Espoma Organic Potting Soil Mix - All Natural Potting Mix For All Indoor & Outdoor Containers Including Herbs & Vegetables. For Organic Gardening, 8qt. bag. Pack of 1

As an avid gardener I have learned that the most ideal and possibly the best garden soil has to have the right mixture of chemical components, physical components and biological matter to achieve optimum results.1. Chemically soil must contain adequate amounts of essential nutrient contents, (such as nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium), be of suitable acid-alkaline reaction (pH levels), and free of substances toxic to plant growth, (such as herbicides).2. Physically soil should allow water to drain through and air to gain ready admittance, but not so loose that it does not retain enough moisture and nutrients for the plants’ needs, (in other words moist well drained soil).3. Biologically soil should contain an abundance of favorable organic matter (humus, which is what remains after extensive decomposition of organic matter), and other helpful soil organisms (such as earthworms) and a minimum of harmful ones, (such as nematodes).When the above three conditions are met, the gardener now has rich organic soil to successfully grow and harvest a variety of crops. Espoma Organic Potting Mix has all the above components; it is dark, rich with organic matter, moist, soft and light.I was able to successfully grow and reap a bountiful harvest of tomatoes, hot peppers (serrano and habanero), lettuce, broccoli, cucumbers, carrots and a wide variety of herbs and flowering plants.This is the best organic potting mix I've used and it gave optimum results. A+

Alright, planted a bunch of seeds into small compostable pots and added more nutrients. The soil was dry which you usually don’t see so it took a lot of water to moisten it up. I’m sure it saves on shipping not to have water weight.

A Great Choice

No fungus gnats but some mushrooms but overall not bad potting soil. We ordered it because we needed to get some soil faster to start our tomato plants. It was going to take eight or nine days or more to get the miracle grow soil that we ordered.We do have a few mushrooms here and there but when you put them out in the sun or under light they die.I think the biggest problem with some folks is they don’t know they’re buying living soil. It’s not sterilized. Sterilized is probably better for seedlings But I am no expert. Our tomato starts are looking pretty decent.I think it really has to do with how fresh the soil in the bag is. If it sat on a pallet in the sun for a season it’s going to have issues. Any soil would. We have some miracle grow potting soil left over from last year that stinks so badly of mildew we can’t use it.

First, a heads-up: this is my first time trying anything related to gardening.I've used this potting mix with a plant that needed a bigger pot, and it seems to be happy and is growing and doing well.I've also used this potting mix with herb seeds. Zziggysgal 12 herbs, to be exact. On the individual seed packets it said 15-21, or 20-25 days to sprout, or thereabouts. Out of the first batch of six different herb seeds, the first ones sprouted in three days, and the rest sprouted within a week.My second batch I only planted three days ago, but already after two days one of them has sprouted.I have not been using any extra fertilizer. All I did was plant three or so seeds in each hole, water them with water in a baby bottle, make sure they're good and soaked for the first 24 to 48 hours (you're supposed to pre soak the seeds, but I soaked them in the soil instead). Then cover them with see-through plastic (I cut open a large zip lock bag). There was no sun involved, but around 70 F or so indoors.I don't know if I got really lucky on the seeds I got, or if this soil is just that good, but my other plant is doing great as well.It smells "earthy", and has little white balls in it, that's how it's supposed to be. It also has some small pieces of wood and thin twigs.I've only kept the herbs and my plant indoors for now (a couple of weeks), I have not seen any bugs or anything yet. I'll update the review if I do.

good dirt