... can I ask please .... should you always make fresh potting mix or can you just sterilise old potting mix ? 😊😊

I’m having a big week of learning. First it was needing to brew tea to sow chillies and now it’s a microwave for potting mixes. Here was me thinking I only need to turn on my domestic goddess persona after harvesting. Soooo much to learn. Great video. Thank you. Love the new staging. It’s not expensive either! 😊❤

OK I have sat an watched this video 3 times what what what was the answer to eye spy 😮😂😅

I always did the boiling water thing but you have me thinking now. I have a big stand up smoker with 5 shelves that are almost 24 inches wide and 12 inches deep. It would hold a big amount of soil at once. I wonder if a little smoke would be harmful to seedlings? Gonna have to look into this.

Love the idea, but confused…..are you using your own compost or bought compost

Thank you Eli for your tips sterilising the compost. Just a little Q, the compost you are sterilising, has it already perlite in it and what kind of compost are you using?

Thanks for the tip.

Thank you Eli Hope you are both well and snug. A bit behind with my seed planting this year, so great tip I’ll be using. Thank you again

Hi Eli. 😱Can I ask two questions please? Do you put holes in the plastic bag before microwaving? I have read using hydrogen peroxide sterilizes the compost and wondering what you think of that method? Thanks. I find srerilizing compost super scary.😱