[CH] Sterilising Soil

Anna Monro (Anna.Monro@ea.gov.au)
Fri, 22 May 1998 17:36:49 +1100 

     Further to the question about sterile soil, I've been doing a bit of 
     searching around for information on how it is done.  I've been unable 
     to find anything on Klinsmann bags or their suitability for the 
     Solanaceae, but I did find some stuff.  Most of it seems to be about 
     sterilising soil in your oven (very stinky, they say) - for example 
     heating it on aluminium foil-covered trays in a 200 deg F oven until a 
     thermometer in the soil reads 140 deg F, or "autoclaving" it in a 
     pressure cooker.  However, there's another school of thought which 
     says that you're likely to kill off the "good" organisms in the soil 
     as well as the "bad".  Yet other sensible people said it wasn't 
     totally practical to do it at home, especially if you needed a large 
     amount.
     
       If this is at all useful, I can provide some URLs.
     
     
       Cheers,
     
       Anna