I had a little bit of a problem with damping off with my zinnias last year, which was something of a first for me. But for some reason, I also had a problem with mossy growth on the soil surface, too. Not sure why that happened, but I'm using a different potting soil mix this year.

Woofie, do you sterilize the soil?

Karen

I buy fresh potting mix each year to use in the GH. If I reuse soil, yes, I sterilize it.

I was just curious. I don't think everyone sterilizes soil. I do, and I've never had damp-off. It's become something of a superstition to me- I'm afraid that if I don't, I'll get dampoff.

Even fresh "sterile" potting mix is no longer sterile after it's open. Mine sits in my sometimes-damp basement, so I sterilize. Might be less helpful than a prayer but it's one of those "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" things.

Karen

Mine goes directly from the car to the GH and then into nice clean pots. I think the reason I had problems last year was I was using some bags that had sat around from the previous year. Sometimes it's hard to find potting soil as early as I want it, so I was trying to squirrel some away. Bad idea.

I never reuse the soil, but I do use "leftovers" that have been sitting in a bag for a while. That's why I sterilize.

Karen

Oh, I only re-use if I'm in need of filler for pots that are going outside or onto my back porch. (Most of my plants are in containers and I keep getting more, so, yeah, soil gets re-used!) But sterilizing is easy enough, so why not? I should have done that with the "old" bags last year, even though they hadn't been opened.