Soil baking is known as a process of getting rid of some unwanted pathogens before potting any tree in the soil. Commercially soil sterilization is used to carry out the process but at home for a small amount of soil, you can definitely try baking the soil. This helps the gardener to be free of unwanted pathogens without much thinking. But soil needs to have the necessary nutrients and contents that can help grow plants to would help the growth. When baking the soil, it goes through a heating process which makes the question rise “Does Baking Soil Kill Nutrients?”
Baking soil is a tricky thing and yes it can kill necessary microbes at times if proper procedures are not followed. But this does not mean you cannot bake the soil at all, you can do that with precision and a proper understanding of how to bake the soil. To know all about that you just have to take a look here with us.
Key Takeaways
- Soil baking is a very popular method to get rid of pathogens, bacteria, or weeds.
- Through baking killing the necessary nutrients in the soil is possible and this happens because of overheating, an increase in PH level, and many more.
- Even though there is a risk of killing necessary nutrients in soil the benefits of baking soil are superior.
- To get all the benefits from baking the soil you have to choose the right method so that baking the soil would never go wrong.
Revealing The Truth About Killing Nutrients by Soil Baking
Baking soil might kill pathogens if they get overheated and are left for a long time, there is a proper way to take out the procedure of soil baking. Soil sterilization has great benefits that kill all unwanted pathogens from soil and make soil free of any seeds that might harm your newly planted seeds. If you buy the commercial soil, they come sterilized and there is no need for them to be cleaned again but if you are trying to sterilize a small portion of the soil from your backyard then baking it is a great idea. This way you get the quickest result and do not have to wait for a long time. But there still the question remains about the beneficiary bacteria and nutrients that are found in the soil. If the pathogens are killed by the heat given in the oven then harm should be made to the nutrients too, doesn’t it?
Why It Is Possible to Kill Nutrients?
Well in some cases the nutrients can be harmed and heating of soil can kill the pathogens. In most cases, the pathogens are killed when the heating goes up to 200 Degrees, or if it has been there for too long, more than 30 minutes for a small portion of soil would be too long. So why this happens let’s see
- Baking soil at 200 degrees Celsius or more releases toxins to the soil such as poisonous soil and makes the soil dry by drawing out all the moisture content of it that is why necessary nutrients of soil are killed in the process.
- When the soil gets heat based on the composition of the soil Nitrites (NO2) and Ammonium salts (NO4) can be formed, although these components are already in the soil and their lifecycle being NH4 > NO2 > NO3 these NO3 are nitrite that plants enjoy a lot and is also very helpful in plant growth. But the additional NO2 that has been formed without the cycle due to heat is the concern. That can be toxic to the plants. This is also the reason nutrients can die within the soil.
- Heating the soil over 200 to 250 degrees Celsius increases the PH level and decreases extractable Mg and this kind of is supposedly reduces plant growth due to the increase of NH+4 in the soil. This also indicates the increase of toxicity that would kill some portion of necessary nutrients.
So as we can see the idea behind why baking soil can sometimes kill necessary nutrients and effects the growth of your lovely plant. Where you are just baking the soil for sterilizing a small portion of it. Apart from using the bad method where soil baking can go wrong, it has a lot of benefits bagged up. Well, let’s know some of them.
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Benefits of Baking Soil
Soil baking is a popular method among home gardeners as they can sterilize a small portion of soil that is needed for the plant and when that cools down it is ready to be used. There are several benefits of baking soil and this can have added beneficiaries that some of us could not even think of.
- Baking soil can get rid of any bacteria and pesticides that can harm the root of a plant. Also gets rid of any additional seed that would later grow up as a parasite plant and feed on the nutrients of the main plant.
- Heating soil can lower the PH level and make the growth of nutrients in the soil and the organic matter and extractable Mg decrease on the other hand NH+4, Mn, and electrical conductivity increase in a noticeable manner at this rate the heat should be no more than 110 degrees. This conductivity increase pushes the plant to grow in fast mode. Baking soil before planting a plant in it only means making a suitable condition for the plant so that it can grow at a fast rate from the very first day.
- Baking soil helps to pasteurize the soil before you germinate your seeds.
Since there are mixed opinions about baking soil you might be looking for other reasons that would help you to not bake the soil and at the same time get all the necessary benefits. So the next part is for you.
Alternatives of Baking Soil
Baking soil in the over is the most common due to the accessibility among users and how easy it is to do. Well, there are quite a few other alternatives to baking but we will discuss two that are easy and perfectly possible to do in your home environment.
Steaming with Boiling Water
For steaming the soil take a clean pot and fill the pot with water. You have to keep a little free space at the top so water would not overflow while boiling. Now add a layer of soil to your water-filled pot. Before adding the soil check if the temperature is within 100 degrees, you can do this with a thermometer. Then close the lid of the pot and let it boil for some time. Keep an eye on the temperature so it would not exceed 180 degrees. You can boil the soil for 20 – 30 minutes or check the temperature as soon as it starts to go over 180 degrees turn the stove off and let it cool down and air dry the soil. This way you would get rid of unnecessary organisms, spores, and weeds and have perfectly sterilized soil. This also would not dry out the soil for it to kill other nutrients.
Sun drying
The most harmless and natural way of sterilizing soil is to let the soil dry under the sun. this does not affect any beneficiary organism of the soil and sterilizes that naturally. This process takes a lot of time and needs proper monitoring. In the sun drying process, you would want the soil to be left right under the sun, where the sun rays can have direct contact with the soil. You would want to be sure of the thing that it is not overheated outside. If you start to feel overheated, then it is safe to remove the soil under the sun or cover the soil with something. This process can be a little lengthy but there are no side effects if you maintain the overheating part.
Now that we have given you some good alternatives for baking the soil in the oven you can choose to do any of them for sterilizing your soil.
How To Bake Soil At Home?
Now that you know what are the problems and benefits of baking soil, you can decide if you are really up for baking your soil or want to go for another method. If you decide on the quick and easy method of baking, then here are our tips and guides for you to have perfectly baked soil for your garden. For baking soil, you can use an oven or microwave. but these two methods would be very different and needs to follow different methods.
Oven Baking
For oven baking extra care and precautions are a must. First, put some soil on a baking tray, it should not be more than 3-4 inches thick, that way heat can go through every inch. you have to cover the soil with foil paper for trapping the heat. then bake for 20 minutes at 200 degrees F. After that time check whether the soil temperature reached 180 degrees or not. if not then you would need to put the soil-filled tray in the oven again. After it has reached the required temperature let it cold with the foil paper on.
Microwave Baking
For baking the soil in the microwave at home you will just need soil and a zip-lock bag. Fill the zip lock bag with soil loosely and put it in the microwave. Bake the soil for 2-3 minutes. Bring the soil bag out and let that cool. Baking soil is easy and safer than baking in over.
FAQs
Yes, it grows better plants by providing more nutrients.
Plays a key role in plant growth by providing minerals and necessary toxins.
Heating at a certain level does not affect the nutrients and overheating does.
Final Thoughts
Baking soil for getting rid of any pesticides or bacteria from a small portion has been used by many gardeners for quite some time. While adopting to the process this question of killing necessary nutrients comes as they are sensitive to a certain level of heat. Also killing the nutrients would make the soil weak and plants would not grow without all the minerals and water. To put an end to your worries you can go ahead and read about the possibilities of killing nutrients and what would be the circumstances that baking kills nutrients. As you have a guide to how you would need to bake soil for getting the maximum benefit and avowing all the risks. Now you can rest assured about the soil baking and killing all those helping nutrients.
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