Somewhere I saw a recommendation that potting soil for container plants be replaced every year. It was news to me. I've had the same soil for several years in several planters, but they were mostly flowers. This year I'm planning on a fair number of vegetable planters, so I'm wondering do you folks dump the old soil and buy new every year for things like tomatoes, peppers and beans? That seems awful expensive.
BTW, I'm talking about outdoor containers here. I'm kind of confused by the fact this forum category is under "indoor gardening."
Jim
Don't worry about the category; most of us have a few outdoor containers, too. Last year, I wouldn't have had a single tomato if I hadn't had them in containers as well as the beds/boxes. Record cold ensured that the *only* temps satisfactory to tomatoes were those bouncing off the south wall of my house, right along the driveway, where the Sungolds and Yellow Pears were.
So...what I do to refresh the soil every year is to put a trowel or two full of my own compost *or* a trowel of compost + half a trowel of worm castings into a 5-gallon container ("recipe" given so anyone can scale it up or down) and mix everything up inside the pot.
The plants seem to love it, it aerates the soil, I see whether drainage is still OK further down in the container, and so on.
And...cost = $0.
Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9
So...what I do to refresh the soil every year is to put a trowel or two full of my own compost *or* a trowel of compost + half a trowel of worm castings into a 5-gallon container ("recipe" given so anyone can scale it up or down) and mix everything up inside the pot.
The plants seem to love it, it aerates the soil, I see whether drainage is still OK further down in the container, and so on.
And...cost = $0.
Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9
I use all new soil in my tomato containers every year. I refresh the used soil, and then use it for flower containers, or to grow veggies that aren't susceptible to the same soil-borne diseases as the plants in the tomato family. If I have no other containers to use it in, I just add it to my compost pile. 
My MO is to empty the mix from each container into a large area, break it up, add compost and used potting mix, plus aged horse manure. Then mix it completely and put it back into the the containers. The old roots add organic material to it as does the compost and manure. It seems to work for me, YMMV!
Mike
Mike
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rainbowgardener
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Agree with wordwiz, that what I do is dump the containers out into wheelbarrow, recharge it with some new soil and soil amendments, mix it all together and repot. HOWEVER, I don't grow tomatoes and peppers in containers (well, maybe you could consider my raised beds very large containers, but the very large makes a difference). If I did, I might be more careful re the disease issues and do as Kisal suggests.
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GardenNut101
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I plant tomatoes and runner beans in gro-bags that I cut in half and stand on end. I use new ones each year because after one season, they are full of roots.
I do fertilise throughout the season - seems to work for me.
The old compost with the roots - I put on my raspberries as mulch.
But this year I'm going to put it in the wheelbarrow and revitalise it with compost from the compost heap, plus some water retaining gel - then use it in my troughs for next year.
I do fertilise throughout the season - seems to work for me.
The old compost with the roots - I put on my raspberries as mulch.
But this year I'm going to put it in the wheelbarrow and revitalise it with compost from the compost heap, plus some water retaining gel - then use it in my troughs for next year.