Re-using compost ?

Hi there,

I grew a few pots of potatoes last year (actually just dug up the last of the potatoes out of their pots and I am very surprised that they all look great!!) and I have loads of used compost and I dont know what to do with it

Here's a freshly dug up Robinta potato weighing 600g:



Anyway my question is: can I re-use this soil to grow more potatoes if I dig in some fertiliser?

It would be great if I could!!

Kx

 

I just removed the last of my potatoes from their pots today and they were all in perfect condition, do you still think my soil could have eelworm or blight? Its just I have so much of it!

Kx

 

That's a nice looking tatty, mmmmmmmmmmash:gnthb:

I generally use old compost to dress other beds, I have no experience of potatoes and the associated diseases to be able to advise on reuse though.

 

I have to say. That pot beats any I grew last year in my dustbin..
That one will feed a family of four.:gnthb:

 

Personally I would never grow tatties in the same ground two years in a row, even with fertiliser. I broke this rule once years ago, and the crop was dessimated by some sort of worm (I blamed slugs at the time, but since read about a specific worms that likes tatties).

You could chance it, but the trouble is if you get blight in there, you will have to extremely careful not to transfer the fungal spores about. That means avoiding the reuse of the compost for a couple of years, not mixing it in your compost bin, keeping it well away from any patch you intend to grow potatoes in, burning the blight infected foliage etc. It's just too much trouble to chance it to my mind.

 

Ok, thank you

How would I do that with Jeyes? Can you bleach it?

Should I also add something like Growmore? I will mix it with new stuff too

I have a big bit up the back of my garden that badly needs dug over, I will try and dig some into that too

Kx

 

Grow flowers in your used compost it is not worth chancing your veg crop . I once sterilised with Jeyes and my carrots tasted of it,absolutly inedible Joyce

 

If you will be buying some new compost anyway to mix with the old why not do a test and have some grown in new compost, some in a mix and some in old only.

 

Add my vote to the "Use the compost for some other crop which is not in the same family" (so that rules out Tomatoes and so on too)

The fact that everything was healthy doesn't mean that there won't be some bugs that "got started" and will multiply. There is also the selective-feeding of each crop - they will have stripped out some nutrients, so you are more likely to have nutrient balance problems with the follow on crop.

Can you microwave it to sterilise it??