Menu Home Clipart Gallery Gardening Resources Gardening Books Soils & Fertilizers Activated Charcoal Ashes Bentonite Bone Meal Boron Calcium Charcoal Ash Circus Animal Manure Coffee Grounds Compost Copper Cover Crops Dried Blood Fertilizers Iron Iron Chlorosis Lime Sulfur Limestone Magnesium Manganese Manure--Animal Marble Milorganite Molybdenum Mulch Nitrogen pH Phosphate Phosphorus Deficiency Potassium Quartz Quick Lime Salt Injury Soil Sterilizing Sulfur Walnut Toxicity Wood Chips Zinc Sections Garden Notes Garden Design Annuals and Perennials Flowers Fruits Houseplants Glossary of Terms Lawns and Groundcovers Pests Soils and Fertilizers Trees and Shrubs Vegetables

 

SOIL STERILIZING

Soil is difficult to sterilize in the garden. Chemicals are not available to the homeowner for use in sterilization.

Clear plastic can be laid over moist soil and kept in place for several months to kill weeds, seeds and insects.

Soil can be sterilized for use indoors or in pots by placing moist soil in a kitchen cooking bag and heated in a 200ø F. oven until a thermometer in the soil registers 140ø. Higher temperatures will destroy beneficial soil bacteria.

Soil can be heated in baking pans covered with aluminum foil. However, cooking soil smells just this side of cooking cabbage and ventilation is definitely recommended.

 

Please read the Copyright Information.