Pasteurize Your Own Compost

Reader Contribution by Nicole Caldwell
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By pasteurizing your own compost, you can ensure your seeds, seedlings, and garden beds will have the best chance possible to survive this growing season.

Those of you who have used last year’s compost for this year’s plantings have likely run into some of the same problems I have; notably errant seedlings sprouting up where they shouldn’t be (I’m looking at you, cherry tomatoes!), and mysterious “damping off” of your new seedlings — that is, one day they look good, the next, their roots have gone black and the plant has shriveled up to die.

Damping off is a horticultural condition caused by pathogens killing or weakening seeds and seedlings.Seeds that are infected with damping off will not germinate; and plant stems will shrivel — causing your seedlings to topple over and die. If you have waited an unusually long time for a particular seed to germinate, brush the soil away. If your seed is dark and soft, it’s got damping off. Sorry, you’ll have to start over.

This problem happens everywhere things grow, no matter where you live and there is absolutely no remedy once plants and seeds are infected. You can prevent damping off from happening one of several ways; though in my opinion the best way is by pasteurizing your compost before using it for potting soil.

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