Cooking Top Soil

[Katfish]

Got some Top Soil this morning from B&Q for my new viv due to the amount i need to put in my VIV it will take me forever and a day to microwave it.

1. Can i oven it?
2 If i can what temp and how long. (Or what dose the soil core temp need to be)
3. Anything special need to be done before putting in the oven?

[Bugman]

A general understanding is at 121 deg C is the correct temp to kill bacteria and i would imagine that any other bugs would be wiped out to with that temp.

[tigerpaws]

Bacteria stops being active at about 75'C and it most bacteria die at 97.4'C

aim for 110'c ..

to reduce your cooking times stir the soil every 40 mins or so,

Alan

[Jim2109]

apparently around 180°F is the best temperature to pasteurise soil and compost. this doesnt sterilise it, which would result in the death of everything in the soil, from insects to bacteria, including the friendly bacteria. at 180°F you leave the good stuff alone so the soil still has bacteria present to break down waste, etc. eventually it may even become a compost. ovens dont tend to work as cold as that though, so you end up having to turn the oven on with a thermometer in the soil and then let it reach its desired temp, then switch it off and let it cool. personally i prefer boiling water. this is more like 200°F, but you can put the soil in a big bucket (i use a gorilla tub) and fill it with boiling hot water so it immerses the soil/compost. leave it to stand until the water is cool enough not to burn skin, then drain away the water and leave the soil to dry out a bit. job done. the biggest advantage of this method is that you are limited only by the size of a bucket, and you can use multiple buckets at once to save time. with the oven you can only fit so much in, and if you require large quantities of soil youll end up swapping the trays over every 10 mins and it takes ages.

[Katfish]

Thanks for all the advice i will have to do it in the oven but i have a very large oven so should not take too long.