Potting Soil Question

[Father'sDaughter]

I went Wondersoil for my grow bags and am never going back.

Thankfully I learned here to never use potting soil, so I started out with potting mix and a little composted manure mixed in. It worked fine, but the bagged potting mix cost a fortune unless I bought the larger bags on sale. And when I bought the big bags, they were a struggle to load into my car, and they were a struggle to unload from the car to the wheelbarrow.

I buy the Wondersoil cubes from Home Depot with free shipping if I spend more than $45 and they're lightweight and easy to move around. As long as I stay on top of watering and fertilizing, I get fantastic yields from my grow bag tomatoes and peppers. Much better than the plants growing in my apparently diseased raised beds.

I'm not really sure what potting soil works for. Maybe they expect you to mix a bunch of stuff into it, where as potting mix is already...mixed????

[AlittleSalt]

I just saw that our son has bought a bag of Earthgro Potting Soil. Here is what is made of in Texas:

Aged pine bark
Sand
Perlite (Not much)

He cut it open and it does hold its shape when squeezed, but not nearly as bad as clay.

We are both doing experiments growing carrots this winter.

He is going to grow one 5 gallon bucket with MG potting mix, and two 5 gallon buckets with the MG potting mix and the Earthgro potting soil mixed together.

My experiment is also with three 5 gallon buckets. One bucket will be Pennington potting mix only, and the other two will have something else mixed in the Pennington potting mix - it won't be potting soil. I have been looking at Just Natural Organic Garden Soil. It is made of Canadian Sphagnum peat moss, processed pine bark and composted forest products. The Pennington mix already has the Canadian Sphagnum peat moss and composted pine bark, but not the composted forest products. I'll look at other options tomorrow.

That way, we can compare to see what works best. -- edit I didn't realize that picture was that big.

[greenthumbomaha]

Robert, I bought 4 bags of that brand at Wal mart, 2 garden soil and 2 potting mix last spring. It is a very heavy mix. I used it in my seedlings and containers and nothing grew well compared to other plants in Miracle Grow mix.

The product has since been reduced from around $5 when I bought it to $1.50 per bag. They had many pallets left over. I was so unhappy with the results that I used two bags of the full price product to fill spots in the lawn, Another poster was also unhappy with the product and also used it (disposed it) in his lawn.

Perhaps you will fare better, but I would not bet all my crop on it. Get a back up.

- Lisa

[AlittleSalt]

Lisa, thank you. I wasn't sold on it either. I needed to see one post/reply on this product. The bag seems too heavy for its size. I want carrots to grow freely without resistance. Your reply agrees with my thinking.

[dmforcier]

Don't rely on the weight of the bag. If they leave them out in the rain they can soak up 400 lbs of water, despite the apparently sealed nature of a plastic bag.

(Doesn't mean that stuff isn't trash. I wonder, does it say "gluten free"?)

[AlittleSalt]

I went and looked today. There were all sorts of mulch in the large bags selling for $1.22 per bag. Lots of varieties of potting soil - some had Bermuda grass growing out of them... A few fully priced potting mix varieties to choose from - that looked like they had gone through a hail storm. No perlite or vermiculite anywhere to be found.

I'll go look somewhere else tomorrow or next week.

[Worth1]

MG organic raised bed soil with perlite added you cant go wrong.
Green bag.

Worth

[Gardeneer]

I wonder why you would want potting soil to grow carrots , if it is going to be in ground !

[AlittleSalt]

The carrots are going to be grown in 5 gallon buckets setting on a table that's 3' above the soil around it.

Worth, that is what I was hoping to find. I did find it online at http://www.homedepot.com/p/Miracle-G...9120/206667302

Some of the bags I read today said they are not for using in outdoor containers. Fine print.

[maxjohnson]

I use Ecoscraps potting mix. Very fresh smelling.

[AlittleSalt]

After showing Jan the picture on post #24, she said, "I saw that at Walmart." ...I didn't. She pointed it out today, and sure enough, it was right in the middle of all the sacks. We bought one. I still need to find and buy some vermiculite or perlite.

In Texas, MG organic raised bed soil is made of:

Compost
Processed Forrest Products
Sphagnum Peat Moss
Poultry Litter

[Cole_Robbie]

I buy vermiculite sold as insulation at Menard's, which is like the upper Midwest's "Mega-Lo Mart" from King of the Hill. I have to go to a nursery or garden center to find perlite in the 3 cubic foot bags. It's a lot cheaper that way. Many of the small bags of vermiculite and perlite have Miracle Grow added to them, which I try to avoid.

[Worth1]

I get the giant bags of perlite and have never bought vermiculite in my life.
I dont have anything against it I have just never bought it.
Worth

Mega Low Mart isn't as Mega Low as a person would think with all of the one line stuff nowadays.

[AlittleSalt]

There's a couple we know that own a nursery/hydroponics place. They buy huge bags of perlite and/or vermiculite by the pallets. I'm sure they'll probably sell us some.

[dmforcier]

There you go. In my experience the big bags are hard to find.