EarthGro Potting Soil from Home Depot

Astralsearcher

Astralsearcher

Well-Known Member
is anyone familiar with this soil? i was trying to find something at home depot for starting germinated seeds, but they dont have much to choose from and half their stuff is miracle grow.
I found this earthgro potting soil which seemed like it has all natural ingredients without much fertilizers. here is a link:

Product Information Error Page
dont know why it says error page but i think it works.

so im hoping this will start some plants for me, im new at this!
thanks in advance for any help.
 
HiAzHeLL

HiAzHeLL

Well-Known Member
yeah it wont come up but as long as it has pearlite for drainage and check to see if it has continueous release nutes if it has anything like that or extended release nutes then dont use it those types of soil seem to suck for growing pot
 
Astralsearcher

Astralsearcher

Well-Known Member
here is what it says for ingredients on the bag:

Ingredients: This Product is regionally formulated from organic materials (primarily derived from one or more of the following: Hypnum Peat, forest products or compost), sand, perlite, and a wetting agent.

so besides not knowing what hypnum peat and forest products are exactly or what compost they used exactly, this seemed like good soil to me since i dont see any nutes or anything besides natural products.
 
B

Bamstone

Well-Known Member
If there is a hydro shop or garden store that carries Fox Farm OCean Forrest, use that. Nothing you get at Home Depot will even come close. That goes for price too, FFOF is $22 a bag, but worth it for what you want to do.
 
Astralsearcher

Astralsearcher

Well-Known Member
yea i was hoping to find some FF OF and light warrior and all that, and of course my noob ass walks into home depot thinking i might find it there. i tried the local stores (none are specialty stores at all), and no fox farms to be found anywhere. so ended up with my earthgro. it was only 4.77 though so if it doesnt work out i wont be out much dough.
 
Astralsearcher

Astralsearcher

Well-Known Member
here is an update on this soil: something is not working and i think it is the soil. what i think the problem is, there are a lot of little sticks and root like things in the soil, when i say a lot i mean a Lot, and i think the plant cant grow through them.

i planted one germinated seed, albeit an old seed, on halloween. by yesterday (6 days later) it still hadnt come up out of the soil, so i did some exploratory (knowing this would kill a new plant but i had to see what was going on) and i found in the soil what looked like the beginning of a plant, two leaves kinda folded together and curled in. so it seemed like it started to grow but couldnt push up through the sticks.

so now im off to find something new or something to mix this stuff with. i could be wrong in my scientific method here (or stonerific method) but i think the soil is stopping the plants from growing, from having too many sticks and such.
although i dont know how long it normally takes a seed to come up from the soil, most journals i read people say 2 or 3 days. so that is what i have been kinda going by.
 
Astralsearcher

Astralsearcher

Well-Known Member
So here is my final word on EarthGro potting soil from Home Depot: Do not buy it. 100% bad for starting plants. It is full of sticks and roots (i mean really full, like thats all it is mostly) and your plants will not be able to grow up or down through it.
 
la9

la9

Well-Known Member
How close is a place that sells Pro Mix to you ?

http://www.premierhort.com/eProMix/Gardening/RetailerLocator/fRetailerLocator.htm

Pro Mix Organic is the best way to go.


If you have to buy unknown soil, what you need to look for is that it says it is safe for seedlings, then you should be OK. Also Peat based is another thing to look for if you have to compare two brands. If it contains fertilizer and it does not say safe for seedlings then your plants should pretty decent size when using to be on the safe side. The last option is just to buy some and put a clone in it and see what happens.
 
Astralsearcher

Astralsearcher

Well-Known Member
Thanks for the suggestions bro! but guess what i found yesterday only a few miles from my house... Fox Farms Ocean Forest for 15$ a bag! so needless to say i am starting anew, i even was able to take a stunted seedling that managed to start growing a little in my crap soil and transplant it into the FFOF yesterday, and in one day it has already started to perk up! i swear i can almost see it growing!
i actually got two bags of soil, one was Basement, it seems pretty awesome too.. but this is a story for my grow thread!
Keep the Faith!
 
la9

la9

Well-Known Member
Cool !!!! $15 is a good deal on that soil, I'm glad you found it. I wish you the best of luck on your grow !!!
 
B

Bamstone

Well-Known Member
Excellent! Congratulations on the find and the price. If you continue to have problems using FFOF, you should try different seeds.

I wish I could find FFOF at a garden store and not a "Hydro" shop where everybody knows what you are going to use the stuff for and no one will argue the price.
 
whiteflour

whiteflour

Well-Known Member
I've been using their steer manure with good results in the garden. Added it to my fox farm mix as well but haven't transplanted yet. I didn't really care for their potting soil though it had way too many sticks. I did use it in my flower beds and I've had a few autos sprout fine there.
 
D

DankyDoodle

Well-Known Member
The Earthgro potting soil is not a bad soil. It does have a lot of organic matter in it, and thats ok. PH was right at 6.8 out of the bag. I found that it does need to be ammended with perlite for drainage. I added some Earthgro composted Humus and Manure to it, and I have nothing bad to say about it really. It is not however a good choice to use as a starter medium. Also have found that teas made from the Humus and manure mix work pretty good as a foliar, and as a nutrient solution. Thats my experience with it anyway.
 
DumpsterKeeper

DumpsterKeeper

Well-Known Member
I've just started two seedlings with EarthGro potting soil and while it did take a bit longer than expected for them to come up, they have both sprung from the ground. I think it may be a good idea to crumble this stuff up A LOT when you're preparing your new pot. It's kinda compressed straight out of the bag, but it breaks up pretty nicely. That being said I have found a couple little sticks in mine, but not too many. Maybe you just got a bad batch?

Also, the bag says there's perlite in it, but it doesn't look like it has too much. May be adding some more to the mixture when I transplant.
 
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