Best store bought soil mix?

[JohnKimble]

Never get this stuff called "moisture control" it takes forever to dry. Your pots will always be wet as you water your plant every 3 days with several hundred ppm of nutrients.

 

[larry badiner]

Hydro stores carry soil mixes and some are pretty good, I bought this one soil that was heavily ferted, I got really dark green leaves on the papaya I grew using that soil

 

[chomsky]

What do you guys think about pro mix over ffof?

I tried a new route for my current grow. Im throwing up DNA Super Lemon Skunk from seed. I decided to use a mix of 75% pro mix and 25% Ocean Forest with pearlite. Im using Techniflora nutes exactly as prescribed by Techniflora. Im PH'ing my water to 6.5 and Ive never had better results. Im closely monitoring my temps at 80 and my RH at 60%. My seeds grew to 30 inches in 19 days. I just flipped and can't wait to see the end results. Gonna drop RH to 50-55% and temps to 75 to 78...

 

[med-man]

i love to mix 40-45% promix : 40-45% gold label coco : 5-10% hydroton

telling you, its like doing water culture with the growth rates and or a coco grow with a soil type feeding schedule

good luck

med-man

 

[FunkBomb]

Dr. Earth and Espoma potting soils are a good choice if available. They are not as hot as Ocean Forest. I have yet to try Roots Organics, I hear nothing but good things about them.

-Funk

 

[friendly530]

i love roots ive used the roots original and promix for a great super soil mix (burones)also i used both alone i recently have filled a greenhouse with roots 707 but so far so good 707 retains the water a little better according to the website i will see soon i used to have good results with ffof but i feel it has slipped in quality over the past years since the roots aphid problem which many soils had

 

[EastBayGrower]

yeah i second roots 707, only soil i use now, and thats using it make my own mix like everyone else said, main ingrediant is peat from home depot at $12 for 6 cft uncompressed, then some worm castings, roots 707, and california humus w/ added perlite....

ive tried all the ff, pure coco, peat based, ect.. nothing beats roots 707 out of a bag and nothing beats mixing your own for bulk.... end of conversation imo lol

the tupar does look interesting, might look into the mendo mix for outdoor in norcal next year if its cheaper then roots 707 and it tests out ok, anyone have experience with tupar mendo mix? ... off to google now...

edit: i did find a site with all the bagged soils lab tests to show available nutes, maybe that would help you decide a bit...

 

[Skeeterass]

Is anyone screening their soil.. I've been finding tons of rocks, sticks, glass and plastic in Scott's topsoil. I'm using it for a worm compost bin.

 

[Pinetar]

East bay grower can you post a link to this soil comparison chart. Im trying baccto elite this time, amended with ewc and forest humice

 

[Redbuddz]

Pro Mix has NO nutes, it's what's known as a soil less( NO real soil) it's just peat moss. You will have to fertilize start to finish. It really doesn't matter what soil you choose, soil less or real. It really all comes down to what YOU want to do with your fertilizer. Chemical ferts or organic? the benefits of organic is a healthier plant/root zone and you can re use the soil. Chemical ferts are cheaper but you have to closely monitor it's usage properly and you really can't re use the soil because of salt build ups.

I used Pro Mix for many years. It's an excellent soil less mix. I have since moved to soil. I'm now using either RootsOrganics or FFOF. They're basically the same as far as nutrient levels, the one difference is the size of the perlite. Roots has large pieces of perlite.

Hope that helps

 

[Mtnhaze]

Switched to FFOF on 3rd run, and using it start to finish. I mix 2 parts FFOF to 1 part Coarse Perlite. Drains fast but works really well with 5gal smart pots. Have not experienced any "hotness" when using FFOF. Seeds loved it. Started ferts after 3 weeks. Using Big Bloom, Grow Big, and Tiger Bloom.

Soil is fun to play around with, good luck with whatever you choose!

 

[trichrider]

yeah i second roots 707, only soil i use now, and thats using it make my own mix like everyone else said, main ingrediant is peat from home depot at $12 for 6 cft uncompressed, then some worm castings, roots 707, and california humus w/ added perlite....

ive tried all the ff, pure coco, peat based, ect.. nothing beats roots 707 out of a bag and nothing beats mixing your own for bulk.... end of conversation imo lol

the tupar does look interesting, might look into the mendo mix for outdoor in norcal next year if its cheaper then roots 707 and it tests out ok, anyone have experience with tupar mendo mix? ... off to google now...

edit: i did find a site with all the bagged soils lab tests to show available nutes, maybe that would help you decide a bit...

don't be stash with that link friend...

 

[snake11]

Is anyone screening their soil.. I've been finding tons of rocks, sticks, glass and plastic in Scott's topsoil. I'm using it for a worm compost bin.

Scotts=Monsanto



There's probably more then just rocks, sticks, glass, and plastic in there!!

 

[amanda88]

Is anyone screening their soil.. I've been finding tons of rocks, sticks, glass and plastic in Scott's topsoil. I'm using it for a worm compost bin.

Scotts as in 'miracle grow' or any other Scotts stuff is actually owned by Monsanto (evil) ]corp Ltd, you may expect to find any and all strange sh!t in their ...Avoid?

Screening i've done when I've attempted to re use my soils, great for removing bits of root, of which I've learned to keep in the mix ....for M_Fungi reasons..?

 

[Three Berries]

My first grow was a peat based mix with .5.5.5 nutes mixed it. It retained water quit a bit. I then tried a 50 lb bag of sand and some small chip limestone to help with the drainage and just make up more volume with less peat. This is what I am on now. With bone dry soil in 10 qt pails I added a 1/2 gallon of 50% 15.30.15 water soluble.

Plants are doing great, been a month and have not needed to water again yet. Fert levels are good, pH is right at 7 and plenty of moisture.

I may add some sort of organic inert matter the next time to get less water retention.

 

[symbiote420]

You're better off making your own soil with something like ProMix, SS#4, etc and using ewc instead of compost.... the possibilities of bringing in nasty little critters and other problems! Almost no worse feeling than getting the best genetics, enviro, nutes, etc together to find that your weakest link is the "quality" soil you paid $$$ for. I've bought and used almost every brand mention so far and I've always found some type of bs in it like gnats, roots aphids, etc.... if you gonna use any pre amended bagged potting soil be wise and pretreat it. I usually pour it out and add DE, place in a tote and water it with Gnatrol.... I've lost enough seeds and cuttings to slippin' on pretreating bagged soil to know. Most of the companies have got slick and started adding Hypoasis Miles (soil mites) in the bags but that's still not enough. Building up from a soilless mix offers a sterile starting ground.