Wondering what soil people use/ recommend using

Hi I'm a first time grower and just setting up my grow room I'm wondering what type of soil people use or recommend a new grower to use thanks in advance

i'm not picky with name brand soil I grab anything black and add perlite pete moss and anything else I have on hand old jiffy 7s old rockwool cubes and grow

bulla said:

i'm not picky with name brand soil I grab anything black and add perlite pete moss and anything else I have on hand old jiffy 7s old rockwool cubes and grow

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Agreed, this is what I do.
But if you wanna get a prepackaged bag, then go for Fox Farms. A lot of people on this site seem to love FF. Shit gets expensive though, that's why I just create my own medium for 1/4th of the price.

Fox farms ocean Forrest and 30% perilite has done well for me during my first grow

We are paying 17.99 per bag

Have read good things about pro mix hp and royal gold too, not sure how expensive they are tho. Never used them.

Im for the regular old promix pro mix with extra perilite. $15 for 2 cubic feet compacted

diggs99 said:

Fox farms ocean Forrest and 30% perilite has done well for me during my first grow

We are paying 17.99 per bag

Have read good things about pro mix hp and royal gold too, not sure how expensive they are tho. Never used them.

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Oh yeah, I totally forgot that I tried Royal Gold for my first grow. Good soil, but at $26 per bag, it's not worth it imo. Make your own for a fraction of the cost.

promix herb & vegetable organic soil and I add 25% more perlite and 25% EWC.
decent and inexpensive.

I’m using FF Ocean Forest (2.2 cubic feet) bag mixed with FF Happy Frog (1.5 cubic foot) Perlite (30 %) and worm castings. My plants are loving it.

I mix the Ocean Forest with the Happy Forg to reduce the “heat” of the Ocean Forest.

I think for a new grower pro mix hp and a complete one part nute is the best way to learn to eater amd fertilize plants.

No need for perlite added.

Using amended soil with nutrients adds a higher difficulty level with needing to know how and when to transition to nutes.

That said. I used ocean forest with 25% added large perlite for years and now my favorite store carries mother earth groundswell. Which is similar but already has enough perlite in it. I have to water sooner even.

What I find about soil is that the brands are not consistent. I add sand and peat moss to a brand called Fafard and then add Fox Farm nutrients. Fafard has been pretty consistent. The reason I add peat moss is to bring the PH down. Lately Fafard has been a little to alkaline to start. I used to use Fox Farm soil but I quit because I kept getting nats with it. I also raise earthworms and use the castings quite a bit. It takes a lot of worms to generate enough castings to be helpful. Fafard is a lot like Fox Farm but there are no nutrients added.

so far i've used Fox Farm Ocean Forest and Roots Organics Original. i prefer the roots organics mainly because it doesn't seem to stay wet longer then FFOC does for me at least but other then that i really don't see a huge difference tbh. I use as is i don't add anything to them. next grow im probably going to go back to FFOC again and test a full grow indoors with it. last time i did it on my first grow with major issues since well i was new so i have to give it another try with better skills and judge.

both are hard to find in my state luckily for me there are 2 gardening stores near me that carry them. one is sold out of FF products the other carries only the soil.

All I use now (since I'm going to use fertilizers anyway), is just Pro Mix all purpose and a little composted cow manure, sometimes EW castings