I see your dilemma. You have worked hard to make good fertile soil but ... Yes, if the soil has any blights or desieses in it you will be taking them with you.

I think in this case I would start from scratch. You can help prevent problems by using lots of mulch which will keep the nasties from splashing up on the plants.

In the end it's a tough call to make.

You could maybe reuse it if you didn't plant the same family of crops in the new bed. It is like the theory of crop rotation. If tomatoes were in it before, then plant something other than eggplant, peppers, and tomatoes in it this season.

Thanks for the input-- yes, this was a tough call!

I opted to reuse soil that was further down in the bed and discard the top several inches. For the remainder of the bed soil I put in a fantastic mix of humus, mushroom compost, pine fines, and worm castings, so if these doesn't help to offset the reused soil, I don't know what will!

I also kept track of what soil went where to rotate them out this season-- great idea!

Thanks, everyone!

Jane

I don't throw it away either, when the soil has used up all it's humus and everything is broken down into a mucky goop I transfer it to where I grow rice in my mucky rice paddy and the rice plants just love the spent gooey compost. The rice grass keeps putting out heads of seed grains all summer long and I snip them off with scissors as they turn golden brown and they keep responding with another load of seed heads soon after. I keep the water level steady around 4 to 5 inches above the soil surface. I never knew growing rice was so easy and the rice do very well in Florida's humid hot weather. On another note (I don't know why) but I don't find mosquito larvae in the rice paddy water for some strange reason. I do get some lily pads growing in the rice paddy and occasional frogs and baby snakes.

Lou

Hi Floridajane and loufloralcity. I always reuse container dirt but attempt to change the ph (and the crop) each season. I tend to get ant infestations in certain areas and those containers get dug out with intermittent sprays of each level of soil. I also add base algae from lake blooms and acidic pine needles and occasional storebought amendements.
Loufloralcity-attempted to raise rice in individual containers without success summer 09 still have 1/2 of the carolina Gold seed. At what time of year do you sow your rice? I am thinking about a childs wading pool instead of individual containers as for sweet corn. Do you keep the paddy acidic or alkaline? Any helpful comment would be appreciated.

I will check the PH tomorrow... I never really thought of checking it because the rice was doing so well. I started my rice late spring... soon as it warmed up good. I go by the amount of day heat rather than a certain month to plant as the water has to warm up. A kids wading pool should work well for you.

Lou

grandmotherbear,

The PH of my rice paddy is 6.08 this Friday morning. Sorry I'm a day late but I totally forgot to do it yesterday. Bad case of C.R.S. (can't remember sh--)

Lou