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soil soil for a beginner

Malarky

Malarky

So I read the soil sticky and I'm just looking for a mix to get plants from the seed to the ground. Not dedicated container plantings. I do not have access to compost or the elusive pine bark fines. Everyone says MG is awful. Is there an easy mix to throw together (that doesn't involve weedeating pinenuggets in a trash can) or a recommended variety that I might easily source from walmart/homedepot?
 
help! Thankyou
 
I use this from home depot for the last 3 years and add my own compost to it when I plant in my raised beds/containers. It is also what I use with all my fruit and citrus trees
 
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Kellogg-Garden-Organics-3-cu-ft-Raised-Bed-and-Potting-Mix-Premium-Outdoor-Container-Mix-649/204643152
 
From its description:
 
 
Raised Bed and Potting Mix comes ready to use - no mixing is required. It has added kelp meal, poultry manure, and bat guano, providing your plants with premium nutrients to help them grow healthy and productive and coir for greater water retention. It has a slightly more woody texture than traditional potting soil, allowing the perfect balance of moisture retention, porosity for good drainage, and a carbon food source to promote a rich microbial environment in your soil that will result in more healthy plants. Use Kellogg Garden Organics Raised Bed and Potting Mix for your potted plants. Its formulation is Organic Materials Review Institute (OMRI) listed. You can be certain you are using a credible organic product in your garden. Look for the OMRI logo found on all Kellogg Garden Organics soils and fertilizers, giving you assurance you are using a product that is proven organic. Since 1925, family owned and operated Kellogg Garden Products have been producing quality organic soils and fertilizers and is committed to using natural, earth friendly ingredients to create credible organic products for your garden.
 
I mix a 2.8 cu ft bag of Fafard 3B with a 1 cu ft bag of Jolly Gardner compost, and mix a quart of so of extra perlite. There is some perlite in the Fafard mix already. I'll use MG if I need it right away and am out of the Fafard mix. I also mix a little bit of 14-14-14, Osmocote, or some other slow release per instructions on bag, but in cups you have to be really careful not to use too much. For a 20 oz cup, maybe a 1/2 tsp or less. At Southern Ag, a bag of the Farard 3B is 11.60, and bag of organic compost manure is 2.50. A 4 cu ft bag of perlite is 10.40.
 
Hawaiianero said:
I start my seeds in Fox Farms Ocean Forest. Excellent results for me. Cheapest that I found locally was in an Ace Hardware store.
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That's what I used this year from germinating my seeds.
 
you definitely don't have to weed eat pine lol
 
ProMix HP or BX is good should be able to find it at depot or somewhere. Miracle grow is fine i would just suggest you add more perlite (25-50%) to it to make it drain faster.
 
I've started mine the past few years in MG because, well, that's all I had, and it worked fine. This year my starting mix was 4 parts MG (cactus mix and moisture control), 1 part perlite, 1 part vermiculite, and 1 part sand. All of the hot peppers seemed to like it a lot, the sweet peppers not so much.
 
All my MG is gone now, thank goodness, and I have switched to Fox Farms Ocean Forrest. As others have mentioned, they say great things about it and Ace has it for $14/bag. I started some late seedlings in a similar mix with FF soil, and will be re-potting all of them into the new mix when they get bigger. Never again with MG, glad those days are behind me.
 
Good luck.
 
Malarky said:
So I read the soil sticky and I'm just looking for a mix to get plants from the seed to the ground. Not dedicated container plantings. I do not have access to compost or the elusive pine bark fines. Everyone says MG is awful. Is there an easy mix to through together (that doesn't involve weedeating pinenuggets in a trash can) or a recommended variety that I might easily source from walmart/homedepot?
 
help! Thankyou
Click to expand...
Lots of good suggestions here. For me, it would depend on how many plants I had and what there final pot size would be before going to ground. If I didn't have to big of containers and didn't need a bunch of soil. I would go with what I could afford. I have neighbors that use MG and other similar products with great results. Then there is the whole organic issue. To me, if I was going from solo cups to ground it wouldn't matter organic or not, all though I try to go as organic as possible. My nutrients are 90+% organic. To me the most important time to be organic is fruit stage. For starting out seedlings, use what you can afford and is available. Like I said it depends on how many bags you need. It gets pretty expensive when you start filling multiple gallons and dozens of plants. I had to make mine from scratch because of that reason. Don't over fertilize or water and most likely you'll do fine with whatever you choose.

Good luck
 
Malarky said:
So I read the soil sticky and I'm just looking for a mix to get plants from the seed to the ground. Not dedicated container plantings. I do not have access to compost or the elusive pine bark fines. Everyone says MG is awful. Is there an easy mix to through together (that doesn't involve weedeating pinenuggets in a trash can) or a recommended variety that I might easily source from walmart/homedepot?
 
help! Thankyou
Click to expand...
 
I am not sure what you are asking.
 
Do you want a mix for starting seeds before you transplant into the ground (not containers), or a soil amendment to help enhance your natural dirt?
 
I plan on paper towel method for germination, going into solo cups, then into the ground. If anything gets really big really fast, I'll pot up to a milk jug before ground.
 
SavinaRed said:
I use this from home depot for the last 3 years and add my own compost to it when I plant in my raised beds/containers. It is also what I use with all my fruit and citrus trees
 
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Kellogg-Garden-Organics-3-cu-ft-Raised-Bed-and-Potting-Mix-Premium-Outdoor-Container-Mix-649/204643152
 
From its description:
 
 
Raised Bed and Potting Mix comes ready to use - no mixing is required. It has added kelp meal, poultry manure, and bat guano, providing your plants with premium nutrients to help them grow healthy and productive and coir for greater water retention. It has a slightly more woody texture than traditional potting soil, allowing the perfect balance of moisture retention, porosity for good drainage, and a carbon food source to promote a rich microbial environment in your soil that will result in more healthy plants. Use Kellogg Garden Organics Raised Bed and Potting Mix for your potted plants. Its formulation is Organic Materials Review Institute (OMRI) listed. You can be certain you are using a credible organic product in your garden. Look for the OMRI logo found on all Kellogg Garden Organics soils and fertilizers, giving you assurance you are using a product that is proven organic. Since 1925, family owned and operated Kellogg Garden Products have been producing quality organic soils and fertilizers and is committed to using natural, earth friendly ingredients to create credible organic products for your garden.
Click to expand...
 
You might want to see what Kellogg is putting into their products.
 
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Kellogg_Garden_Products
 
I think you might be interested in miracle grow organic.This bagged mix doesnt have the high and fast nitrogen that people dont like too much.This bagged mix can be found at most big box stores.Quite affordable to boot.
 
Myxlplyk said:
 
You might want to see what Kellogg is putting into their products.
 
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Kellogg_Garden_Products
Click to expand...
Wow I did not know that. I've used kelloggs in the past to amend my soil mainly because of the OMRI rating.
I don't mind chicken or rabbit manure but got no interest in human waste. Worst part is, I think there are worse components in the sewer system than human crap.
No Bwayyyy-No!!
(Yeah I spelled it wrong but I spelled it like I say it)
 
Looks like I can find fox farm ocean forest for 6.99 for 12qt. Is this stuff ready to go for solo cups or should I blend in a percentage of perlite?

Regarding the Kellogg's stuff...does composting destroy all the pharmaceuticals in sewage? That's crazy.
 
Malarky said:
Looks like I can find fox farm ocean forest for 6.99 for 12qt. Is this stuff ready to go for solo cups or should I blend in a percentage of perlite?
Click to expand...
 
 
It should be ready to go, but you could experiment with adding perlite to some and see if it makes a difference. I added some to mine but have no idea if it was beneficial, just guessing it might help.
 
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