Thanks to all for the advice thus far. However, it seems that in the process of gathering intel for a good growing medium, as a newbie I significantly misunderstood what was suggested to me in the weeks leading up to now. My goal was to keep things simple. I have very little time to do gardening work and I take advantage of every spare minute I have to that end. When I was asking around for a growing medium a couple of weeks ago, I was hoping I could find one that I wouldn't have to mix in ratios and one that was already rich in nutrients so all I would have to do is worry about watering. That was when I learned about Pro Mix BX. I even went the extra mile to find a local retailer of Pro Mix BX and fortunately within a few days I found one within 10 min of my house and bought 4 compressed bales at $28 a pop. After subsequently receiving my GeoPots in the mail, I thought I had everything I needed to start my containers. However, it seems that all I really had (based on the above responses) was two pieces of the puzzle. What it boils down to is that basically I have one growing mix ingredient and even that ingredient requires something to be added to it if it is to be used alone. Lets just say for argument's sake that I have no time to go back and re-fill those containers (which is actually a true statement) with a 5-1-1 mix or something like it. Am I destined to have a disappointing crop this year? I thought my biggest problem was going to be keeping the Pro Mix in the GeoPots moist considering they are fabric pots. Based on the responses above, it seems like I am going to have the opposite problem. I am not in a happy place right now. Could this end up being my biggest gardening mistake ever?

Never heard of it and it's apparently brand new to US markets and only available in NE. That's likely why no one on the Container forum had any info either. What's worse there is minimal info available about it on the web. Even their own website provides no info on it, no contents, their catalog link gives a 404 error, no reviews anywhere except a couple of negative comments about how dry it is, that it contains soil supposedly, and that the texture is far too fine. Those may be nothing more than personal opinions. No way to know. No list of distributors is provided so it may by just a one time low price deal they made with a few New England suppliers. The company is Canadian so IF it is distributed in Canada some of the folks on the Canadian forums may have had some experience with it. The company seems to primarily focus on Christmas trees, pallets, wood burning logs and pellets. Per their About Us page they only recently moved into products like this. Not real confidence building. Nothing about it on any of my professional horticultural websites either - no mention at all. It is as if it only popped up. In fact when you Google it or Bing it your post of this question comes up first - that's a scary clue to the fact that little is known about it. Sorry no more info is available that I can find. Meanwhile the link below is to a list of all the suppliers of ProMix in New Jersey, PA, and Mass. Hopefully one of them is close to you. Dave. Here is a link that might be useful: Northeast ProMix distributors

Mcreader, let me put it this way. I live in north GA. Pine trees are grown commercially all over this state and I struggle to find pine bark the past few years! Mulches are now dyed or colored. Some of the pine bark I've used was toxic because the trees were likely injected and killed standing.. here I was making soil mixes that contained powerful herbicides. (that was truly a very bad mix!) The best source I found is to get Lowes or Home Depot to order the product with a purple label sold as 'pine bark mulch'. Some bags have a lot of good size bark bits and others have a lot of wood and cambium or are too decayed. It's really become a hassle to find a good bark bit. Our local Home Depot said I could prepay and they could order some bags of the product I like to use so you might want to ask and see if that's available. I've used aggregate suppliers, landscape suppliers and places like that who had huge stacks of bark but you have to be careful and sort the sizes. Its a far better price but if you're willing to go through the trouble its a fraction of the cost of pre bagged products. I made this video a few summers ago explaining and showing the product I've had the most luck with. Maybe it will be helpful 511 explained

I am using 5-1-1. It costs me about $3.00 per cu-ft. The most expansive component (1/7th) is perlite. About 70% is pine bark @ $2 per cu-ft. Now, promox on the other hand is better than 70% peat moss. So its advantage is more moisture retention and with that comes fertilizer retention. You can have a modified version of 5-1-1. Make it 3-3-1 (3parts pine bark, 3 parts peat moss, one part perlite) I modify mine by adding 1 part DE (UltraSorb) and reduce pine bark by the same amount. So I have: 4-1-1-1. You can do it as 3-1-1-2 (2 parts DE). one pond of dry DE absorbs one pound of water, EXACTLY. And unlike peat it does not get mushy nor it will cake. After it is saturated it will work like perlite, providing drainage. AND it won't fall apart. Great stuff. The most difficult part of making 5-1-1(or its variation) is to find the right pine/fir bark fine. I made 2 barrel full of it this season, with less the one bale of peat moss($11), one bag of UltraSorb ($9), and one bag of perlite ($18). I keep saying this: there is no secret in the medium other tha its moistutur retention and drainage property. Plants grow with nutrients that you add to the medium. That medium can be water, sand/gravel, bark, old fashion garden soil( as long as it does not get compacted). Edit: Another property of a good medium is to provide AIR for the root system. That is what a soggy soil lacks (no air = oxygen) causing fatal damage. Plants do not die because of too much water but because of too little or no air. Otherwise hydroponics could not work if it were because of too much water. Yet another reason why fabric/smart bags work better than plastic container; MORE OXYGEN. This post was edited by seysonn on Thu, Jun 26, 14 at 1:17