Bagged organic soil recommendations in the uk?

[DanTheReggaeFan]

Hey guys I'm going to be starting a new grow soon and I want to go fully organic this time but I've only ever grown in coco before. Does anyone have any recommendations for a good premade organic soil I can find in the uk. Ideally I would have liked to make my own super soil but I live in a pretty small flat so don't really have the space for that.

My local hydro shop sells biobizz, canna terra and sohum living soil. I was originally planning on going with the sohum because they claim to be water only but I've been reading a lot of mixed reviews so I'm not too sure now especially as it costs 3 times as much as the others. Are there any other brands from a non hydro shop I should try?

I'd ideally like a soil I can feed with a tea once or twice a week and just plain water the rest of the time. That's actually one of the reasons I want to switch to organic because mixing up 5 different bottles every day was a pain in the ass as well as all the other benefits of organics.

Thanks for any suggestions

 

[JockBudman]

Moorland gold - hot on N an you'll need tae feed after the stretch but can do a full veg wi just water easy. Should be sound wi teas and water.

 

[GMT]

Buy any all purpose compost from any garden centre or supermarket. If you can find one that's peat moss based, all the better. Then buy a bottle of organic flower feed and you're done. Why make life hard for yourself?

 

[VerdantGreen]

The first thing to consider is that peat moss is NOT certificated as organic in the UK because Peat is considered an endangered resource. That said, most of our peat comes from Ireland where they STILL burn it in power stations to generate electricity.. and the quantity used by british gardeners is fairly small compared to this... so personally i use peat in my mixes. Peat free bagged soil simply isn;t as good. Moorland gold is peat but it is filtered from stream water and as such it is allowed to be called organic.


For a bagged soil, Jack's magic is pretty good. Peat based but apart form that the ingredients are natural afaik.

Recently i have been using 8 parts; jacks magic , 1 part perlite and 1 part westland topsoil (the jacks magic is peat based and dried out a little too quickly otherwise imo.. the topsoil gives it some body. eta : also i add 1/2 part of worm castings or finished garden compost.
So you need to consider the difference between 'organic' and 'certified' organic by the soil association.

NB, eg, the soil association doesn't consider ANY pot grown plants to be organic unless they are very small plug plants - because of the waste.


VG

 

[GMT]

Rhinos are endangered, I'd still call em organic lol.

 

[LEDAstray]

Rhinos are endangered, I'd still call em organic lol.

The North London White Rhino was thought extinct until VG told us of his breeding programme with a lonely old female.

 

[LEDAstray]

I’m in a similar boat to the OP. Thinking of giving the Indoor Organics/Ecothrive pre-mixed “living” soils a go this year. Just have to get past the expense!

They also do an amendment mix called Life Cycle for top dressing or amending the base soil of your choice, if you want more input.

 

[Blazeee]

Hey guys I'm going to be starting a new grow soon and I want to go fully organic this time but I've only ever grown in coco before. Does anyone have any recommendations for a good premade organic soil I can find in the uk. Ideally I would have liked to make my own super soil but I live in a pretty small flat so don't really have the space for that.

My local hydro shop sells biobizz, canna terra and sohum living soil. I was originally planning on going with the sohum because they claim to be water only but I've been reading a lot of mixed reviews so I'm not too sure now especially as it costs 3 times as much as the others. Are there any other brands from a non hydro shop I should try?

I'd ideally like a soil I can feed with a tea once or twice a week and just plain water the rest of the time. That's actually one of the reasons I want to switch to organic because mixing up 5 different bottles every day was a pain in the ass as well as all the other benefits of organics.

Thanks for any suggestions

If I were you and wanting to go organic I would just keep it simple, bag of all mix, bio grow or fishmix, bio-bloom, topmax and maybe some azos and great white to add in at transplant or water in periodically. By the looks of it you could pick up a 50l all mix, and 500ml grow, bloom and topmax for less than 1 bag of that sohum stuff.

I would only buy that sohum stuff if the intention were to buy it once then re-ammend it afterwards, but at that point you would probably be better off just mixing your own soil.

 

[bleepboop]

That 2nd batch of ecothrive/indoor organics mix is definitely a step up from sohum and easily as well distributed. Decent enough value.

Moorland gold as mentioned
dalefoot wool/bracken compost is a possibility without needing much aeration adding.
melcourts sylvagrow organic coir/bark fines mix has ended up mixed in with some of mine before and is good value

 

[DanTheReggaeFan]

The first thing to consider is that peat moss is NOT certificated as organic in the UK because Peat is considered an endangered resource. That said, most of our peat comes from Ireland where they STILL burn it in power stations to generate electricity.. and the quantity used by british gardeners is fairly small compared to this... so personally i use peat in my mixes. Peat free bagged soil simply isn;t as good. Moorland gold is peat but it is filtered from stream water and as such it is allowed to be called organic.


For a bagged soil, Jack's magic is pretty good. Peat based but apart form that the ingredients are natural afaik.

Recently i have been using 8 parts; jacks magic , 1 part perlite and 1 part westland topsoil (the jacks magic is peat based and dried out a little too quickly otherwise imo.. the topsoil gives it some body. eta : also i add 1/2 part of worm castings or finished garden compost.
So you need to consider the difference between 'organic' and 'certified' organic by the soil association.

NB, eg, the soil association doesn't consider ANY pot grown plants to be organic unless they are very small plug plants - because of the waste.


VG

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm not too strict on the term organic, just trying to get of the bottled salt based ferts tbh.

What kind of feeding are you doing with that mix Verdant? I'm guessing its not just water for the whole cycle.

 

[DanTheReggaeFan]

Moorland gold - hot on N an you'll need tae feed after the stretch but can do a full veg wi just water easy. Should be sound wi teas and water.

Thanks. What kind of teas would you suggest for after the stretch?

 

[DanTheReggaeFan]

That 2nd batch of ecothrive/indoor organics mix is definitely a step up from sohum and easily as well distributed. Decent enough value.

Moorland gold as mentioned
dalefoot wool/bracken compost is a possibility without needing much aeration adding.
melcourts sylvagrow organic coir/bark fines mix has ended up mixed in with some of mine before and is good value

Thanks for the suggestions. I was lookiing at the ecothrive stuff as well but its the same thing with the sohum, I just don't know if I can justify to myself paying £40 for a bag of soil. Especially when i'd need at least 4

 

[VerdantGreen]

HI dan, i tend to start feeding a bit of biobizz bloom in the second half... but its not far off water only if the roots have some space when you start flowering.. early days but you can get jack's magic from regular garden centres/diy stores so its cheep and easy. i mixed my own and recycled for years but i needed to change for various reasons.

 

[DanTheReggaeFan]

HI dan, i tend to start feeding a bit of biobizz bloom in the second half... but its not far off water only if the roots have some space when you start flowering.. early days but you can get jack's magic from regular garden centres/diy stores so its cheep and easy. i mixed my own and recycled for years but i needed to change for various reasons.

That's better than I thought. Yeah I saw my local garden centre stocks jack's magic and it's pretty cheap so I think I might go for this mix. What size pots would you suggest for a 1.2m x 1.2m tent? I was thinking maybe 4 50L rhizos or do you think I could get away with more smaller pots because I do like variety in my garden? Sorry for all the questions but this will be my first soil run and don't want to mess it up.

 

[flylowgethigh]

Good luck. I am doing 4each 10 gal bags in my 4 x 4 (1.2x1.2) in soil. Good choice using quality pre-made bag soil. How do you plan to water?

 

[VerdantGreen]

That's better than I thought. Yeah I saw my local garden centre stocks jack's magic and it's pretty cheap so I think I might go for this mix. What size pots would you suggest for a 1.2m x 1.2m tent? I was thinking maybe 4 50L rhizos or do you think I could get away with more smaller pots because I do like variety in my garden? Sorry for all the questions but this will be my first soil run and don't want to mess it up.

Yeah, its at the expensive end of garden centre bagged soil but still much cheaper than anything from a hydro store lol, i think it needs tweaking a little like i said but so far seems to be working well. I think you could do more plants in smaller pots for sure, my rule of thumb tends to be that the pots, however many, need to be big enough to pretty much cover the base of the tent without big gaps inbetween them. Remember that you can get quite a few bits like worm castings from amazon.
VG

 

[Veggia farmer]

That's better than I thought. Yeah I saw my local garden centre stocks jack's magic and it's pretty cheap so I think I might go for this mix. What size pots would you suggest for a 1.2m x 1.2m tent? I was thinking maybe 4 50L rhizos or do you think I could get away with more smaller pots because I do like variety in my garden? Sorry for all the questions but this will be my first soil run and don't want to mess it up.

I recommend a bed 1,2 X 1,2 X 40cm! Been a bed grower the last decade, loving it and rocking! Yeah! hehehe. But IM serious

 

[DanTheReggaeFan]

I recommend a bed 1,2 X 1,2 X 40cm! Been a bed grower the last decade, loving it and rocking! Yeah! hehehe. But IM serious

Funny you should say that, I was actually contemplating that at work today. Roughly how much soil would this need?

 

[Veggia farmer]

Im a little bit hung over so my math head is still resting. But if I remember somewhat correctly its 576L if you fill it all the way. I have "hot soil"/compost in the bottom and hydroton or hydroton/coco mix at the top. Testing the difference with having coco and not. I think I will further just have hydroton because of the cleanness.

 

[DanTheReggaeFan]

Im a little bit hung over so my math head is still resting. But if I remember somewhat correctly its 576L if you fill it all the way. I have "hot soil"/compost in the bottom and hydroton or hydroton/coco mix at the top. Testing the difference with having coco and not. I think I will further just have hydroton because of the cleanness.

Thanks. Unfortunately I think I'll give the bed a miss this time, I'm only going to be mixing up about 200-250L of soil this time. When I'm in a better location than just a small flat tho I'll definitely be giving it a go