Sterilizing soil

WrinkledNugSack

WrinkledNugSack

Well-known member
A number of years ago I found a soil sterilizer in the local Sally Ann store for a reasonable price. I used it to sterilize many litres of Prairie gumbo (very rich Prairie soil) to try in my grow. I also sterilized some sphagnum peat moss and made a blend for the house.

In roughly three years, I encountered 1 beetle, 1 flying critter of some kind (which I vigorously hunted down and killed like a cave man) and 1 cricket that I discovered in the basement and put in the tent (I think the poor bugger later died from lack of food).

All that to say, if you happen to be in Southern Saskatchewan and want to sterilize some soil for your house this spring, you can shoot me a DM and we might be able to make a time and place to get a batch or two done for your grow.

It does about 40-50 litres at a time... this would be a minimum to do, otherwise the heating elements might be damaged without the unit being full.
 
I'd have to say that it is pasteurizing I suppose, because the intent isn't to totally eradicate everything... if you did that by going over 180F, from my understanding, the soil would become toxic. But I am no authority on the matter, perhaps a scientist can chime in?...
 
WrinkledNugSack said:
I'd have to say that it is pasteurizing I suppose, because the intent isn't to totally eradicate everything... if you did that by going over 180F, from my understanding, the soil would become toxic. But I am no authority on the matter, perhaps a scientist can chime in?...
Click to expand...
I pasteurize my mushroom substrate at about 140-150 for 3 hours.
 
If my memory is the least bit accurate, I think it took about 40 minutes to reach 160-170, then I left the batch to cool with a cover on it for another hour... but it would be easy to do the same as you do, it would just take a bit of testing to set the temperature right, because the dial (and the indices) isn't very accurate.
 
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