Spent compost uses ?

[sarahkeast]

I have finally cleaned out my greenhouse, dragged out all the old grow bags and tubs that had tomatoes in them. I have sieved and sacked all the compost, got about 8 sacks full I think.

So what can I use it for ? planning on using pots again this year for toms, and a few other things, flowers and salads mainly, and dont want to have to buy in more ££ sacks to fill pots.

Can I cut in old compost with new, maybe mix in some slow release fertiliser and some of my own compost from heap ? What if I just use old compost on its own and feed plants weekly with nettle/comfry/chicken poo soup ?

Thanks

[Odsox]

Compost is compost is compost, the only thing that is missing in spent compost is the fertiliser. Having said that, it is possible that something has been added, and that could be disease spores.
If you plan to use it for the same sort of plants (like tomatoes), I would give it a cooking in an oven or zap it with a microwave first, then add your fertiliser and you will have recycled compost.
Or just add fertiliser and take a chance, especially if you plan to use it on totally different plants.

[sarahkeast]

Probably same plants in same greenhouse and pots. Not had any problems yet [like blight etc] and never really got into washing pots/steam bombing greenhouse. Heck, house cleaning is hard enough to fit in !

Not seeing that lot going into oven, so will just have to take chances I guess. Wasnt aware of any problems last season.

[Zech]

I'm using last year's tomato compost on part of the garden that's a bit short of topsoil. Trying to apply crop rotation principles, I won't use it again for tomatoes (or the related potatoes) for a few years - I think that bed's destined for onions and squash (I keep getting confused about what's going where) so it should be OK.

This year's tomatoes will be getting a mixture of compost from the heap and topsoil from somewhere else (must remember to avoid the potato bed).

[The Riff-Raff Element]

I tend to just dig in used compost on the basis that, fertile or not, it is still going to help condition the soil.

[oldjerry]

Agreed,unless you garden on the very finest alluvial silt you can ALWAYS use soil conditioner.Come to think of it,if your garden's flooded on a regular basis,it's not very productive anyhow!

[gregorach]

I tend to use the "spent" compost from the greenhouse to earth up the following year's potatoes... Perhaps not ideal from a disease management point of view, but I haven't had any problems yet.

[Henwoman]

I divide spent compost between my five compost bins and don't appear to have had any problems with disease in the past. Anything organic is good imho for adding to the compost bins and I like to get the best value I can from the bought in compost.

[Rosendula]

I crop rotate my pots. I'll maybe grow some broccoli in a pot and then replace it with tomatoes. After that I put peas in (I just cut the tomato plant down and plant the peas around the stem). After all of that, I put it in my compost bin. I always intend to fertilize, and sometimes I remember but not very often. The inlaws give me their used compost which they used to grow flowers in. I use that and some home-made compost to earth up my potatoes. I found a bin liner full of compost next to my greenhouse and can't for the life of me remember where it came from. I've dumped that on a raised bed and sown carrot seeds in it because the soil was very hard and heavy in that bed. I'm told that it will make my carrots fork, but the few carrots I ever manage to grow always fork anyway.