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Got some soil from a friend, the soil used to be grow a indoor plant but it died. After bringing it back home, I dug around a bit, and found all these white dots thing in the soil that almost look like salt. Anyone knows what they are??

Updated: Managed to get some closeup shots!

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Sue Saddest Farewell TGO GL
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Ray Tsai
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    Need close ups of these spots. This illustrates why one doesn't reuse soil or use non sterilized soils for pots. I would dump this outside, clean the pot with bleach and use sterilized potting soil then replanting this plant. You'll have to redo this process these are eggs of insects and unless you throw everything away, you will have to deal with these...eggs? Please send a picture, close up. Is this just old potting soil, or old garden soil in a pot? Not sure about the ID without another picture but get rid of this soil. Fresh potting soil only in pots. – stormy May 27 '17 at 06:46
  • It's trivial to pasteurize potting soils for re-use, and only a bit more effort to sterilize them (which is hardly ever needed, in practice.) – Ecnerwal May 27 '17 at 13:16
  • Thanks guys I will take a close up shot tomorrow and let you all know – Ray Tsai May 28 '17 at 08:55
  • I added a couple of close-up shots!! – Ray Tsai May 29 '17 at 02:55
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    Sorry no idea about the plant that died : ( – Ray Tsai May 29 '17 at 02:57

1 Answers1

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Might be nothing more than a white granular component often included in potting soils, such as perlite. There are some similar components of a more plastic-y nature these days as well, such as various water-holding "gels." See picture from the RHS.

hydro-gel image from the rhs website

Ecnerwal
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