Prepping soil for fall garden

[rydia131]

Ok so new gardener here. I am doing a container garden due to the fact that I live in an apartment. I currently have my summer garden in full swing. With the exception of some rookie mistakes everythings going fairly well. I am planning on pulling the plants after they are done producing and then prepping the soil for planting my fall garden. Onto my question finally haha. What is the best way to reuse soil for new plantings? My plan was to get some organice fertilizer and some worm castings and turn them into the soil. Let it sit for a week and then transplant. Will this work? Any and all information would be great!! Thanks!!

[jemsister]

I wish I knew. I'm new to the fall crop idea--it never occurred to me until recently that you can grow things in the fall. Now I'm trying to figure out how to work that for my plant bed this year. I was just going to work in some Miracle Grow soil, but... =P

[applestar]

I think it will depend on what you are growing in the container now and what you plan to grow in them next, though in principle that should work as long as the soil has not compacted. I would definitely add compost or worm casting/compost.

Also, "pulling" will result in majority of the soil being removed in the case of larger crops.

Will you be following a typical crop rotation? -- follow legumes with heavy feeders, plant mustard family where you'll be growing tomatoes and other solanacea next, etc?

[imafan26]

Soil in pots get spent and the soil will have dead roots and some nutrients may be more depleted than others so it is hard to say without a soil test what nutrients you would need to add to balance it again.
I tried to reuse soil in the pots and I can get away with it a couple of times, but after that the plants don't do that well. Not only do the nutrients become unbalanced, but the soil may sour with build up of fungi, bacteria and weed seeds that keep on sprouting.

Now, I dump out the soil in my garden, scrub out the pot and bleach it to kill any algae, bacteria and fungi and use new soil. It works out so much better.

Since you live in an apartment I don't know where you can take your soil, but maybe you have a friend with a yard that can use it.

You could sterilize the soil and have it tested so you would get an analysis of fertilizer needs, but it would not be worth it. To sterilize soil at home you would have to bake it in the oven. It stinks! and a soil test would have to specify potting soil for containers or they will assume you are testing garden soil which is really different. They will give you fertilizing recommendations and will even give you organic recommendations if you ask. The soil test may set you back about $25. In the long run, it would still be better to start off with a cleaned pot and a fresh bag of potting soil.

[rydia131]

Applestar...not sure that I know anything about "typical crop rotation", haven't even given it much thought! I told you I'm a newbie. Currently I have tomatoes an basil in container 1, herbs and greens in container 2 and mostly climbing things green beans and snap peas and two pepper plants in the third. As far as what I'm looking to do in the fall...in order from what I want to do the most to the least...broccoli, spinach, beets, Swiss chard, spinach, brussel sprouts and fava beans. I figure ill start a bunch of things inside and see what fits. Thaaaaaaaats about as far as I've planned. I'll definitely be looking into crop rotation. Anything else that would be helpful like that to look into? Any other suggestions on ways to reuse my current batch of soil? Thanks for the help!!!!

[gumbo2176]

Applestar...not sure that I know anything about "typical crop rotation", haven't even given it much thought! I told you I'm a newbie. Currently I have tomatoes an basil in container 1, herbs and greens in container 2 and mostly climbing things green beans and snap peas and two pepper plants in the third. As far as what I'm looking to do in the fall...in order from what I want to do the most to the least...broccoli, spinach, beets, Swiss chard, spinach, brussel sprouts and fava beans. I figure ill start a bunch of things inside and see what fits. Thaaaaaaaats about as far as I've planned. I'll definitely be looking into crop rotation. Anything else that would be helpful like that to look into? Any other suggestions on ways to reuse my current batch of soil? Thanks for the help!!!!

Just how large are these containers? Brussels Sprouts and broccoli get to be good size plants on their own. I grow them every fall and usually have about 6-10 of each. Every plant gets to be a bit better than 3 ft. tall and just as wide with pretty heavy foliage that will shade most anything planted near it.

When I thin my chard and beets, I generally give them at least 6 inches space all around and I give a bit less for spinach. I've never grown fava beans so I have no clue as to how they grow.

[rainbowgardener]

When I re-use pots/ potting soil, I dump all the old soil from all the containers out in to a wheelbarrow, add about the same amount of fresh soil and mix it all together. The new soil replenishes fertility and makes up for what was lost and the mixing fluffs everything up again so that it isn't compacted.

[rydia131]

Thanks good idea. Ill probably do that as well. Do you add any fertilizers to it too?

[rainbowgardener]

If you buy commercial potting soil, it usually has Miracle Gro or something in it and then I don't add anything else. When I make potting soil, it is one - third mushroom compost for fertility but I usually do add alfalfa meal, coffee grounds, or whatever else like that I have around.