what is hands down the best thing to look for in an organic soil? I know FFOF is good and dolomite lime is very helpful for pH but am also wondering about a brand called Black Gold if anyone has heard of that. Or MG organics how are those comparing? Pretty good i would assume.

Never used black gold but the people on here who use it swear by it. FFOF is good but is way overpriced imo. Roots organics is some great stuff too. After this grow I'm going to go with coco coir for at least one grow because of the increase in yield over peat based mixes. If it works out i'll probably stick with it.

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"If you wanna win, CHEAT! If you lose, start a FIGHT!" - very wise man

coco great stuff lot of water retention use a good amount of ammendment 50/50 also careful with dry pockets

ffof is the best and i have to dis agree its not too expensive u can get a big ass bag for 20 buck or 12 quarts for 6 bucks

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sippin drank,and blowin kill

You can get bags of really good soil for 5-7 dollars cheaper than what you'll pay for the fox farms unless you're close to where it's made. That being said I'm still useing it but since I've grown one plant in coco as a test I think i'm going over to the dark side (coco hydro and possibly even synthetic nutes)

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"If you wanna win, CHEAT! If you lose, start a FIGHT!" - very wise man

come to the dark side my friend... my next grow will be a coco drip system. i love my ebb and flow though. i was actually planning a 50/50 mix of coco drip and soil so im excited to compare the two. I think ill end up using one of the foxfarm soils. roots organics isnt sold in my area too often. we will see though thats still a few weeks out so who knows if they have some im going to try subcool's super soil with some of it.

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so the coco seems to be a favorite what nutrients do you use with those? my problem with coco is it looks to require a looot of water and a good drainage system

Ok so I purchased Black Gold Waterhold Potting Soil Cocoblend
Sphagnum Peat Moss
Coco Coir Pith
Pumice/perlite
Worm Castings
Dolomite lime
Yucca Extract (wetting agent)

And have several starts that are going into small cups of this soil for rooting starting purposes, check my grow journal http://www.rollitup.org/grow-journals/274075-teddypickles-grows-fat-nugs.html

hey friend, couldn't help but give you some alternatives: After getting burnt on alot of bagged soil and not wanting to pay shipping charges for promix or foxfarm, i have come up and researched some soil combinations for the grower who would rather do it all and control it all. So, Here we go: Some mixes are extrememly simple, while other are more complex. I have used at least 4 of these mixes for both mary jane and as an additive for my vegetable garden, all with success.

1st off- a simple combo of 60% organics potting mix (self made) 15% perlite, 10% horticulture sand, and 5% sphegam moss.

2nd mix- 30% worm castings, 30% vermiculite, 20% perlite, 20 % peat moss

3rd mix- 40% composted soil, 30% worm castings, 20% perlite, 10% guano ( I prefer a lower nitrogen guano, as i use BMO to keep all numbers in check)

4th mix- 1qt. perlite, 1qt vermiculite, 2 qts. worm castings, 1 qt. compost or organic potting soil, 1/4 cup high nitro bat guano 10-3-1, 1/2 cup dolomite lime powder, during flowering add 1 teaspoon horticluturegrade epsom salts per gallon of water, add 1 table spoon of horticulture grade sand, generally water every 3 days.

5th mix- 1/3 perlite, 1/3 peat moss,
1/3 compost or organic potting soil, a cup of worm castings, and a cup of guano.

You will still want to nute around the 4 week ( preferably organic like BMO) and start out with bigger pots, because i've noticed that my plants did not like getting transplanted at all. Could be coincidence though.

A helpful equation to use is : 2 parts moss, one part horticulture sand, one part perlite to each 4 gallons of soil...