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What temperature is required to sterilize soil, as I want to start adding soil to my compost when sowing seeds
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it may be a struggle to reach the top, but once your over the hill your problems start.
Member of the Nutters Club but I think I am just there to make up the numbers
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There is an article here about sterilizing soil for use in potting mixtures Start Seed and Transplants in Sterilized SoilA life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory. LLAP. - Leonard Nimoy -
In my experience, animals are much more of a problem than microorganisms, and to kill animals simple pasturising to <100 C by any method suffices. If you also want to get rid of all microorganisms, in particular fungi, then you will need to sterilise at 120 C, and either need a pressure cooker, or theoretically in an oven, but in an oven you will only get >100 C once all the water is gone, so that will be hugely energy inefficient.Comment
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I've used an old microwave in the past just to do small amounts.Comment
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All I want to get rid of is vegetable growth ie. roots and seedsOriginally posted by planetologist View Post
But thanks for the commentsit may be a struggle to reach the top, but once your over the hill your problems start.
Member of the Nutters Club but I think I am just there to make up the numbersComment
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Why do you want to add soil to compost? (Assuming you are buying in compost for sowing seeds in - that's just right for sowing seeds in and shouldn't have any vegetable growth in)Comment
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What I have found in the past is that when transplanting young plants they seem to establish quicker when using a higher content of soil in my mix, so with that in mind I want to see how the seeds do, plus I think with soil in the seed mix I will have less problems with compost drying outOriginally posted by alldigging View Postit may be a struggle to reach the top, but once your over the hill your problems start.
Member of the Nutters Club but I think I am just there to make up the numbersComment
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Perhaps you could use a soil based compost (John Innes)?Originally posted by rary View PostPosted on an iPad so apologies for any randomly auto-corrected gobbledegookComment
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No one stocks J.I. in the town, I can purchase peat free or reduced peat compost but no soil based.Originally posted by spamvindaloo View Post
and I have plenty of soil and a way to heat it up at no cost(I like that bit
) hence the question what temperature do I require?
it may be a struggle to reach the top, but once your over the hill your problems start.
Member of the Nutters Club but I think I am just there to make up the numbersComment
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