How to revitalize and re-use potting soil 

I have been wondering if I am the only one who recycle garden soil. So glad to find this video. Thank you for sharing.

Hi Jeff Great information - the only thing I do differently when revitalizing soil from containers is to empty out the used soil from several containers into a wheelbarrow and add all the extra nutrients as well as coir and mix thoroughly before placing back into our containers. We just find it easier to do it that way. We also use your method to replenish the raised garden beds. All your videos are fabulous and very informative and I find them a great help for someone who only started a vegie patch 3 years ago after a year long illness. Before that we had only grown the odd tomato plant but we now grow dozens of different vegetables with reasonable success. We are very nearly self-sufficient as far as vegies and herbs are concerned and I make all manner of things from pickled cucumbers to chutney and passata. What we can't eat fresh we give away to friends and family but I also freeze, dehydrate and can a lot of our produce which lasts us all year. We now have 5 small raised garden beds and many containers or grow bags on our modest patch of suburbia as well as 250 strawberry plants from which we harvested a total of 35 kilos of strawberries last year. We also have 4 compost barrels and 2 worm farms from which we replenish the existing soil. We have never eaten so well and friends and family are loving the produce and home-made goodies. Many thanks for helping us to make life easier in the vegie patch and increasing our productivity. Kind regards Annette (from Oz)

Hi Jeff I normally put all my compost from pots into my compost bin and mix it in. I then add nutrients after sifting 👍

Hey Jeff, If you ever get too many food scraps for your worms (Especially banana peels), put the banana peels and other fruits or veggie peels in a high speed blender and make a smoothie. Add that to your potting mix. In a couple of days it will be so broken down, you won't even know you added it. Great nutrition for your plants, and the worms in your pots will get HUGE.

This was very helpful. Reusing potting soil for first time

I usually just add new on the top because like you say the soil drops. My container plants grow like mad without changing all of it every year. Thanks for the video.

I can never see wasting used potting mix. What works for me is that I start off with a good(slightly expensive) potting mix, add additional perlite and plant in mostly three gallon pots. After I harvest the plants I allow the pots to dry out for a week or two. This not only allows some insects to leave or die off but makes the pots much lighter to deal with. Next I dump the pots out in my tractor loader(beats working on the ground if you're a senior), remove all the root masses and sometimes they fill the majority of the pot. Now I mix in a half a bag of fresh potting mix, add more perlite, add an all natural fertilizer(contains bat guano and worm casings. Mix it up and return it to cleaned pots. I've done this for four or five times now and the plants in the last batch look as good as the first batch. I will suggest that you use a good quality potting mix if you plan to reuse the mix multiple times. Adding more perlite just makes the soil lighter and looser. I also make a spray of neem oil, soap, water to spray for insects but I add a little miracle grow to the spray so I'm feeding the plants every time I'm spraying bugs.

Jeff, thanks for confirming I am doing it right because I just can't afford either to buy new soil. I love my earth worms..I find fat ones, I just remove from my pots and put in the ground so I don't put a spade thru them. You can really tell by looking what thrash needs to go from the old soil.. I have been into plants, succulents and cacti forever. I would rather be in the garden then anywhere else on earth. God bless.

Sir I enjoyed your video. I live out in the middle of nowhere in the woods so I Do by potting soil to help using my regular dirt that I get out of the woods. And I leave worms that I scooped up with them, and by the way you mentioned organic worms? What other kind are there? But I have my own mix I guess but I do reuse all my potting soil I just read mix it with other stuff like I say from out of the garden and Out of the Woods and they grow vegetables flowers and everything really well. Good to see you and you showing people how to redo it.

Thanks for the video. In my situation, I do not use bought compost..I make my own, and when I change my compost in my pots every year. I put all the old compost out the pots in the hot compost bin, where heat will sort that out, and use fresh sieved compost to fill the pots again.For a boost I add some sieved leaf mould, and just a little well ROTTED black coloured horse manure. If you have only a balcony or hardly any garden space then obviously that is another ball game. Unrelated ...for a mulch on my pots, I chop up finely some banana peel and add a bit of cinnamon to it, and smells great. To keep out the unwanted slugs etc, I put a smear of grease around the pot and sprinkle very hot powder on it e.g. chilli. It works great.

I revitalize by emptying my pots into my garden cart then adding my fresh amendments. That makes it easier to mix eveything thoroughly and aerates the soil before refilling the pots.

My recommendation for reclaiming my dirt is putting all your container dirt into a bin, mix in your amendments, then refill your pot. Much easier.

I like the burpee and true living potting mix.

Thanks, had some issues with my plants this year due to the soil. Not sure what the problem was but I had a lot of dead leafs and other crap fro wrong. Will dispose and start fresh. Thanks to you brotha.

Thank you sir! This was very insightful for me, a new gardener. :)

After I'm done with my potting soil I like to put it in a bigger container keep it inside my shed during the winter time during that time I will still give it water eggshells coffee grinds and banana peels and I let it mix all together my plants love it the next spring they grow really strong and Hardy and they continue doing it do out the growing season

Leave the roots. They slowly brake down and provide nutrients they took from the soil.

I like to get a good hot compost pile going. Take all of my old pots of soil and mix it in. Wait a couple of weeks and refill the pots. Good for another year.

Thanks for sharing. It's important to distinguish between potting mix and soil. I'm a container gardener w Earthbox. They have a great online forum. Some of their members grow commercially. I have 20+ Earthboxes. Though I started I 2011, they are still like new! I know of some 20 years and still going strong. Good quality potting mix can last about 7 years. If it gets contaminated, it can be easily solarized.

I fill sevaral buckets of garden dirt manure mix and put it in the shed for winter/spring use. My wife , who's filthy rich buys dirt from the garden store and fertilizer to ammend it. I have cattle and am not wealthy so I use real manure. Her spent potting soil I use to spread on the lawn were needed until she had the brilliant idea of putting it on her garden.

great video from over the pond in the uk

I dump my containers into a separate large storage bin after mixing and slightly hydrating. Then wash your pots and sanitize them Before reuse. With a potting table nearby. I mist with a fish fertilizer, blood meal, castings, bone meal, manure/compost mix. Less time than amending individual pots.

Thank you, I started 12 5 gal containers this year. The soil and everything I added was expensive.

I don’t think worms are pests. They are the ones that help with the compost process. When I find them I throw them in the pile.

Hey Jeff thanks for the vid, hope you and family safe from the storm

If I watch a video and learn one thing, I consider it a success. I'd never heard of putting Epsom Salts in the garden. I Googled it...provides magnesium for better nutrient uptake and chlorophyll formation. Well, that's new! Also interested in the MicroLife fertilizer you mentioned. BTW, my compost is TEEMING with worms. It's awesome! Thanks!

I love reusing soil! 👍🏼🌞

If you have a compost pile each year you can throw your old soil into it and mix it up. Buy new soil the next year and each year simply swap the soils in and out with your compost. I'm kinda lazy tho and typically re-use it like normal and add a little bit of slow release fertilizer to it but I like to mix up the soil in a bucket to try and remove all the roots and lighten the mix up.

Sylvester Stallone giving useful gardening tips. Thank you sir.

Most of what we grow, we grow in a mix of 80% compost and 20% leaf mold, and we rejuvenate with more compost and leaf mold. We amend at the beginning of Spring with rock dust. We also have a worm bin and make worm castings and worm tea and water with compost tea once every fortnight. We love coconut coir, but leaf mold is free, and my husband is really frugal with my money.

The depth of mix in your containers drops over time because potting mix is a primarily a mix of peat moss and compost. The peat moss breaks down slowly, but compost essentially "evaporates" as the carbon content of the compost is metabolized by the soil microbes into carbon dioxide. If you compare to some of the videos where people are using lots of wood chips, you will see references where several feet of wood chips break down to less than a few inches in a year or so.

Jeff Bernhard : I'm volunteering in a community garden growing food the neighborhood !!!! I have turned the sandy/silty soil in two of the five 30 feet by 50 feet raised beds, but , I have not seen any worms in the sandy/silty soil !!!! The vegetables and flowers are growing well !!!! Should I hunt for worms and add them to the raised beds ( which are about 3 feet in height ) !!!!???? I've been digging down about two feet, adding organic matter !!!! THANKS FOR TAKING TIME making THIS wonderful RU-vid video !!!!

I add my old soil to compost and have great results plus trimmings and leaves

I don't do much potting, but when it's old (dead), I'll just dump it into my compost, which in turn gets dumped and worked into my garden! (Everything in it is good for your regular gardening, too!)

I strongly recommend no till methods if you have decent potting soil to begin with. Just cut the plants off at soil level and add some manure, urine or fish meal, then mulch generously, making sure to add some fines under the coarser mulch. If you don’t have fine mulch, use compost or worm castings or any combination. If you continually feed the soil more than the plant took out, you never need to improve drainage or rotate crops (except for viruses and pests, some of those are caused by micronutrient deficiencies).

the reduction in potting mass from year to year is from the organic matter decomposing, not plant nutrient depletion.

My mom used to place the dirt in a aluminum pan and bake the soil. She never had an issue.

You should keep the roots in the pots so that they can break down and become nutrients for the new plant instead of just throwing them away

I never throw out potting mix! If it's diseased, I just put it in a pot with some water in the bottom, steam it for 20 min. I just set it over a fire let it cook for a bit! Just make sure not to let all the water evaporate or your potting mix will be ash soon!

Interesting. I tend to buy fresh compost each year as I don't grow much in pots, just for germination and propogation. Any used stuff gets thrown in the compost bin or straight in a bed. I think if I did rejuvenate the old compost, I would mix it all up in a barrow or on a tarp. It looked a bit fussy working within a pot. I would just like to point out that tomatoes and peppers are the same family (along with potatoes and aubergine/eggplant), so should absolutely not follow on in the same soil. It's an odd family, I keep finding more members: this year I discovered that goji berries and Cape gooseberries are solenatious, too. (I am allergic to solanine, so it is important for me to know!).

the VERY BEST WAY to revitalize container soil: each spring, just before planting time, buy a couple of those disposable aluminum roasting pans (turkey size) and fill them with the soil from the container. pop the roasting pan filled with the soil into your oven and COOK it at 200 degrees for about 30 minutes. this will kill all over-wintering insects, all molds and fungi, all weed seeds, and all the previous year's diseases and leave your soil smelling fresh and clean, ready to grow another year's harvest. no need to rotate crops when you do this. if you don't believe me, google it.

Instead of this recipe, I'd recommend Keep it Simple. If you have worms, then just dump all your old potting soil into your worm bin. Break up the old potting mix (It's probably compacted and has roots from the old plants) Mix the potting mix with the worm castings. Remove as much of the mix as needed and refill your container. You're done, and can start replanting. Although you can add perlite or vermiculite if you want, I generally don't and allow the castings and biome to hold as much water as they can but this is my preference which can be modified by those who want more drainage. No need for commercial fertilizers and pH concerns, the worm castings address both. BTW - If you intentionally include some worms in your new potting mix, you'll have to commit to maintaining a wet enough soil to support those worms, else you''ve just wasted some worms.

I just empty the pots into the compost pile and in the spring I dig out new compost to use as potting soil.

Great info!! Thank you!!!

Thank you so much for this information!!

I read the comments and got some good ideas. Two questions: Wouldn't a liquid feed replenish the soil anyway? And, do the worms overwinter in those containers?

mine was never used and is now dry. Will I get away with just mixing it with water? Obviously just adding water wont work. So I mix it. Will that be enough? Or should I add something to help revive the biology?

What is the best thing to do to get rid of the grabber in the soil.

You're supposed to compost the roots and worms are good they make the soil richer.

Light: On this one you could put your 5000k light to the left and slightly above the camera and have a nice fill effect. You'll need a cheap light stand for that. It will also put a sparkle in your eye like you see in movies :)

Earthworms aren't pests. So other kinds of worms are sneaking in? I have dozens of pots from last season. It was a very delicious productive season. It was also my first season of growing all my vegetables and buying none. But I'm guessing I could screen all that soil with quarter inch hardware cloth and put it all onto some tarp to mix in whatever I need to add? I need to plan how to do this...

hi i really like ur video about revitalizing but what about those bugs in some of my soil, are they good bugs, and how do i get rid of them naturally? thanks

Great video, Thank you for the info. will this system apply for any type of vegies? tomato, pepper and cucumber, eggplant etc..... Thank you

Worms love that hummus! ;)

Worms are what your Looking for in any soil

Can you use lime to refreshen and sweeten your soil? I never throw out potting soil unless it's at least 5 or more years older. I throw all of it in a tub/with lid and stir fertilizer, miracle grow and epsom salts in it, and stir it very well, so it can be re-used. I also have a garden spot, just about 10x10, that is rotten mulch. My veggies flourish in this. I mix some of that in with my potting soil. Its rich and dark. Espom salts is amazing for tomatoes.

Love this guys voice

Short and sweet. Thank you sir. Just what I was looking for.

thanks for the video . I have leftover perlite and peatmoss. can i save them for next year? or season right?

If i keep all my soil in the pots over winter until spring do i cover them etc

Love that pot, you can plant so much stuff in it.

Why don't you use a wheelbarrow and mix all the components thoroughly into it and then pour it into your pots?

Now how much did all those products costs, and why can't we just use compost from the past year that we have been saving up because of the video that you made for us to use for our gardens?

Hi,I really enjoy yr sharing of how to add nutrients into the existing old soil. I have a situation here about my soil. Hopefully,with your experiences I can get your advise. Question: My current soil doesn't seem to be able to grow anything,such as Basil, Chilli and Tomato. I don't know what is happening to my soil. Over the past 10months,I have been patiently seeding those seeds I mentioned. However, NONE OF THEM GERMINATE... WHAT IS WRONG ?

Where do u store containers in winter

Woow, I would suggest to reuse your potting soil with out adding all mention in the video. Just use organic fish fertilizer liquid every 10 or so days. You can even do a foliage spray or both.

I think instead of perlite can use small Tiny rocks/sticks/leaves/dried flower.. etc. As for compost.I usually just put my food waste into a bucket then fill with water cover with lid to prevent mosquito. Then voila...I'll have nice compost water then I just add to the soil. 0 cost.

He doesn't talk like Sylvester Stallone but he definitely is just as good looking!

Dude, the potting soil level drops in the container because of normal soil compaction from watering not reduction of nutrients.

What about if you just top it up with well rotted cow or horse manure and dig it in and mulch the surface after planting.

I have replaced perlite with Very generic clay kitty litter like jonny cat, works GREAT!

Thank you Jeff

Very informative but what is the ratio

Worms I add too , at first of video you called them pest? Lol realized you just mess up, ever try do nothing, let the pot alone, no turning no til, add stray compost, straw, casting, each fall. I'm running a big test this year on my permaculture pots, I want to keep my bacteria alive all year, let me know if you ever tried

when revitalizing used potting soil, I agree with everything you did except putting the worms in too. I would think the fertilizer would burn and kill the worms; so I would leave out one or the other.

when crop rotation is not possible for example i have had a few plants that I've had for 3 years plus, they keep producing and are awesome. i am an indoor grower and i have tomatoes and pepper plants that i keep indoors. what can i add to my soil to keep it healthy for my plants?

I am sure others have commented on this. Worms are NOT pests, as you stated. You should be thankful there are worms in your pot. And "Executive Gardener"? You've been in the corporate world TOO long my friend!

I know I'm not the first person to say this, but has anyone ever told you that you look A-LOT like Sylvester Stallone? It's the first thing that popped in my head. Great video.

I was having issues with fungus gnats and did some research and apparently, MiracleGro is was the number one culprit.

Jef... wanderfool day and thanks four You are fantastic!! Good wark!

I HAVE EARTH WORMS IN SOME OF MY POTS AND I FEED THEM AND MY CHERRY TOMATOES GO CRAZY

Take a sandwich bag full of your old soil to your local county extension agency a month b4 time to plant. They will analyze your soil and send you via email a list of what you need to add to your soil.

I didn't know this was possible 😍 thank you for enlightening me

Very handy!

Thank you, I certainly learned something today!

Thanks Jeff! As usual a very informative video. Summer gardening was awful, but ready to try again in fall :-) I will keep watching our videos for much needed coaching on gardening in Houston!

Very nice

what about all the roots from previous plant grown?

Humus is good with corn chips.

Thank you yes I have enjoyed your valuable tips.

what about adding diatomaceous earth to get rid of fungus in the soil.....I read this is good and natural

Great video !!!!!

What if I used synthetic fertilizers and want to reuse my soil for next year but actually run organic fertilizers , can I do that ?

Leave the roots in. The roots contain all the nutrients the plant uptakes so when they break down those nutrients go back into the soil

cant you sterilize the soil with boiled water or microwave?

Great video but it left me wondering about how soon can I plant after doctoring up my soil?

I thought you wanted worms in the containers, you said if you have slugs or worms to get rid of it.

Very informative video

I what to grow tomatoes in the house over the winter , can I prune them to keep them from growing taller that two foot and still get fruit? thanks jeff

Hi in the past my soil is treated with inorganic fertilizer. Is there someway to make in organic again?