Don’t Throw Out Your Old Potting Mix! Refresh It Instead

One thing that seems to keep people from starting a container garden is the belief that they will need to buy new potting mix each year. I don’t know who started this rumor or where it came from, but from my experience it is absolutely false.

If you start with a good quality potting mix and your plants are disease free, you should never have to throw out your old potting mix to start fresh. In fact, depending on the plants you’re growing, you may be able to use old potting media for multiple years without doing anything to it.

I have successfully grown radishes, beets, basil, chamomile and Serrano peppers in old potting mix with no amendments. I have also failed at growing tomatoes, bell peppers and kale in old potting mix with no amendments. I learned very quickly that if you want to grow plants that require a lot of nutrients in the same pots each year, you will need to amend your potting media on an annual basis OR use a lot of liquid fertilizer during the growing season.

10 years into my container gardening journey I prefer to refresh my potting media using compost. This is how I do it:

Pour my old mix out onto a tarp
Thoroughly search it for grubs and signs of other pests/disease
Mix in 1 part good quality compost per every 2-3 parts potting mix
Use the tarp to funnel everything back into my container

Another very effective method is mixing 1 part new commercial potting mix per 3 parts old mix. I prefer the compost method because good quality compost is cheaper than good quality potting mix and I feel like both give me the same results.

I encourage you to embrace your inner mud child and refresh your potting mix this spring!