soil sterilizing plans

I came across this website, and thought y'all might be interested in it. I can't do the "sitting the black plastic bag in the sun" method, 'cause everything is frozen, and the oven method didn't interest me at all!
http://www.colostate.edu/Depts/CoopExt/4DMG/Soil/sterile.htm

Thanks for the info - I'm doing the microwave method at this time and it sure has helped with weed seeds.... I've been doing it for 9 minutes, though. Would be nice if 2.5 minutes worked just as well....

beaker, I always add 1/2 liter of water plus, 1 teas of baby shampoo or reg. dish soap before I microwave. I do it in 1 gal ziploc bags for 13min on high. which will bring the soil temp to 200%F. it can get stinky, I bought a microwave that I use in my growing room for this purpose. Jim

Jim, why the soap?

Pagancat, the soap helps kill Fungus Gnat eggs, and fungus spores, if they're in the soil mix. I've bought germinating and planting soil from the best names available and all had Gnat eggs in them. so no matter which one I buy I take the precaution of microwaving and the soap. also the soap acts as a surficant and the peat absorbs the water much better. Jim

Yea, I was a bit concerned about the "only microwave 2 minutes" part, myself. Glad to know others are doing it longer, also.

I didn't know about the soap killing the fungus gnats, but I always use it to help speed up the absorbtion of water by the peat. I also put a small amount of H2O2 in the water sometimes, if I'm concerned I may not have microwaved it enough. Thanks for the additional info.

beakerlj, I use the H202 on my trays before putting the soil in. it has a lot of uses. Jim