Best store bought soil mix?

brainzfuxed · Jul 27, 2015

Hey all
I am running some in coco right now but want to start a baby off in soil. What is the best store bought soil? Thanks want to run maxibloom in it thanks

betshtick · Jul 27, 2015

I dunno if there is a single best, just depends... Each company tends to sell a coco, a soilless blend, a potting mix and a hotter, longer feeding soil.

It comes mostly down to your preference in water retention vs. draining and how much fertilizer, if any you want and if you care if it's organic. From there I can't tell much difference between brands other than texture (e.g. biobizz is super finely chopped, roots is more coarse... FFOF and Greenfields are both hot, but Geenfields is for long veg FFOF is good for bloom, but not full organic).

Nowdays I just buy what's on sale when I'm too lazy to rehydrate 5kg coco bricks.

brainzfuxed · Jul 29, 2015

Zipsort · Jul 29, 2015

I've always liked ocean forest or happy frog

amanda88 · Jul 29, 2015

brainzfuxed said:
Hey all
I am running some in coco right now but want to start a baby off in soil. What is the best store bought soil? Thanks want to run maxibloom in it thanks

The best has to be FOX Farm Ocean Forest but mixed with 30% perlite,
to avoid root compaction and nute burn ..no nutes for 2-3 weeks its a hot mix!

larry badiner · Jul 30, 2015

I've grown plants from seed to harvest using roots organic soil and watering with nothing but tap water, no deficiencies or even need for calmag or even a flush, downside is the buds weren't that huge, but guano tea can fix that

Jibman · Jul 30, 2015

What's best is subjective, But Ocean Forest works fine for me. I don't add any perlite. I did once and i had some issues that i never had before or since so i stick with what works for me and the strains that i have.

Zipsort · Aug 1, 2015

yeah def don't add anything if you go ocean forest as mentioned the stuff is hot

m314 · Aug 2, 2015

I've mostly used my own mixes over the years, but I've gone with Fox Farm since 2012ish. I've had excellent results using Light Warrior for seedlings and a 50/50 mix of Light Warrior and Ocean Forest for veg and flower.

waveguide · Aug 2, 2015

soil...

soil manufs. source locally, so the FFOF in california isn't the same as the FFOF in someplace else.

if there were a single brand that reliably provided quality soil, americans would largely not bother mixing their own, but they do.. the reason is because as time progresses, these companies must continually provide "the same product" but how do you do that in a finite world...

black gold today isn't much like black gold 20 years ago. they'd probably like you to believe it is, though.

it really is worth edifying yourself in the process of selecting and sourcing materials to compose your medium with your budget.. that's life you're preserving, or destroying by buying a bunch of crap.. it's kinda important stuff..

personally, i prefer BG or FF over other options, but amended with perlite is nice and real mineral content.. not just azomite or something but actual sand and clay.. i figure plants are used to that stuff..

from what i understand, we have impending ag problems with shortages of magnesium and phosphate. P is available mainly from soft rock phosphate or from biological source, bones or chitin.. and i understand chitin is the best source for plant availability and offers other benefits. so culturing your own soil, with insects, is imo a better idea than consuming the deposits of soft rock phosphate. kind of fun to read about, because this shit could keep you alive.

brainzfuxed · Aug 3, 2015

What do you guys think about pro mix over ffof?

stoned-trout · Aug 3, 2015

none of them are as good as making your own...quality varies so doesn't bug content lol.....pro mix is a good base as well as many other brands containing the same stuff.. the price has gone up a lot I have noticed..homedepot is 25 per 2.2 cubic for hp .. I used to get fafard for like 13$ 3.8 bale. when buying pallets full..using a cement mixer makes it easy to mix own .. I miss mine a lot..hand mixing sucks ass..yeehaw

Hemphrey Bogart · Aug 3, 2015

Vermisoil ftw. For young plants/seedlings, I like to put a bottom layer of Vermifire, then use Vermisoil on top of that. Vermifire is pretty hot by itself.

HB.

stoned-trout · Aug 3, 2015

comparing ffof to pro mix isn't fair... pro mix is a base without much ,,peat,perlite,ph stabilizer,ect.. ffof is amended with nute sources...I prefer pro mix or equivilant and if ya look there is usually something similar cheaper depending where ya are..yeehaw..if your running maxibloom no need for ffof...

J.A.Grower · Aug 4, 2015

ya if you grab some earth worm castings.. some guano.. bone meal. blood meal.. and a few other amendments.. u can make a better mix then FFOF with PROMIX as your BASE

Cannavore · Aug 4, 2015

Ditto on making your own. It's much cheaper in the long run when you buy in bulk.

trichrider · Aug 4, 2015

http://www.humboldtwholesale.com/royal-gold/

basement mix...

luxcultivars · Aug 4, 2015

Quite a few people I know are having great results with Roots Organics soil right out of the bag, as-is. The plants start getting fed about 2 weeks after transplanting. I tried a few bags to do a side-by-side comparison this round. At 2 weeks of flower they look very similar, very healthy.

My usual mix is 1/2 FFOF and 1/2 either Pro Mix or Sunshine #4. It works great but I get really tired of the mixing. I like to use a fairly neutral soil mix and then top feed. The FFOF adds a great base level of nutes and micronutes.

I also think that people who brag about not feeding their plants either already have a nice rich soil mix or they are buying into some sort of minimalist 'less is better' hype that seems to be the latest trend. I'm all for not overfeeding, but the reality is that plants convert food into flowers. They don't magically create quality flowers out of thin air and water. All you are doing is reducing your yields. Try only eating a slice of bread and some water for 4 weeks and see how well you do with that.

Budracer · Aug 4, 2015

growers gold or dr. earth both have probiotics both available at home depot

Green Squall · Aug 5, 2015

Glad I came across this thread. I've used coco the last few grows, but this is the first time I've used it to start my seeds. They aren't doing too good. I think I'm going back to using a soiless mix for my seedlings, then transplant them into the coco. Has anyone else had problems with using straight coco for seedlings?

Edit: As for store bought soil, I've used this stuff with success. I usually went for their basic potting mix.
http://www.coastofmaine.com/

Best store bought soil mix?

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