Soil from Potato Grow ?

Hi guys,

I am new to this great site!! :flwsml:

I was wondering;

I grew quite a lot of potatoes in pots on my decking this year (for the first time ever and I cant wait till next year!!), is the soil completely useless now or is there something I can do in order to be able to reuse it next year?

Kx :mswhl:

 

Hi Ginger,


Sorry don`t do veggies yet, but if you have a compost bin you could put it in there and it will be all good stuff again in a few weeks time.



Welcome to the forum Ginger, It`s lovely to meet you, I hope you enjoy it here.

 

Can you do that?

If you can that would be great!!

I thought I had read somewhere that there's no point in putting soil in a compost heap

Kx

 

I do and it always served me well: it give time to the spent soil to absorb new nutrients from the compost, salts accumulated fromfertilazers got diluted and made harmless, and the bacteria that live in the soil get well mixed up with the beneficial bacteria of the compost. If it is not a huge amount compared to the compost, it will do just fine.

Happy composting!

 

Hi Ginger1880. I grow a lot of spuds in pots as I don't have a big growing plot. Once I've harvested the potatoes, I either use the soil to layer the compost heap or incorporate it into the flower beds, but it's a good idea to seive it first to get all remnants of plant and little tubers out otherwise you'll get potato plants growing everywhere next spring

 

I'm still in the process of reading up on veggie growing so forgive me if this is silly, but don't you grow legumes in the potatoes soil for the next crop?

Runner beans have a nice flower and apparently give a good yield.

 

Well, that's to do with crop rotation. If your potatoes were grown in pots (as lots of mine were), you can use that nicely sifted soil to scatter around the garden and add to your compost heap (as mentioned). You can't really use it again for another crop of beans, or whatever, because the spuds have already taken all the nutrients out of it. Just sprinkle it around, as said.

 

Ok. I'm asking this purely in the hope of learning from you, but surely the potatoes grew in the ground they'd have taken the nutrients just as they would in the pots? And isn't part of the point of crop rotation that different plant groups have different nutrient requirements (legumes fix nitrogen whereas other plants take the nitrogen for example)?

 

I do think the soil (as in "ground") had more regenerative power than soil in pot, because it's got a much bigger population of bacteria, and of course you can easily incorporate large a mounts of new nutrients each year, also most potting soils are based on peat which by itself is rather poor, so the "goodness" is just in the fertilizers added to it. That is why I think spent pot soil is better off taking a holiday in the composter, or scattered in the garden, where it will help lightening the local soil if heavy.

Beans (or any legumens) are indeed an excellent crop to grow in impoverished soil, (but in a pot it looks a bit like wasted effort). A green manure crop would be even better, because you would return the whole plant to the soil (as opposed to steal away the beans for dinner)

In my kitchen garden I have a plot of about 3 square meters that I use for making potting soil, mixing the local soil, and plenty of compost. Once the system is established it is very much cheaper than buying potting compost, and a lot more fun. Just a hint.

 

Dont use the same soil twice in a row for potatoe planting. Start again with fresh soil.

 

Re: above. I'm a beginner with veg, so I have started this year with just a few things; my veg plot is about 10m square. All my potatoes were grown at one end of it this year, then a row of French beans. Will it be OK to plant my potatoes next year at the other, unused, end of the plot and put runner beans, say, in the area where pots grew this year? Can anyone recommend other things to put in the used area, please? Thanks. Lindy