Re: Sterilizing soil
- Subject: Re: Sterilizing soil
- From: M* T*
- Date: Fri, 6 Jul 2001 04:19:34 -0400
Janet,
If your compost heap heats up properly, it will kill most weed seeds.
That said, mine seldom does, so my compost generates all kinds of
interesting stuff. For this reason, I buy bagged compost - Pro Mix
in my case - specifically for starting seeds because it is weed-free
and save the compost for the garden and making potting soil for
plants already going strong.
Sterile is not something you really want except, possibly, for
starting fern spores, and I've read assorted comments on that, too
(idea is to kill off other spores like mosses, not actually sterilize
the soil).
I also leave pots outside (for seed wanting cold stratification) and
also top them off with grit. But, I make screen covers out of
regular window screening for the flats of seed pots. This keeps
windblown seed, leaves and other debris out of the pots as well as
the squirrels, chipmunks, birds and toads who love to play in
seedpots. Really easy to do, just cut corners and fold and tack with
fine wire and you've got a cover that slips over a flat - any size or
shape you want to make them.
Marge Talt, zone 7 Maryland
mtalt@clark.net
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> From: Janet Yang <jyang1@home.com>
>
> I participated in a seed exchange and received thirty-five
samples.
> Some needed stratifying so I sowed all of them in thirty-five
little
> pots of sterile mix, covered them with a layer of chicken grit, and
left
> them outside (it was winter).
> When the true leaves appeared, a number of the pots (a *large*
> number) had identical seedlings. That's when I realized that these
were
> not the plants I had sown, but weeds that the wind had deposited on
the
> pots. I pulled them out but, like the Energizer Bunny, they just
kept
> going and going....Finally, I created a new compost heap with the
weedy
> soil from these pots and the flower beds. They came back the next
> season.
> How to kill the weeds in the compost? I'd rather not use
chemical
> herbicides. Could the weeds be killed by altering the pH, then
restoring
> the pH before using the compost in the garden?
> Last week I made a simple solar cooker and used it to dye yarn
and
> fiber. The liquid got too hot to touch, but never got close to
boiling.
> I could make a larger and better-insulated cooker that would get
hotter,
> but what temperature is necessary for sterilizing soil?
> Perhaps "sterile" is the wrong word here. I only need to kill
the
> weeds, not the other organisms in the soil--although if it's all or
> nothing, I'd sterilize the whole works and not think twice about
it.
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