dirt from fall's tomato buckets?

[plantkiller]

I uprooted the tomato plants that were dying/dead from last fall in January (they were mostly hanging in there but the cold we had did them in around that time) but left the buckets with dirt against the porch since then. I probably have a good 1.5 square yard of dirt in there, that was miracle grow "organic potting soil". Has some perlite and such also. I dealt with standard alternaria quite a bit that I kept down with copper fungicide, but no other diseases that I'm aware of.

I need the buckets to transplant some tomato seedlings and planned on using fresh potting soil and throwing the old dirt from the buckets into one of my garden beds. Can I safely do that? Any other things I should consider, or recommendations you might have?

Thanks everyone

[rainbowgardener]

I'm no expert re diseases etc, but I would definitely say don't put the soil down anywhere where you will be growing tomatoes. Otherwise probably ok, though the part about the alternaria worries me some. It may be "standard" there in FL, but sounds nasty. The safest thing to do would be to put the soil in your compost pile and let it get purified by all the organisms there.

[tedln]

I always reuse my potting soil. I do treat it in a special way though. I simply dump all of my pots and my wifes pots in a single big pile in the fall. I then treat it through the winter as if it is a compost pile by adding amendments as needed, keep the pile moist, turn it regularly, and it is ready to use again by spring planting time. I've never had a carry over disease problem. I do get some carry over seed from last years flowers that I may not want in some pots. I simply pull them as they sprout. Common Purslane is the most invasive by reseeding for me. It is a pretty flower and plant, but as a succulent, it really uses a lot of moisture when growing with other plants and will simply take a pot over.

Ted

[a0c8c]

If it's miracle gro potting mix, which contains no compost or any where near as much beneficial bacteria, then you can sanatize it by baking it in the oven. Put it in, bring it up to 200, turn it off, letit cool and, you're ready to go. 200 should kill off everything. You can then mix in a little dirt from the garden in order to bring beneficial bacteria back.