To limit the weight of our pots we add wood chips to the bottom and at the end of the season, we dump the pots into the compost pile so we can use that material next year. Happy New Year
My method for containers is to use cheap potting soil only on top and use compost, sticks, leaves and other organic matter to fill the bottom 80%. Mulch the top and watch the plants go crazy.
I learned the hard way. I bought “top soil/potting soil on sale. It was at least 20 percent water and had at least 2 pounds of rocks. None of that went to the garden. Mine was not the first complaint the retailer had gotten on that product and they offered my money back but I had used it for filling holes and it was okay for that. Lesson learned! Havagudun and keep them coming.
Seriously your the most informative garden subscription I have. Even as a intermediate 6 yr experience growing bigger each year gardener you continue to give me new info thats not repetitive like gardening info can alot of the times be.
Luke!! I live in Massachusetts and I bought a house and started growing 2 years ago. Raised beds, no poly tunnels or any other protection. It's February 5th and it has snowed and frozen many times. My strawberries are fine, and I'm still growing lettuce, my potatoes and garlic are in the ground and ready. Even in the winter my garden is alive and active, and I was hoping you could schedule a video about how we could optimise the colder months and maybe even keep growing all year round!? Thank you for everything I know, keep up the great work!!
@@MrJoeeano88 I plant the biggest of my potatoes the same day I harvested them. The biggest ones have more stored energy and can strout earlier and produce more from them. It still took a while for them to break the surface last year (maybe because of the drought) So I'm going to direct sow lettuce on top of them super early (early March) and tear them out when I start seeing the potatoes. 👍
I absolutely am sooooo thankful for this channel! I am learning so much! This year I’m praying now that I have more knowledge my garden will be wonderful!! Thank you MI gardener guy!!!!
Thanks for your expertise in describing in rich detail the pros and cons of different bags of soil for us to distinguish and hopefully choose the right stuff to be on track with growing a dream garden. Never buy the most expensive or the cheapest kind .
Moisture? I hope you’re mixing with something else that adds aeration or you could have anaerobic soil (lacks oxygen) which will suffocate the plant or force it’s roots to avoid going too low (thus making any nutrients in the soil, go to waste)
I'm guessing some of this info is dependent on your location. I live in Georgia (not far from Atlanta) and the "top soil" available at my local big box stores actually resembles more of a humus-type material. There's very little soil in it (at least as I would describe "soil"). Think of what you would find in a heavily wooded area after you rake up the top layer of leaves and debris. You know, that thoroughly composted stuff that looks like dirt but won't clump together? What I get when I open a bag of the "top soil" I buy in my area looks like that. No rocks or junk, either. It actually looks pretty rich. I imagine it undergoes a lot pf processing and isn't anywhere near as nourishing as it looks. I use it mainly as a cheap filler and mix it with soil from my yard (which is mainly clay) to improve the consistency and moisture handling properties in raised beds, then amend it with compost and a little fertilizer. I've had pretty good luck with it. Bottom line is that what you've done here is give us some good information to start with, but it's up to each of us to explore the resources available to us where we are and make the best choices based on what we have and what we need.
It depends on how you go about it. I used to collect free wood chips, spent brewery grains and coffee grounds and composted it, made the best compost I've ever seen and had an extremely productive garden with 7' pepper plants and 14' tomato plants. And I made my raised beds out of recycled pallets. Only thing I paid for were screws and hog panels for making trellises.
I took the same approach for my raised beds as my in ground garden. Start with native soil and add composted cow manure (free at my local university) compost from my local trash facility $10 a truckload. And peat moss. Use the ingredients sparingly. Over a few years you will have great soil. The key in this approach is organic matter.
We have a small greenhouse business selling organically-grown plant starts and we purchase Purple Cow Organics at a wholesale cost. Yes, it eats away at our allotted budget, but after trying several different organic potting mixes, this is the one we trust and that our plants love. The biggest issue with the other mixes is weed seeds. Last year was the worse year with stinging nettle seeds in the mix! Never again.
I tend to get cheap top soil but then mix in peat moss and manure. My top soil has no glass, nails or stones in it. I also mulch and add in shredded fall leaves (actually top dress in the fall and then mix in in the Spring). In ground gardening.
Now I'm curious what is in a $30-$50 bag of soil... Thanks for a comparative review of the different bagged soils. We mostly make our own growing media mixture/soil from the basic ingredients.
Marijuana is the most rewarding plant I've ever grown. If it's legal in your state you should try it. It's a beautiful plant, even if you don't smoke it or whatnot it's so much fun to grow.
Thank you so much, soil in our raised beds has always seemed intimidating to me... I just get overwhelmed at the store and grab whatever and hope it works 😅
Yo loving the winter gardening content! I just started a really crazy indoor/outdoor tilapia aquaponics system. Videos coming soon on my channel! Cheers
I wish I watch this before I did my first container garden this year. Very good breakdown. I blended 1 part topsoil, 1 part compost, 1 part potting mix. It think it did not retain water very well and need to focus on water retention next year.
TOPIC : SINGLE BAG INGRIDIENTS VS MIXING THEM ALL TOGETHER INGRIDIENTS. DEFINITELY MIX THEM! . I've took 6 different mediums at Lowes: MG raised bed mix, MG moisture control, MG potting mix, MG organics, jungle growth and humus/manure. With those mixed together I get: peat moss, alfalfa meal, Forrest compost, Yucca, worm castings, green sand, Coco coir, dolomite lime, kelp meal, poultry litter, horticulture ash, manure, humus, perlite and bone meal. Then I'll top dress with bat guano, kelp, blood and bone meal, CalMag, biochar, superThrive, beneficial bacteria and fungi. Npk in the medium is 0.5-0.5-0.5 roughly. I'd love your thoughts on this diverse mix. Is it overkill? What would you add or take away? I think it was a good idea. I got allll those nutes instead of 3 or 4. By mixing I got them all(plus compost) and the base is primarily peat moss/coco/perlite. Much better than just ground up wood chips and plain potting soil. Why dont more people do this?
I think the Fox Farm brand would be included in the disclaimer in the beginning of the video, it's probably too expensive and marketed to grow the kind of 'herbs' he is not growing. For the PRO Mix I think that would of been too expensive to be included in this video as well. I however use a Fox Farm brand potting mix to start my seeds but I'm going to try and look for a cheaper option since I'm not growing those other 'herbs' either. Hope that helped.
Do you have a video breaking down why certain things are good for the garden? such as: Why is peat moss good? Why is perlite good? Why is vermiculite good? What is the difference between perlite and vermiculite? What ratio should I try to aim for? Why is coconut husk good? What are the benefits between peat moss and coconut husk? What's the difference between compost, manure, and top soil when it comes to nutrients? and any other type of questions that revolve around this type of thing.
Really helpful video thank you. Last year, my first year back to gardening, I really wasnt aware or knowledgeable when it came to filling my beds. This year I am better equipped and grateful to be able to keep learning. Thanks!
This is well and good for a beginner gardener who just wants to add one product to their bed and has a large budget. Top soil has it's purpose in a bed in the correct ratio to other components added in at a much more affordable cost.
luke i have high raised beds . i am 85 years. last year my son built me hugelculture beds. this year i wiil have to add a lot more soil. i will be coming to see you as i live in saginaw. so weather permitting,i will see you soon
Thank you I have been adding composted cow manure for the last 4 years to my garden beds I will be adding the sternum Petemoss to it this spring! I live 10 minutes south of MInin Indiana so it helps to know we have somewhat the same conditions!
It's Peat Moss v Petemoss. lol. I've used both cow and chicken manure for gardening and now I'm looking into worm castings = better for the planet. Plus, I can farm the worms in a very small area as they stack up nicely. I'm also composting. I'm elderly and disabled in New England so indoor gardening is something I am ABEL to do for myself and others.
@@nettejohnson7492 my garden is full of worms that tells me I am on the right path. I have a very healthy garden I raised chickens and there manure is very high in nitrogen so I don’t very often use it, because it makes plants grow very high and gangly and put on a lot of leafy growth, but not structurally to sound. Thanks for all you do for others!
just started cleaning out a bed that's been overgrown by winter creeper for a decade. totally replacing the soil! i did 4 bags of sta-green garden soil, with one bag compost & manure. still got over half the bed to go. thanks for the info!
I made what I feel was a very high quality and low cost garden bed and it has produced very well all year for me, thank goodness right? What I did was I set up cinder blocks in an excess part of my driveway and basically composted stuff in there all winter from 2019-2020, kept smashing down the leaves food scraps you name it. Now when this was done in the spring I mixed the black velvet mushroom compost, black kow cow manure, and a large brick of peat moss one each to fill to the top. Couldnt be happier with it, and it was very cheap.
This is one of the most helpful videos I’ve found so far on RUclips I’m just getting into gardening and I’m loving it soaking up as much knowledge as I can before spring as soon as I started watching this though I had 2 ideas pop in my head 1 is what if some of us sent this guy soil samples from our local garden supply stores with his permission of course and he rated them analyzed them etc then my second thought along the same lines and probably way easier on him what if he did a Q&A where we describe our soil weight price a picture etc and he chooses the best from the Q&A to speak about in a video for instance my local garden supply I use is Groggs Green Barn in Tulsa Oklahoma they’re very nice and the place is well stocked with a good vibe but their soil is a little expensive I bought a bag 1.5 cubic feet 30 pounds original weight before moistening it’s made of perilite peat moss compost and worm castings it says they market it as a base starting mix for seeds and the first stages of development it cost 18 dollars a bag I’d like to know if this is similar to the prices you all are paying
For an indoor 3 gallon bucket I mixed garden soil with potting mix sand and coco coir. Outside with patches of grass the garden soil has not washed away even with a few snow melts and rain. I poked holes in every bag and decided I liked the garden soil best
Great explanation of the soils. After repotting my house plants this summer my house is now filled with nats. Where did they come from, the soil or from being outside for a week?
Most likely from the soil. Google fungus gnats and there will be several ways to try to get rid of them. I had a bag of miracle grow potting soil that was so infested with them that after I repotted the plants in my office I ended having to remove the plants from my office because they were everywhere and nothing seemed to get rid of them.
Me too. They actually hatch from the soil, usually because the soil Is too moist. I have also tried to use the remedies for killing the larvae and still keeping my plants watered. It’s a tough balance, I have not mastered it yet!
I love making my own potting soil. Where I live I’m lucky to be able to buy perlite and vermiculite in huge bags really cheap Pete Moss and of course making my own compost or buying it and those cheap two dollar bags of compost at Lowe’s and mixing it all together with some bone and blood meals. And I go crazy and throw in all the kelp, crab shell, a little lime, my own castings. But just compost combined with Pete Moss by itself does a great job. I love container gardening because where I live is all sand.
Adam I do the same. I mix garden soil with composted manure, perlite, peat moss, bone and blood. I also add powdered egg shells I've been pulverizing all year! My soil is very clay so container gardening has been great for me. By making my own mix I save 2 to 3 times the cost of reg potting mix! I also re-use and amend my used soil. Good luck this season!
I bought Sutherlands store band top soil.. I used it when transplanting which I’ve used top soil before. Everything died.. I took it back and a lot of customers had taken back theirs too bc it killed what they used it on.. in skeptical in store brands.
Mix your own potting mix and save money. The only bagged stuff I buy are peat, composted manure, perlite and pelletized chicken manure. In a year or two I hope to replace the peat with leaf mold.
I buy a cheap potting mix that's just composted forest products and sand. I really like because I can add my favorite fertilizer and has no peat moss. I reuse it every year to save even more money. When I reuse it, I amend it with more wood and bark to keep it fluffy and well draining
Would love information about heavy metal content of these soils. California has a website but wondering if is there a National Registry. I have looked up some commercial soils and some have outrageous amounts of lead and mercury. This kind of information is sorely lacking anywhere. It would be a good topic for you to pursue, Luke.
anymore I try to go with not necessarily the most expensive soil there is out there. but maybe the best quality soil you can fine. but you definitely mad some very good points especially for somebody that's a beginner gardener
Totally off topic, but if you haven't tried growing jerusalem artichokes, I would be interested to know what you think. Just started growing them, and I'm amazed with the results! I would be happy to send you a few starter tubers!
I am curious why you chose not to talk about the negative effects of peat moss being harvested from the ground and environmental impacts. What are the alternatives to be peat moss free?
I recently bought some discounted bags (broke open) of mushroom compost. Can you tell me how the best way to use this medium? Thought about top dressing my raised beds this spring once I remove my fall/winter crops. Do you think this is a good idea? I understand that mushroom compost is usually several types of organic material, but do you think there are any good nutrients left for my garden veggies?
I use Dairy Doo from Morgan Composting in Michigan. The best stuff ! They have formulas from seed starting to veggie beds, to tree and shrubs, to container gardens.All organic. Not cheap but a little goes a long way. Not sure if it is sold outside of Michigan.
I'd love to know where you got that blue bag of potting mix for $5. I can't find bags of potting mix of that size, of any quality or brand, for under $30.
That same brand of compost manure is actually sold at my Menards store here in iowa for the same cost as the top soil. Its roughly almost $2 a bag. Its a huge cost savings for me while still keeping up nutrition in my raised bed soil. I then do a mix of peet moss and a few other small nutrient boosts to the soil. Over all each bed of 4×8×12 costs me like 50 to 70 bucks. Now there all built from my first year im gonna amend them with the compost ive made from last seasons solids and other organic matter
Unfortunately the "top soil" in the bags at the box stores has changed. It used to fill depressions in the lawn and grow grass well. Came out very black, contained a fair bit of sand, was cheap and worked well. THEN suddenly these bags seem to contain what is essentially very fine mulch. It does NOT fill depressions well, it does NOT grow grass well.
People have used plastic water bottles(with lids on) to take up space in big containers. I haven't. I have used 3" tree limbs but still heavy. Like your method.
Nice video. One thing is that a lot of that cheap (and expensive) manure compost may still be hot. Therefore be careful in using it in a raised bed without mixing it. For a raised bed, I tend to layer it. First, a high-cost (good) manure compost that I put down, like black kow. That way it will start to mix with the native soil and soften it while being low enough not to burn new roots. It really don't add much in terms of adding height to the soil, but more prep of the underneath. Depending on budget, I will typically throw in some cheap compost (~60%), topsoil (~30%), a small amount of perlite(~2%), and a small amount of peat moss(~8%) as a filler (normally no more than 50% of the raised bed). The remained I normally use 50%/50% peat moss and mushroom compost (because I know it is not hot) and perlite at a higher level (maybe ~20%-25%). This is really similar to Mel's Mix (square foot gardening), except I have always had more luck with perlite than vermiculite. I also tend to layer a thin coating of organic fertilizer that has good fungi and bacteria in it, and may even put in some rock dust depending on what I plan to grow. I have never tried the miracle-gro soil mix stuff. I used happy frog (great but expensive around me). I have used Kellogg's raised bed and garden soil. It was ok. I probably only save about 5-10 dollars using my above method over the cost of buying Kellogg's raised bed mix per 16 cubic feet (so about ~.8 cents per cubic feet). So not a huge saving if you are only doing one small bed. However, I feel like I have a little better control of what is in the garden and hopefully a slightly better mix. Honestly, it is very hard to start if you just want to get into it and don't have a resource like homemade compost. You can get really burned on bought compost (i.e., being hot or even having herbicides in them). If someone is starting off new and small (e.g., a single 4x4 bed), I normally just say buy something like Kellogg's raised bed or garden. At least if it does not work you can yell at them, and they might give you some money back or free products. You can also start to compost so that you can use it the next year. P.S. Bagged cheap compost manure is great to start your own compost pile. It usually is cheap, still a little hot, has the right stuff in it, and can speed up your first batch. I normally always start my new pile with half a bag of it.
Good advice. I am dithering on whether or not to use Kellogg's Garden soil to fill a pair of 3' x 6' x 10" beds; used Kellogg's four years ago for containers and it grew mushrooms! (Not horrible, I guess, since mushrooms produce carbon dioxide and don't take nutrients from the plants) but was disconcerting.
@@MIgardener What type of soil do you use when you transplant from a cell to a larger pot when planting from seed? Do you still use the promix seed starter?
Your prices are amazing. Here in the Boise area you'll spend $3.50 for a 1 cu. ft. bag of top soil and $12.97 for a 2 cu. ft. of raised bed mix. A 3 cu. ft. bag of peat moss is $23.97. A tiny bag of vermiculite is $8.97 and a tiny bag of perlite is about the same.
Our city composts all of the yard waste, so I get my compost free as long as I haul it. The compost is tested to make sure it doesn't have anything that will kill you plants, but it is also made of whatever people throw in the yard bins. I mix the city compost with some Black Cow manure and plenty of peat moss and vermiculite. This seems to work well and keeps my soil costs pretty low. Spring 2020 the city closed the compost facility for a bit, so you couldn't get it, so I used mushroom compost with animal compost and, as always peat moss and vermiculite.
Got to get more BANG FOR YOUR BUCK so to speak I use wood chips garden soil and the potting mix am giving some of the other potting soil some tries on the garden but always go for the cow manure from a farmer that I know !!
i'm confused, are you suggesting that potting soil be a good choice for in ground gardens? Or are these just suggestions for potting? I'm looking for a good bagged GARDEN SOIL
Biggest issue I've been having is soil compaction, and crust on top of soil. Even compost does this where water wasn't penetrating below the top crust. What's a good solution.
Pretty soon i will be tilling an acre for a larger scale garden so far top soil and horse manure has worked fine but i cant get an acre of manure so il use what i got and get some pete moss and perlite to aid the clay soil and maybe some trifecta plus.
“ My kind of herbs, Basil.”😆😆😆
Amen
You know it!
@@MIgardener That’s my kind of herb also!! That and oregano!🤣😆😂
@@MIgardener what's good to mix into red clay dirt if I'm planting? Planting both fruit trees and a garden.
@@tmarcus988 compost. Solves all your problems.
To limit the weight of our pots we add wood chips to the bottom and at the end of the season, we dump the pots into the compost pile so we can use that material next year.
Happy New Year
My method for containers is to use cheap potting soil only on top and use compost, sticks, leaves and other organic matter to fill the bottom 80%. Mulch the top and watch the plants go crazy.
I learned the hard way. I bought “top soil/potting soil on sale. It was at least 20 percent water and had at least 2 pounds of rocks. None of that went to the garden. Mine was not the first complaint the retailer had gotten on that product and they offered my money back but I had used it for filling holes and it was okay for that. Lesson learned! Havagudun and keep them coming.
Seriously your the most informative garden subscription I have. Even as a intermediate 6 yr experience growing bigger each year gardener you continue to give me new info thats not repetitive like gardening info can alot of the times be.
OMG, what took me so long to find your channel! As a container grower, I’ve leaned the hard way with compacted putrid soil. Thank you so much 👏
Luke!! I live in Massachusetts and I bought a house and started growing 2 years ago. Raised beds, no poly tunnels or any other protection. It's February 5th and it has snowed and frozen many times. My strawberries are fine, and I'm still growing lettuce, my potatoes and garlic are in the ground and ready. Even in the winter my garden is alive and active, and I was hoping you could schedule a video about how we could optimise the colder months and maybe even keep growing all year round!?
Thank you for everything I know, keep up the great work!!
I didn't know people planted potatoes before the spring. Can you tell me more about that
@@MrJoeeano88 I plant the biggest of my potatoes the same day I harvested them. The biggest ones have more stored energy and can strout earlier and produce more from them.
It still took a while for them to break the surface last year (maybe because of the drought) So I'm going to direct sow lettuce on top of them super early (early March) and tear them out when I start seeing the potatoes. 👍
What month do you plant them the year prior?
I absolutely am sooooo thankful for this channel! I am learning so much! This year I’m praying now that I have more knowledge my garden will be wonderful!! Thank you MI gardener guy!!!!
How is your garden going? (: Is there a specific soil that you settled on using?
Great. Can you do the same talk with what soil to start seedlings in please?
YES! I just scrolled down to the comments to see it soil to start seeds was addressed.
We use peat moss, perlite and vermiculite, about 1:2:2 with starter or a rooting solution if we are rooting out.
Look up Mel's Mix! So easy and awesome
I use coco coir, perlite, & vermiculite for my seed starting mix.
I only use Jiffy and it's THE best!
Thanks for your expertise in describing in rich detail the pros and cons of different bags of soil for us to distinguish and hopefully choose the right stuff to be on track with growing a dream garden. Never buy the most expensive or the cheapest kind .
Thank you for this tips! I received my herbs seeds from your store this week and they are growing already! I’m so happy to have herbs again!
@Camila Mayumi When did you order? I ordered Dec. 14th and I still haven't got my seeds! :(
@@commmmmmmy
Call the number and talk to a representative working for Luke. You will get the answers. Good luck !
@@commmmmmmy I ordered on Dec. 8th, it took 10 business days to process and another week to arrive here.
I live in very hot North Texas and I’ve found using compost in my containers helps preserve moisture better than potting mix.
True but compost = bugs. You Texans are in deep freeze as we speak... too bad ya can't keep all that snow and ice for those stifling hot summers, eh?
Moisture? I hope you’re mixing with something else that adds aeration or you could have anaerobic soil (lacks oxygen) which will suffocate the plant or force it’s roots to avoid going too low (thus making any nutrients in the soil, go to waste)
@@TheMillionDollarDropout You mean, like adding sand?
I'm guessing some of this info is dependent on your location. I live in Georgia (not far from Atlanta) and the "top soil" available at my local big box stores actually resembles more of a humus-type material. There's very little soil in it (at least as I would describe "soil"). Think of what you would find in a heavily wooded area after you rake up the top layer of leaves and debris. You know, that thoroughly composted stuff that looks like dirt but won't clump together? What I get when I open a bag of the "top soil" I buy in my area looks like that. No rocks or junk, either. It actually looks pretty rich. I imagine it undergoes a lot pf processing and isn't anywhere near as nourishing as it looks. I use it mainly as a cheap filler and mix it with soil from my yard (which is mainly clay) to improve the consistency and moisture handling properties in raised beds, then amend it with compost and a little fertilizer. I've had pretty good luck with it.
Bottom line is that what you've done here is give us some good information to start with, but it's up to each of us to explore the resources available to us where we are and make the best choices based on what we have and what we need.
Great video! I have been guilty of both, spending too much or being too cheap 😂 This was very helpful, thank you 🙏
Being too cheap can end up costing you, especially in terms of food production.
It depends on how you go about it. I used to collect free wood chips, spent brewery grains and coffee grounds and composted it, made the best compost I've ever seen and had an extremely productive garden with 7' pepper plants and 14' tomato plants. And I made my raised beds out of recycled pallets. Only thing I paid for were screws and hog panels for making trellises.
@@dustman96 I love recycling building supplies I have in the yard to create new projects for free haha Thanks for the compost tip!
@@dustman96 Helps to be an ABEL perSON
I took the same approach for my raised beds as my in ground garden. Start with native soil and add composted cow manure (free at my local university) compost from my local trash facility $10 a truckload. And peat moss. Use the ingredients sparingly. Over a few years you will have great soil. The key in this approach is organic matter.
We have a small greenhouse business selling organically-grown plant starts and we purchase Purple Cow Organics at a wholesale cost. Yes, it eats away at our allotted budget, but after trying several different organic potting mixes, this is the one we trust and that our plants love. The biggest issue with the other mixes is weed seeds. Last year was the worse year with stinging nettle seeds in the mix! Never again.
Thank you for sharing your knowledge with your fellow Michiganders! Love your good genuine character…. Hope to make it to your store this season!
I tend to get cheap top soil but then mix in peat moss and manure. My top soil has no glass, nails or stones in it. I also mulch and add in shredded fall leaves (actually top dress in the fall and then mix in in the Spring).
In ground gardening.
Now I'm curious what is in a $30-$50 bag of soil...
Thanks for a comparative review of the different bagged soils.
We mostly make our own growing media mixture/soil from the basic ingredients.
Thank you Luke.
My second year growing and I’m starting to learn more about soil and this was so helpful.
Marijuana... u just threw it out there ..hahahahha another awesome vid and thanks for another gardening lesson ....💜 from pnw
Marijuana is the most rewarding plant I've ever grown. If it's legal in your state you should try it. It's a beautiful plant, even if you don't smoke it or whatnot it's so much fun to grow.
Thank you so much, soil in our raised beds has always seemed intimidating to me... I just get overwhelmed at the store and grab whatever and hope it works 😅
Yo loving the winter gardening content! I just started a really crazy indoor/outdoor tilapia aquaponics system. Videos coming soon on my channel! Cheers
I just subscribed. I'm looking forward to seeing your tilapia aquaponics system!
Don't push your own vids in someone elses. It may get you views but it very unethical and unwise
Nice! It's my bucket list
Thanks for the great info on garden soils. I plan to amend my garden soil this month and have some good ideas on what to do now and in a few months.
I wish I watch this before I did my first container garden this year. Very good breakdown.
I blended 1 part topsoil, 1 part compost, 1 part potting mix. It think it did not retain water very well and need to focus on water retention next year.
TOPIC : SINGLE BAG INGRIDIENTS VS MIXING THEM ALL TOGETHER INGRIDIENTS. DEFINITELY MIX THEM!
. I've took 6 different mediums at Lowes: MG raised bed mix, MG moisture control, MG potting mix, MG organics, jungle growth and humus/manure.
With those mixed together I get: peat moss, alfalfa meal, Forrest compost, Yucca, worm castings, green sand, Coco coir, dolomite lime, kelp meal, poultry litter, horticulture ash, manure, humus, perlite and bone meal.
Then I'll top dress with bat guano, kelp, blood and bone meal, CalMag, biochar, superThrive, beneficial bacteria and fungi. Npk in the medium is 0.5-0.5-0.5 roughly.
I'd love your thoughts on this diverse mix. Is it overkill? What would you add or take away? I think it was a good idea. I got allll those nutes instead of 3 or 4. By mixing I got them all(plus compost) and the base is primarily peat moss/coco/perlite. Much better than just ground up wood chips and plain potting soil. Why dont more people do this?
I'm feeling dumb here, but...that last bag says "Garden Soil", not compost as stated in the video. Is that what bagged garden soil is?
*QUESTION ? What do you think about the company Fox Farms Soils or PRO Mix bales ? Thank You !*
I think the Fox Farm brand would be included in the disclaimer in the beginning of the video, it's probably too expensive and marketed to grow the kind of 'herbs' he is not growing. For the PRO Mix I think that would of been too expensive to be included in this video as well. I however use a Fox Farm brand potting mix to start my seeds but I'm going to try and look for a cheaper option since I'm not growing those other 'herbs' either. Hope that helped.
I use both of those for seed starting but I wouldn't EVER use them in the garden. Way too expensive and money doesn't grow on trees.
The last "top soil" I bought was basically chipped up tree bark.
Could you please do a video on growing turnips? Thanks!
Do you have a video breaking down why certain things are good for the garden?
such as:
Why is peat moss good?
Why is perlite good?
Why is vermiculite good?
What is the difference between perlite and vermiculite?
What ratio should I try to aim for?
Why is coconut husk good?
What are the benefits between peat moss and coconut husk?
What's the difference between compost, manure, and top soil when it comes to nutrients?
and any other type of questions that revolve around this type of thing.
Thank you for another great video. May I ask and this is a crazy question, Do bagged soils have an expiration date??? 😬
Really helpful video thank you. Last year, my first year back to gardening, I really wasnt aware or knowledgeable when it came to filling my beds. This year I am better equipped and grateful to be able to keep learning. Thanks!
This is well and good for a beginner gardener who just wants to add one product to their bed and has a large budget. Top soil has it's purpose in a bed in the correct ratio to other components added in at a much more affordable cost.
luke i have high raised beds . i am 85 years. last year my son built me hugelculture beds. this year i wiil have to add a lot more soil. i will be coming to see you as i live in saginaw. so weather permitting,i will see you soon
Thank you I have been adding composted cow manure for the last 4 years to my garden beds I will be adding the sternum Petemoss to it this spring! I live 10 minutes south of MInin Indiana so it helps to know we have somewhat the same conditions!
It's Peat Moss v Petemoss. lol. I've used both cow and chicken manure for gardening and now I'm looking into worm castings = better for the planet. Plus, I can farm the worms in a very small area as they stack up nicely. I'm also composting. I'm elderly and disabled in New England so indoor gardening is something I am ABEL to do for myself and others.
@@nettejohnson7492 my garden is full of worms that tells me I am on the right path. I have a very healthy garden I raised chickens and there manure is very high in nitrogen so I don’t very often use it, because it makes plants grow very high and gangly and put on a lot of leafy growth, but not structurally to sound. Thanks for all you do for others!
@@susieqmartin2746 add some potash to that chicken manure and get the biggest and best tasting tomatoes ya ever had!
just started cleaning out a bed that's been overgrown by winter creeper for a decade. totally replacing the soil! i did 4 bags of sta-green garden soil, with one bag compost & manure. still got over half the bed to go. thanks for the info!
I made what I feel was a very high quality and low cost garden bed and it has produced very well all year for me, thank goodness right? What I did was I set up cinder blocks in an excess part of my driveway and basically composted stuff in there all winter from 2019-2020, kept smashing down the leaves food scraps you name it. Now when this was done in the spring I mixed the black velvet mushroom compost, black kow cow manure, and a large brick of peat moss one each to fill to the top. Couldnt be happier with it, and it was very cheap.
This is one of the most helpful videos I’ve found so far on RUclips I’m just getting into gardening and I’m loving it soaking up as much knowledge as I can before spring as soon as I started watching this though I had 2 ideas pop in my head 1 is what if some of us sent this guy soil samples from our local garden supply stores with his permission of course and he rated them analyzed them etc then my second thought along the same lines and probably way easier on him what if he did a Q&A where we describe our soil weight price a picture etc and he chooses the best from the Q&A to speak about in a video for instance my local garden supply I use is Groggs Green Barn in Tulsa Oklahoma they’re very nice and the place is well stocked with a good vibe but their soil is a little expensive I bought a bag 1.5 cubic feet 30 pounds original weight before moistening it’s made of perilite peat moss compost and worm castings it says they market it as a base starting mix for seeds and the first stages of development it cost 18 dollars a bag I’d like to know if this is similar to the prices you all are paying
i appreciate your compassion.
Black Kow manure and Miracle Gro Garden Soil is my go to for great results.
Side Note: Composted Manure from big box is often still composting. Personally I let it sit outside for a month before adding to my garden.
For an indoor 3 gallon bucket I mixed garden soil with potting mix sand and coco coir. Outside with patches of grass the garden soil has not washed away even with a few snow melts and rain. I poked holes in every bag and decided I liked the garden soil best
Thank goodness! I held off watching for a day as I was worried I bought the wrong stuff! Whew! Sta-Green (blue bag) A-OK.
Great explanation of the soils. After repotting my house plants this summer my house is now filled with nats. Where did they come from, the soil or from being outside for a week?
Most likely from the soil. Google fungus gnats and there will be several ways to try to get rid of them. I had a bag of miracle grow potting soil that was so infested with them that after I repotted the plants in my office I ended having to remove the plants from my office because they were everywhere and nothing seemed to get rid of them.
Me too. They actually hatch from the soil, usually because the soil
Is too moist. I have also tried to use the remedies for killing the larvae and still keeping my plants watered. It’s a tough balance, I have not mastered it yet!
I have used the bagged topsoil in the past successfully. It requires extra fertilizer and watering. It definitely works better mixed with peat moss.
oh yea same, but I always have the issue of needing more humus and organic stuff to get the results I rly want
I love making my own potting soil. Where I live I’m lucky to be able to buy perlite and vermiculite in huge bags really cheap Pete Moss and of course making my own compost or buying it and those cheap two dollar bags of compost at Lowe’s and mixing it all together with some bone and blood meals. And I go crazy and throw in all the kelp, crab shell, a little lime, my own castings. But just compost combined with Pete Moss by itself does a great job. I love container gardening because where I live is all sand.
Adam I do the same. I mix garden soil with composted manure, perlite, peat moss, bone and blood. I also add powdered egg shells I've been pulverizing all year! My soil is very clay so container gardening has been great for me. By making my own mix I save 2 to 3 times the cost of reg potting mix! I also re-use and amend my used soil. Good luck this season!
I just got my seeds from you guys thanks😀 Now I just need spring to come.
Agreed! We are all dreaming of Spring.
Im about to grow peppers and tomatoes in florida lol we get minor frost (not enough to kill plants) and it doesnt drop below 60 often
I bought Sutherlands store band top soil.. I used it when transplanting which I’ve used top soil before. Everything died.. I took it back and a lot of customers had taken back theirs too bc it killed what they used it on.. in skeptical in store brands.
Fox Farm 🤦♂️ I needed this video a few months ago.
Thank you Luke! I needed this!!
Interesting. Thanks for the helpful information. "Home is where the garden is" 🤔🌱🍃🐞🐝🐛🙂
Mix your own potting mix and save money. The only bagged stuff I buy are peat, composted manure, perlite and pelletized chicken manure. In a year or two I hope to replace the peat with leaf mold.
Gives new meaning to the term "potting" soil...
😂🤣😂
I buy a cheap potting mix that's just composted forest products and sand. I really like because I can add my favorite fertilizer and has no peat moss. I reuse it every year to save even more money. When I reuse it, I amend it with more wood and bark to keep it fluffy and well draining
Would love information about heavy metal content of these soils. California has a website but wondering if is there a National Registry. I have looked up some commercial soils and some have outrageous amounts of lead and mercury. This kind of information is sorely lacking anywhere. It would be a good topic for you to pursue, Luke.
What is the California website??
I would also like to know the website and would love a video on this
I just mostly use cow manure. It's cheap and plants love it. Kellogs makes good stuff too, but good old manure has yet to fail me.
I have found calling around you can purchase a decent 50:50 loam and compost at a decent cost. Or just compost. Much better deal for a large quality.
Basically… Compost Manure and Peat moss 1:1 is awesome, take it a step further and add perlite or vermiculite (all 1:1:1) and you’re golden.
anymore I try to go with not necessarily the most expensive soil there is out there. but maybe the best quality soil you can fine. but you definitely mad some very good points especially for somebody that's a beginner gardener
Thank you for saving me from my soil guilt :-) Happy New Year :-)
After I wash my sheets I add 1/2” of Foxfarm Ocean Forest to my bed. It smells so good and helps keep me grounded 😋
Totally off topic, but if you haven't tried growing jerusalem artichokes, I would be interested to know what you think. Just started growing them, and I'm amazed with the results! I would be happy to send you a few starter tubers!
I am curious why you chose not to talk about the negative effects of peat moss being harvested from the ground and environmental impacts. What are the alternatives to be peat moss free?
Have you ever considered making a video on espalier fruit trees?
Please do :)
I recently bought some discounted bags (broke open) of mushroom compost. Can you tell me how the best way to use this medium?
Thought about top dressing my raised beds this spring once I remove my fall/winter crops. Do you think this is a good idea? I understand that mushroom compost is usually several types of organic material, but do you think there are any good nutrients left for my garden veggies?
I use Dairy Doo from Morgan Composting in Michigan. The best stuff !
They have formulas from seed starting to veggie beds, to tree and shrubs, to container gardens.All organic.
Not cheap but a little goes a long way.
Not sure if it is sold outside of Michigan.
I'd love to know where you got that blue bag of potting mix for $5.
I can't find bags of potting mix of that size, of any quality or brand, for under $30.
That is from Lowes. It's more than 5 dollars here, closer to 10. Price also depends whether you get the 1-1.5 cubic foot size or the 3 cubit foot size
Haha the intro alone got me, good work
That same brand of compost manure is actually sold at my Menards store here in iowa for the same cost as the top soil. Its roughly almost $2 a bag. Its a huge cost savings for me while still keeping up nutrition in my raised bed soil. I then do a mix of peet moss and a few other small nutrient boosts to the soil. Over all each bed of 4×8×12 costs me like 50 to 70 bucks. Now there all built from my first year im gonna amend them with the compost ive made from last seasons solids and other organic matter
i have steady supply pf vermicast, compost, humic acid, and i buy cheap potting mix, and im all good. shout out from the Philippines.
Unfortunately the "top soil" in the bags at the box stores has changed. It used to fill depressions in the lawn and grow grass well. Came out very black, contained a fair bit of sand, was cheap and worked well. THEN suddenly these bags seem to contain what is essentially very fine mulch. It does NOT fill depressions well, it does NOT grow grass well.
People have used plastic water bottles(with lids on) to take up space in big containers. I haven't. I have used 3" tree limbs but still heavy. Like your method.
I just found your channel. Thank you for the information!!
Nice video. One thing is that a lot of that cheap (and expensive) manure compost may still be hot. Therefore be careful in using it in a raised bed without mixing it.
For a raised bed, I tend to layer it. First, a high-cost (good) manure compost that I put down, like black kow. That way it will start to mix with the native soil and soften it while being low enough not to burn new roots. It really don't add much in terms of adding height to the soil, but more prep of the underneath. Depending on budget, I will typically throw in some cheap compost (~60%), topsoil (~30%), a small amount of perlite(~2%), and a small amount of peat moss(~8%) as a filler (normally no more than 50% of the raised bed). The remained I normally use 50%/50% peat moss and mushroom compost (because I know it is not hot) and perlite at a higher level (maybe ~20%-25%). This is really similar to Mel's Mix (square foot gardening), except I have always had more luck with perlite than vermiculite. I also tend to layer a thin coating of organic fertilizer that has good fungi and bacteria in it, and may even put in some rock dust depending on what I plan to grow.
I have never tried the miracle-gro soil mix stuff. I used happy frog (great but expensive around me). I have used Kellogg's raised bed and garden soil. It was ok. I probably only save about 5-10 dollars using my above method over the cost of buying Kellogg's raised bed mix per 16 cubic feet (so about ~.8 cents per cubic feet). So not a huge saving if you are only doing one small bed. However, I feel like I have a little better control of what is in the garden and hopefully a slightly better mix.
Honestly, it is very hard to start if you just want to get into it and don't have a resource like homemade compost. You can get really burned on bought compost (i.e., being hot or even having herbicides in them). If someone is starting off new and small (e.g., a single 4x4 bed), I normally just say buy something like Kellogg's raised bed or garden. At least if it does not work you can yell at them, and they might give you some money back or free products. You can also start to compost so that you can use it the next year.
P.S. Bagged cheap compost manure is great to start your own compost pile. It usually is cheap, still a little hot, has the right stuff in it, and can speed up your first batch. I normally always start my new pile with half a bag of it.
Good advice. I am dithering on whether or not to use Kellogg's Garden soil to fill a pair of 3' x 6' x 10" beds; used Kellogg's four years ago for containers and it grew mushrooms! (Not horrible, I guess, since mushrooms produce carbon dioxide and don't take nutrients from the plants) but was disconcerting.
Annnnd I have seen only good comments about Kellogg's on this thread, so maybe I will try them again. I could always yell at them.
I have found the best bagged soil/composts etc. Is out of of Maine called Coast of Maine they use lobster fish and seaweed. I think you'd like it
Ma
Pro mix bx for the win. I just mix it with cheaper soils
I love pro-mix but I use it primarily for seed starting.
@@MIgardener What type of soil do you use when you transplant from a cell to a larger pot when planting from seed? Do you still use the promix seed starter?
Where do you buy the composted manure? I haven't checked stores yet but Amazon is selling it for $20 for 10 lb, which I think is a bit pricey.
Check local nurseries, Home Depot, or Lowes. Maybe local do-it-yourself stores, too.
Your prices are amazing. Here in the Boise area you'll spend $3.50 for a 1 cu. ft. bag of top soil and $12.97 for a 2 cu. ft. of raised bed mix. A 3 cu. ft. bag of peat moss is $23.97. A tiny bag of vermiculite is $8.97 and a tiny bag of perlite is about the same.
I don't think it's a location thing, i think it's because this video was made in January of 2021. Things are almost double the cost now :(
Please give me suggestions for seed starting mix?
Espoma Seed Starter
@@laurieanne9712 Thanks.
Jiffy
@@jonathanhicks3342 Thanks I am using Jiffy and another one I don't remember the name of to see which one I like best.
Our city composts all of the yard waste, so I get my compost free as long as I haul it. The compost is tested to make sure it doesn't have anything that will kill you plants, but it is also made of whatever people throw in the yard bins. I mix the city compost with some Black Cow manure and plenty of peat moss and vermiculite. This seems to work well and keeps my soil costs pretty low. Spring 2020 the city closed the compost facility for a bit, so you couldn't get it, so I used mushroom compost with animal compost and, as always peat moss and vermiculite.
Ours does too. I love that but lots of people don't have access to that though.
Got to get more BANG FOR YOUR BUCK so to speak I use wood chips garden soil and the potting mix am giving some of the other potting soil some tries on the garden but always go for the cow manure from a farmer that I know !!
Which would you recommend for container potatoes? I have a very good organic potato fertilizer to add in. Thanks for the video!
What about bulk buying compost and stuff from dirt suppliers? The places where they just dump a bucket from a backhoe into the bed of your truck.
I usually buy bulk from a supplier. It cost 40 to 60 depending on the mix.
I had that done once. I got rocks, thorns, glass and plastic in that "soil".
Thank you.
i'm confused, are you suggesting that potting soil be a good choice for in ground gardens? Or are these just suggestions for potting? I'm looking for a good bagged GARDEN SOIL
Heyyyy homie can you do a video abt seed starting
You should talk about hydro store products as they are the ones most avalible
We love using peat moss with any top soil 🌱
Amend cheap top soil! Add like peat moss etc! I've grown great gardens in it.
Thank you!!!
This is great information to know. Thanks.
I might buy some products like that for some 1 gallon pots
Thank you, would have been nice to mention the sizes of the bag. So one gets an idea of how much to buy.
Thanks though!
I watched your last video where you said get out and buy a tiller....this video you say it's not ideal to till your soil...???
in San Diego we NEED water holding ability!!
Thanks for the tips and comparisons
Hey there Luke, do you guys sell Elderberry seeds?
Biggest issue I've been having is soil compaction, and crust on top of soil. Even compost does this where water wasn't penetrating below the top crust. What's a good solution.
Is there an ideal way or proportion to create the best type of potting mix?
Pretty soon i will be tilling an acre for a larger scale garden so far top soil and horse manure has worked fine but i cant get an acre of manure so il use what i got and get some pete moss and perlite to aid the clay soil and maybe some trifecta plus.