20 Best Dirt For Growing Weed (2023 Updated)

This was my second year with an annual garden. I’ve been learning about Permaculture for a few years. This was also my second year trying to use soil blocks to start seeds indoors. Last year I used a soil mix from Johnny’s which worked well.

I’ve also experimented making some starter soil myself last year, but as a beginner it became overwhelming. When I heard this was a product of Vermont Compost Company, that gave me a great sense of ease.

I’ve heard of them through a few sources and I appreciate their practices. I always wonder what companies through into compost and how well they process it. When I opened my first bag, I was a bit confused and disappointed.

It was quite a different texture than I was used to. I had come up with an exact measurement of water to add to my previous mix and couldn’t see how this mix would hold together with the same. I watched a few YouTube videos and then got more generous with the water.

I started getting awesome 2″ blocks with ease. I now find this mix very easy to use and I no longer measure the water I add. It seems very forgiving. So far I’ve only used this mix for 2″ blocks (not the mini’s), but the plants all did very well and are now out in the garden.

Since this was a hectic year and we’re fairly new to all of this, we also bought some starts from local farms as backups — these of course came in trays. Now that we’ve transplanted them all, I have to say that I liked the starts in blocks MUCH better.

Some of the trays were root bound and needed to be freed. The soil we got in many of the trays just seemed like an ultralight sponge. The blocks I made with this mix had healthy plants and no root bound issues — they transplanted much quicker.

The fine grain and bits of coconut coir in this potting mix makes it ideal for soil blocking. A YouTube video recommended mixing this Vermont Compost product with Jiffy seed starter, but I have achieved great soil block results with just this product and enough water to make the mix clump well.

The blocks hold together extremely well. You do have to find and remove larger particles like small sticks before making the blocks, but these are mercifully few.

So upset, keep reading how this stuff is the gold standard for soil block use, straight out of the bag. I got mine fresh delivered and prepped an entire flat of 1/2″ blocks (that’s a lot of blocking) and set them on the heatmat to germ when I went to bed.

Within the time of 11pm to 7am it was covered in fine, white, cobwebby MOLD! I’m horrified, I’ve never had this happen with a seed starting mix. So disappointed – hundreds of seeds to waste and putting me a week behind in my starts for the year.

How is one supposed to get heat-lovers like peppers and eggplants going if this stuff molds faster than you can blink?? What a waste of three bags :(.

The pros are simply put it is great soil with the right amount of near everything and it’s of nice fine sift. It’s great for one go of 4 months or so. After that it lacks slow release nutrients “that can be added” on the big con is “bugs” “larvae” this can be fixed with a bit of prep with neem oil and insecticidal soaps.

Plenty of ways to fix but for the price. maybe should already be done. The only problem with the cost is that the distribution is scarce. Very much so in rural areas. It’s a solid hour and 45 minute drive to my nearest dealer/carrier but if you take the trip and find one you’ll be sour that the price on the 1.

5 cubic feet bags are only $15. 99 and that’s full retail per one bag. They go on sale and offer discounts on larger purchases. I understand shipping costs. I only wish they would get this stuff in more locations.

Tractor supply or Co-OP at least. It’s a bit of a black market with a bug problem. I spray with neem oil and soap “notdawn” then flip the soil and repeat 3-4 times. I then let soil completely dry out again placing in extreme cold helps too.

I then re-warm and re-wet with spring water adding bone meal, broke up organic jobes fertilizer sticks, blood meal plus perlite and vermiculite for drainage and anti packing properties and finally about 5 lbs or 6 gallons of cocoa coir.

Best soil I’ve personally ever used after a little prep work. ps: the neem oil and soap will keep away the bugs gnats and larvae best part its completely natural and from a tree. Smells bad and I do not recommend during flowering cycles.

I discovered this product last year and was totally blown away! You can literally see your plants growing once you pot them using this soil. My garden is in pots on my deck and I am amazed with how well they all are doing.

I started some seeds last week and decided to use this soil instead of my seed starter soil. In 3 days my seeds had sprouted and are doing great! I told my son this product is soil on steroids lol! I can’t remember how many bags I used last year but to date this year I have purchased 8 bags.

I have repotted houseplants using this soil and they grow like crazy!!! Best soil I have ever used, they have a customer for life!!!.

I spoke to Fox Farms because theres little information on this bag. I was told to treat it like potting soil, but it still grows like coco. It is PH buffered, and has enough nutrients for ABOUT 3 weeks.

However I start light feeding when the 1st permanent appear. Whats even better is coco is even better the 2nd time around. , Rip your plants and main roots out shake off excess back into the pot and top it off with a little fresh.

Its best to add an enzyme routine to your feeding but not necessary. By now the coco which is usually very unstable PH wise has become stable from all the Cal Mag, it also has lots of bacteria, and microbes that are great for your roots.

What ever you do, do not throw out your used coco loco after the 1st grow its just broke in and your plants will love it. My last harvest was 674 grams off 2 plants using subpar lighting. Would have been a lot better if I had more wattage.

Just remember coco loco is triple washed, so there is no dust, its ph buffered, and has nutrients for about 3 weeks, its really good stuff. But ask your local nursery to order it. because its only around 15 bucks for 2cu.

I dont have a green thumb. In fact I’m the type of person that has tried and tried again to grow the simplist plant successfully and failed. I use a mixture of regular Miracle grow potting soil and fast draining cactus/succulent soil.

I have a variety of plants from normal garden flower to spider plants, purple heart, spider plant and even my hanging Ivy plants. Every single one of em loves this soil. I can tell their happier, healthier and absolutely exploding with growth.

I highly recommend using Miracle Grow products.

We bought this soil because it said citrus and palm soil. We used it to plant a lemon and orange trees in large pots on our patio. After I finished I saw on the back of the bag in not very large letters not for containers.

Too late plates are in and we don’t have any other dirt to mix in with it. I’m hoping they will be alright.

I recently tried the Miracle Grow Garden Soil for Cactus, palm and Citrus. I live in a desert where plants and cactus grow. its amazing how our soil isn;t enough. I have planted cactus and palms before and not had success.

I was pleased to find this type of potting soil. It is dry and contains sand like the natural soil we have here. So far, my succulents I planted are doing well. Our pots are outside and with this soil and the dry air they seem to be thriving.

The soil is light and airy and seems to work well. I recommend this potting soil for cactus and succulents!.

I needed some good soil for outdoors to till in with the dirt in our yard to have some nutrients in the dirt for a small garden. I never bought this kind before, but I’m glad I did. Combined with the added organic nutrients, It’s got enough of coco and perlite mixed in for a lightweight and spongy texture.

It holds water well for up to 5-7 days on long sunny days before you need to water your plants again. Overall Good soil at a Good $ price compared to others. Roots Organics has a good reputation for that which is really great.

I’m a customer for life. Im glad I found it online which is awesome, because it’s hard to find the soil you are looking for in my town other than Walmart or Lowes, Home Depot.

The 2 complaints I read were stupid fools. This is excellent stuff and make my own when I need 20 or more cubic feet, and this has everything I like in mine. For smaller amounts this is great stuff at a very good price.

I can’t make it cheaper in small amounts. There are only a few brands that rate this good and the others were to expensive so I tried this and now I’m back for more.

I was looking for an organic potting soil and wanted to try this since it was coco coir based. I’d been comparing this to Fox Farms Ocean Forest soil and bought both and I like this one much better. Lighter texture and has a clean, fresh smell compared to Ocean Forest (as clean and fresh as soil can smell :).

Most of my plants are tropical so I’ll be using this one going forward. I notice that all of my plants that are thriving and healthy are in 100% coco coir or a blend such as this. Definitely highly recommend.

Here where I live, in Texas, we luckily have two planting seasons; the usual late spring, after frost/summer season, and also the fallish season. We normally only freeze here in late January or February, if at all, living near the Gulf of Mexico.

We take advantage of that extra second planting season time. Although we have a compost pile, we usually use most of it on the first planting season. Even though I continue to add and grow our compost, it does take time to get it ready to use.

I’ve learned that if we wish to do our second garden planting, we need ready made, rich compost-like soil to have good results. I’m very impressed with the Miracle Grow Garden Soil for Vegetables and Herbs.

Some fall seasons bring rain to us, but this year, like a lot in the past, we are having many beautiful sunny mild weather days, and not so much rain. So the fact that this soil holds moisture is a huge help.

The thing I love the most, is the dark, rich, compost-like density that this product holds. I can continue to nurture my own compost pile for the spring garden, yet use this to have a healthy fall harvest.

My plants and herbs seem to really like this soil, and are doing well, so we plan to continue using it in years to come. With grocery prices soaring, we all can use gardening to not only save money, but feel good about food that we grow ourselves.

I’m thinking about adding a bag or two, of this soil to my compost pile in the spring and actually making a much bigger home garden next year So far, the plants are growing well and happy, and with a little bit of water and nutrients.

I am confident that we will have a great fall/early winter harvest once again this year. I highly recommend this soil as being dark, rich, and plant happy. Although it’s best for our outdoor garden, I also plant fresh herbs and some easy to grow indoor veggies, like green onions and some herbs, and I’m using this nice rich soil to do so, and they are also doing well.

I do recommend this rich garden soil for all of your garden plant needs! It’s good stuff!.

My back yard has terrible clay dirt. I’ve been very unlucky at growing vegetables and herbs in the clay dirt. I am very optimistic to use the Miracle-Gro Garden Soil for Vegetables and Herbs. Miracle-Gro is a very popular brand.

I’ve put this Miracle-Gro Garden Soil in pots and am growing basil, lavender, mint, parsley, and rosemary indoors. The Miracle-Gro Garden Soil for Vegetables and Herbs is enriched with a blend of compost, plant food, and other essential nutrients.

The Miracle-Gro Garden Soil for Vegetables and Herbs bag advertises that it will feed plants for up to 3 months. Furthermore, this soil has moisture control which means it protects against over and under watering.

I believe this soil will increase my herb harvest during the months of November and December as it becomes cold outside. I will continue to use this product in the future and definitely recommend this product.

I’ve been using Miracle Grow potting mix for longer than I can remember, 3 to 4 large bags every growing season. Never had any issues with the product until my most recent purchase. When I opened the bag the first couple of scoops seemed normal then I started getting large clumps of some fibrous material.

My initial reaction was that it was fiberglass but upon closer inspection it appeared to be some type of organic material. It was dry and hairy in appearance and seemed to have black mold embedded in it.

The further I got into the bag the more of these clumps I encountered. The clumps were baseball to softball sized, very compact and there were over a dozen of them in the bag. Each clump had to be thrown aside as they would not fit in the pots I was using, nor did they appear to look like any potting material I had ever come across.

I would have thought that the potting mix would go through a screening process prior to bagging but that is not possible as these clumps would never had made it through such a process. Long story short, either Miracle Grow had a breakdown in their processing of potting mix or they have eliminated the screening process to save money.

In either case, this bag was a waste of money. I’ve seen cheaper potting mixes on the shelves but always gone for the Miracle Grow because of past experience. I think that it’s time to sample the alternatives.

I purchased several bags of MG potting mix for container vegetable gardening. I have used this product in the past over about a ten year period. The materials in the mix just purchased are not the quality ingredients I have used in the past.

In the past the mix was more uniform with smaller bark pieces and uniform shredded peat with enough perlite to actually promote good drainage it was easily used to fill cell packs. Most importantly it drained well and did not compact.

The current mix is garbage compared to what it used to be. The stuff I got h to his year has large chunks of wood and sticks large rocks huge chunks of hard organic matter globs peat like material the size of golf balls.

The mix does not drain well and packs down tightly. There is not enough perlite to maintain a good air to water ratio when wet. The mix used to be very similar to a traditional Cornell Peat lite mix but no longer.

It does not perform well doesn’t drain well and overpriced for the quality of product.

I tried an experiment where I planted 4 types of tomato seeds on a 12 cell pk container. I planted 4 seeds in a row in my homemade soil mix and the rest in black gold soil. In 3 weeks time most of tomato plants in my homemade soil grew well and almost 3-4 times talker with better developed leaves.

The tomatoes grown in the black gold are not growing very well. Also I had to throw away my batch of tomato plants I tried to grow with black gold soil; they were stunted and sickly looking. I had also used the black gold for houseplants and had to change out the soil after the plants looked like they were dying.

Good, peat based organic potting soil. I use it as the base for my container garden mix. It has a good amount of perlite in it, so it allows oxygen to reach the roots, and it drains well. You’ll need to add your own slow release organic fertilizer to it, as there’s not much food in there for your plants after their first three weeks.

This potting soil has a nice fine texture, with few stray pebbles and small wood chunks. I rarely encounter a tiny piece of shredded plastic. The price per 1. 5 cu ft bag has really jumped lately, maybe due to the increased demand from the large number of pandemic inspired, new home vegetable gardeners.

It’s better quality than the mega lawnseed companies’ sludgy/chunky potting dirt, but not nearly as good as a plug-and-play, loamy, pre-fertilized potting mix like FoxFarms ‘Ocean Forest Soil’, or Coast Of Maine’s ‘Bar Harbor Mix’.

Black gold soil is good stuff. The item shipped quick. I would have never purchased it had I known it was for a very small bag of soil. It’s my fault and I should have looked at the size. For $20 I couldn’t conceive that it was any thing other than the standard big bag of soil.

It’s not. It is a very small bag. For the price, this may as well be gold. Not practical for any garden bigger than micro-green sprouting.

This is the third year I have used this planting mixture. I plant a lot of flowers in pots of various sizes. I have found that the flowers do very well, looking good until the fall frosts. I like that the bag is so big because I can buy two bags and usually have enough for all my pots.

I have to admit that this year I had to go back and get one extra, smaller bag because I over estimated how many flowers I needed to get.

I built raised garden beds last year and instead of regular topsoil which can be heavy and turn into mud, I used this product along with compost and sheep manure. My garden was so productive and the product remained so light and water retentive.

Highly recommend.

I used this for a few pots. I’m not a great plant parent, so I didn’t put much hope into growing anything and just picked easy stuff. I have potatoes growing in this mix and they are doing just fine.

It’s on the patio, so I haven’t noticed any gnats. I also started some “Zombie Plant” seeds in another container of this soil. Again, on the patio so I can’t say if there are gnats. The seeds sprouted and are doing well.

Not sure what the actual name of these are, but they seem to be thriving. This soil shipped well and lots to be just fine for my needs.

Last year I decided to not let living in an apartment keep me from growing & keeping plants something I have loved most my life since my grandfather taught me how to garden as a child. So I have only bought Miracle Grow brand soils since the beginning of my endeavor last year.

Shortly after I started noticing the gnats not thinking much of it I ignored this (big mistake) within a matter of weeks most my plants were dead dying or not growing & looking sickly after turning to the internet & a few professionals for answers I was told I had a serious fungus gnat problem so serious that I ended up disposing of everything from the plants to my pots & gardening accessories for good measure.

Then had to very thoroughly clean every surface & surrounding where my plants had been. Discouraged it took me a while to want to attempt to have plants again but I did this time w/ Christmas Cactuses & some ivys so again I buy Miracle Grow soil the Cactus/succulent blend & some other reg Miracle Grow potting soil in a matter of days the gnats were back I was livid cause never in a million years did it occur to me that it was my dependable name brand soil that caused all this damage.

I checked the leftover soil in the bags that were stored in a sealed bucket & sure enough eggs lots of them even showed the soil to a person who works at nursery to confirm & they said it was definitely infested.

Should have read the reviews for this I blame myself but I still can’t believe a company that’s been considered a household name & is so trusted by so many would allow for this to not just happen but continue to happen I get that after something leaves their wearhouse or packing plants that it’s hard to control every aspect of the product but surely something could be done to better protect from these things? Now I’m fighting to keep my remaining plants alive since it seems I’m locked into an on going battle with these pests.

My Birds of Paradise are starting to look terrible it really is depressing to see.

I do alot of succulents. I keep them near my kitchen window which gets the most sun. In the summer I do move some outside to the back patio area as they make great fuss free decor. To make my plants thrive I always used Miracle-Gro Succlent formula.

When I first started with my first few succulents, which I believe my first may have been a gift that was given to me. I left them in their planters and water only when very dry. Some died due to me over watering some not enough.

The Miracle-Gro soil made such a difference. Soon as I started using the product I was able to rehome some in larger planters. Alot of succulents come small in little cute containers, but they will adapt to the size container you place them in.

Now I have e much larger and healthier succulents. The Miracle-Gro helps maintain moisture at just the right amount and if I over water it will drain to the bottle and not absorb at the top which is what give tour plants root rot.

Wow. What an inordinate waste of money, Miracle Gro! Last year we purchased and potted a number of Christmas cacti using this MiracleGro potting mix for cactus — three bags of it. Almost immediately we started to notice a multitude of gnats around the home.

About a month into the growing problem, we thought they were drain flies, and so for the next two weeks (and about $100. 00 later) we applied bottle after bottle of drain flies treatment to ever open drain / sink in the home.

The gnats problem continued…and words of caution, they are quickly drawn to blue light / computer/ iPad screens and several have entered my nose while working at night. In looking at the reviews and images here we now know the source of our infestation.

Definitely the fault of infested Miracle Gro Cactus Potting Mix. Unbelievable.

I’m not an avid gardener, but I use this potting soil exclusively to grow pea shoots, basil, cilantro, mint, and chives indoors. It works well for me, and I’ve reused the soil many times for pea shoots (after letting it dry out a bit and removing the roots).

I never get bugs in my plants and have only gotten some wispy mold once, so in my amateur opinion, it’s great for my uses.

I really have not used anything to compare this soil to. I use it to grow organic wheatgrass, and it seems to work just fine. The wheatgrass that I juice from that which I grow, is smooth and sweet, unlike many of those I’ve tasted juiced at bars in health food stores.

My only issues that arose needing customer service turned out well. I had ordered ten bags of the soil, but only received one. I was on a timeline due to a pending trip. I had to escalate the issue prior to its getting resolved.

The owner wound up authorizing a faster shipping method for the missing soil. It got to me the day before my trip. So, kudos to the owner.

It’s expensive, but it’s clearly the best potting soil available. The cheap ones, such as from Home Depot have so much peat moss, they don’t absorb moisture readily. Drying out quickly, those other peat moss laden soils get very stiff, which chokes the roots that need room to grow.

Foxfarm has the perfect balance of moisture absorbency and drainage. It remains soft, so roots can easily stretch into new growth. Also unlike Miracle Grow potting soil, that has artificial fertilizers, plants won’t spike with growth, only to slump in fatigue from too much sudden stimulation.

With FoxFarm, they’ve got steady nutrients, so plants endure happily. I used to bring seaweed from the beach, dry it out and chop it up, because my plants love those minerals. FoxFarm saves me the work, because they’ve added the seaweed for me.

I feel like I just wrote an ad for the company, but I swear by this superior brand. Give it a try.