Retired to Hope and always scrounging for garden freebies. I have found a lot of discarded bags with root and soil. I am guessing they were pot plants, in the same location is a pile of sawdust-like chips (quite small) which I also suspect came from a grow-op. My question is: can I recycle the soil from the bags and use the sawdust to mulch my berry bushes (blueberries, raspberries and currants)? Thanks
Short answer: I wouldn't. Long answer: you could, but have no clue what has been added to it, applied to it in the course of growing, or what disease(s)/bacterium might be present. Herbicides and/or fungicides are a distinct possibility, at the very least. If it's a substantial amount (sufficient to make it worth the risk vs. purchasing an equivalent amount of sterile mix), you might put it all in a pile and compost it for a while before using it, but generally speaking you're taking on a lot of unknowns that might adversely affect your plants for very little benefit in terms of cost savings.
Mites are a chronic problem with indoor Cannabis, when I worked at a hort. supply house kids would come in there asking for Temik - I wouldn't want to chance that this dangerous systemic miticide had been used on potting soil I was top dressing berry bushes with. Apart from the other concerns already listed.
