Give Your Local Farm Store a Chance!

So, I'm being a bit OCD in researching before I lay out any cash for my personal medical grow. Growing up gardening in a de facto organic way with my grandmother, helping her tend the compost pile and such, I was frankly struck with a bad case of sticker shock when I began looking into the startup costs of organic growing. I knew there must be a better way than paying out the nose for Fox Farms stuff to someone who can't pronounce mycorrhizae much less tell me what they do. Then I remembered how friendly and helpful my local farm store employees were growing up when my dad's midlife crisis was a hobby farm. So I called my local IFA store today and had a nicely enlightening conversation with the manager. All these prices are for certified organic products intended for use by farmers to grow produce to sell as certified organic:

Their price for a 50lb bag of granulated humate - $13.99
Their MOST expensive bag of fully amended ready to plant in alive and well with beneficial fungi and bacteria soil - $36 for 8 cubic feet
Their store brand soil amended and prestocked with bene's - starting at $10 for a ~20lb sack

These are just a few of the things he mentioned that were amazingly less expensive than at your typical hydro/grow store. These guys are getting their product from the same sources, why don't we let them leverage their relative purchasing power to our advantage? I know I'll be making a trip down to the feed and farm supply store, not the grow shop with the cool dude with dreads, when it's time to buy my soil and such.

Those are really good prices & if I lived in your state I would be doing the samething. Any state that has an IFA I would highly recommend they do thier shopping there. Unfortunately, I live in a state that dont have IFA. I fully agree w/ " give your local farm store a chance" but thier prices are just about the same as the hydro stores. there is alot of hydro stores especially w/ coops being shut down its creating A DYI market that's very profitable any guy w/ a little bit of money & ambition can do alright for himself. So w/ giving the local farm store a chance theroy. I am doing this he's a member of my comunity so my money is going back to the community(in essence cuz who knows what he spends it on). and both of us starting out it's a perfect match.. give your new hydro store a try & I bet they'll work w/ you on any prices. The longer your a customer the better the deals get.

Totally agree - buy local! We have a couple "feed bins" as they're known here - where they can set you up with just about anything you need and most times have 20+ years of experience dealing with this stuff and know better than anyone your regions growing conditions.
On a side note, our local store had a flyer in the local paper the other day - seed starting stuff of all sorts at WAY cheaper prices than online or big box stores like that diseased WalMart... example - the seed starter trays with clear cover (mini-greenhouse style) - ONE DOLLAR and FIFTY CENTS! Buy that anywhere else you're paying 3 or 4 times that.