Q.Reusing potting compost
Is there a limit to recycling potting soil? (My 1-year old brugmansia plant, poisonous, succumbed to the frost over the last winter. Now, I am left with quite a lot of relatively new soil in its big container and the young strawberry plants need potting up but I am not sure if it is potentially dangerous to use this soil [maybe even mixed in with John Innes No1] for food plants.)
Kind regards,
Anica Jessop
Whenever you reuse potting soil it's recommended that you sterilize it. This article will tell you some ways to sterilize potting soil:
https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/garden-how-to/soil-fertilizers/sterilizing-soil.htm
This highest level of the toxin atrophine, which makes Brugmansia toxic, is usually found in the seeds of the plant. I've known people who grow Brugmansia right next to food crops w/o getting ill from toxins leeching in to other plants, but to be safe I would sift and sterilize the soil.
