How come nobody is mentioning Fox Farms planting mix??

yea man, i agree with you 100%. my plants have only been growing for about 3 weeks, but they seem to love it. and everyone else says f.f. is the best. expensive but you get what you pay for!

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I agree with most of you guys that the Fox Farms is the best pre-mixed organic soil mix to use. It gives the little darlin's just what they need. There is an alternative, however, which I believe works just as well and cuts down on costs a little. It is possible to make your own "fox farms ocean soil" mix. the basic recipie for the fox farms mix is something like this:
65% organic potting soil
10% coco fibers or peat / sphagnum moss
10% perlite
10% vermiculite
5% earthworm castings / bat guano
+ an organic proprietary blend of crushed seashells. fish meal, and all other sorts of great oceanic nutrients.

While this may not be the EXACT recipe, It's pretty darn close. Fox Farms makes an organic fertilizer mix called "seafood dinner for your plants" or something like that, from what i understand it is basically the same stuff they put in the ocean soil mix. so if you can get your hands on some of that (its between $10 - $15 bucks for 4 pounds of it, which goes a really long way), all you need to do is buy a quality organic potting soil. The stuff I use is produced about 40 miles from where i live and is really high quality, but also not too pricey at under $4 per cu. ft.
So you get a high quality organic soil. mix in a proper dose of the "seafood for plants," add the appropriate ammounts of coco, perlite, vermiculite, and either earthworm castings, bat guano, or both and you have your own Fox Farms quality potting soil at a more economical price. I have used the Fox Farms pre-mixed in the past and while I find it works excellently i believe this DIY version is just as good. sometime in the near future i will try doing a side-by-side grow with clones and see if my claims hold up in a more scientific setting.
Anyway, if you swear by fox farms, go ahead, it is truly great soil, perhaps they best you can buy. but if you are strapped for cash, try this and you may be surprised by the results.

Thanks marijuana joe for pointing that out to the DIY'ers out there...

Still I have to say I have done DIY soil, as well as the OCeans Farms...

and for ease and no needed mixing, the cost is close....

I'm using Ocean Forest for transplanting plants outside (although I guess the "planting mix" is better for that as OF is for pots), but I also have a habanero plant inside in a pot and after... 1 1/2-2 months the soil is pretty hard. I wish I had mixed in some more perlite in with it to make it lighter.

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What I just posted is total fiction^

True. Price is dependant on many factors, none of which seem to be driving prices down. fox farms, basically all of thier soils, get the job done great and it is a really easy way to go. If you want to go DIY be sure you know what you are doing. I personally have a slightly different recipe than the one i listed above, Ive changed it very slightly it to suit my personal needs. this last time around i did the math and i saved a little less than 25%, but prices for fox farm can vary a great deal. i have a grow company product catalog and they list MSRP for the fox farms ocean forest as between $11.99 - $16.99, so if you have a store that sells at the low end of the spectrum, by all means buy the pre-mix. but if your local store sells it for almost $17 bucks (like the douch-nozzle at my local hydro shop) then mix it yourself.

yeah we have douch nozzles here too $19.95 a bag...

I started using coco...

$19.95 for a bag or dirt?!?! I mean, c'mon, you can dress it up with worm and bat shit, and ground up shellfish, but thats really what it is. I have a horticultural dealer catalogue and like I said the MAX reccomended price for the 1.5 cu. ft. (I think thats the usual size) is $16.99... Thats 3 dollars less than your blood-sucker charges, and its the MAXIMUM reccomended price. I guess thats why its only 'reccommended', so greedy bastards can charge twice what they paid.

If your supplier sold crack instead of plant supplies, thats called a double up... and it's pretty shady business practice. I mean... crack dealers do it.

One more thing: Douche nozzle is one of the best insults insults ever invented. I spelled it douch before and douche this time... Any chicks that can clarifythe spelling of this? I dont want to look uneducated whilst calling someone a douche-nozzle.

If I want to drive 45 miles to the city I can get it for $18 a bag, is it just my part of the country????

Like I had said a little bit before $40 for 8 cu ft of coco... I havent looked back since..

But damn coco sucks when you have to "fluff' it up, alot and alot of work...

ALOT, I will spend a week just fluffing up that much coco, and then its all super wet and you have to let it dry out a bit before it makes it to the pots, PLUS even though they "supposedly fixed" the salt issues the EC readings I get off mine is ridiculous so I have to "wash" it all before I use it.

Not to mention all the wierd shit you find in the compressed coco (leaves, pebbles, Straw, Bamboo pieces, even found a cigarette butt once...)

I like hydro for that reason (no mess) but its just not economical for me....