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Edna's Best Potting soil

12 years ago

Can anyone tell me if Edna's best potting soil would be good for roses? I have a whole lot of seedlings I want to transfer from the small starter containers but don't want to use a soil that will not be beneficial to the roses. Any advice would be great, I am trying to stay all organic! :)

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Comments (7)

jacqueline9CA
12 years ago
Look at the label and see what kinds of plant food it contains.

Jackie
Melissa77754
Original Author
12 years ago
I have already done that and it has great ingredients. I guess I am looking for someone that has used this for their roses with success. I have another organic soil from Kmart that the roses do not like at all. Soooo, anyone else??

Edna's Best:
Contains Composted Fir Bark, Sphagnum Peat Moss, Redwood Compost, Mushroom Compost, Volcanic Pumice, Earthworm Castings, Washed Sand, Kelp Meal, Bat Guano, Feather Meal, Gypsum and Mycorrhizae.Oyster Shell Lime and Dolomite Lime are added as pH adjusters. A natural wetting agent, Yucca shidegera saponin, has been added to help remoisten the product.
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petaloid
12 years ago
The organic elements look good to me, however I am concerned about the pumice, sand and gypsum.

For potted roses I would expect those to let the soil dry out too quickly between waterings. Sounds more like something that geraniums would do well in.

You might take a look at Dr. Earth or Kellogg potting soils for roses, both available locally. I've had rosy results with both.
Tessiess, SoCal Inland, 9b, 1272' elev
12 years ago
It's my favorite potting soil. I use it for everything, not just for plants in pots. Flowers and herbs that I plant in the garden. Tomatoes in pots. And of course ROSES! In the ground or potted. Edna's Best is my potting soil of choice. Earlier this year I was out of potting soil, and the store I was shopping in (Orchard) didn't carry EB, so I bought what they had. I tried a bag of Kellogg's on some perennials and a selection of mail order roses, but while results were okay, they weren't quite as good as what I was used to with EB. So back to it I went.

I have now, hmm, it must be more than 20 of the mother plants acquired from Eurodesert since early May, and all of them I've put either in the garden or in pots using Edna's Best. With great success. They all are doing great. Lots of foliage, and even better lots of buds and blooms. Napoleon (china) looks spectacular right now in a huge pot. He is covered head to toe in pink blooms--100+ degree weather not an issue. Potted entirely in Edna's Best. Baptiste Lafaye (polyantha) is in the garden, he must have hundreds of buds on him right now. Abbe Bramerel (hybrid perpetual) has so many buds one would think this rose was a floribunda. Henry Nevard (hybrid perpetual) has had one flush and is starting another. Comtesse O'Gorman (hybrid perpetual) just finished a glorious flush (the fragrance on her blooms is to die for!). Sydonie (bourbon) is breaking out with pink blooms all over, and Glendora (found rose) is covered in buds. Eurostar (floribunda) I only brought home last week (and again heavily pruned for the ride home, like all the others) and still this wonderful rose didn't even blink--it's about to bloom again. Do I think it is all the potting soil? No. I think getting whopping sized and fantastically healthy plants is a big head start. But I'm not messing with the results I'm getting. Armstrong just loves seeing me coming with all the potting soil I've been buying.;) I also like the gorilla hair redwood bark (been buying a bunch of that too!).

Melissa
Melissa77754
Original Author
12 years ago
Thank you so much for your detailed response Melissa! Lovely name you have! :)

I didn't want to go with Kellogg products, they are all natural but not organic. I actually found Edna's best at a nursery in Riverside. It was $8.99 and buy 3 get 1 free, I thought it was a GREAT deal! I transferred 6 of my rose seedling in to this soil yesterday and so far so good. Thanks again for responding! Happy gardening!

Melissa
organicgardendreams
12 years ago
Melissa, I use Edna's Best organic potting soil for all my roses with good results. Only when they are very small (a lot of my roses come to me as bands, so they are tiny) I noticed that I have to be careful not to over water them. Then the potting soil can get a bit heavy. But otherwise they do fine.

I am also trying to grow things organically and was happy to read that you do the same!

Good luck with your roses!

Christina

Here is a link that might be useful: Organic Garden Dreams
hoovb zone 9 sunset 23
12 years ago
I use Edna's. It is good stuff.

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