Home Greenhouse Soil

Q: I have a small, home -made green house, 8’x10′. It has a cement floor and u-shaped cement raised bed around the outside edge. It isn’t heated but I use a heating pad and grow lights to start plants early. I grow my tomatoes, cukes, peppers, melons and basil inside after I have moved out my seedlings. Last summer was my first full year of use and it was very productive. my question has to do with the soil in the planters, since I will be growing the same things. I also have a fine coating of mildew on the top of soil from the winter, can I just dig in?

Our normal recommendation for people growing veggies would be to scrape off the top inch or so of the soil, removing the mildew, and then top up the planters with new soil.

I’m not suggesting that they should consider the top layer of mildew a disease that infects all the soil in the planter, however; the beauty in growing in planters versus straight in the ground inside your greenhouse is that if you ever get a disease in the soil you can simply replace the soil in the planters.