I like Eko Outdoor Potting Mix.

Home Depot has it.

I understand, gardengal48; I know making your own potting soil is the way to go, I just don't have the time, money or transportation to do that this year. I can certainly add bark to a commercial mix this year, but wonder if I can afford to do a 50-50 mix - perhaps I will "experiment" and do some containers with this sort of mix and some with just "out of the bag" potting mix. If the bark-infused containers do better, than that tells me I better save up some more money so that I can do it "properly" next year.

I don't know how I forgot about Eko products - thank you for the reminder, plantladyco! The Eco mix is more expensive than lovely MG (Miracle-Gro, misspelled as Miracle Grow in my last post but already too late to edit it to correct it,) but it is locally-made so I am sure it is made just right for Colorado conditions. lol. I have used Eko compost before but not the potting mix; I am going to check it out. At least at those that I frequent, Eko products are available at local nurseries, too.

And if you want to take Richlawn's word for it (that's the company that makes Eko products,) their potting mix is much better for our plants than is MG, according to this page: EKO Outdoor Mix vs Miracle -Gro

Holly

I have been buying and using Sun Gro's Black Gold Organic for nearly 20 years. The company also makes Sunshine mixes. I'm afraid to use anything but the Black Gold for starting seed and potting for the first couple of months of plant life. If the plants will be in containers longer, I use a formula from the ATTRA Sustainable Agriculture (link): The simple one, "Vegetable transplant recipe"

That mix is screened and a commercial organic fertilizer is added.

I buy the Black Gold either wholesale or from a farm supply store. Ace Hardware carries it here.

Best of Luck with whatever you choose, Holly.

Steve

Miracle Grow in the yellow bag is what I have always used because it's readily available and works just fine. The most common thing I grow in containers is peppers and I get hundreds and hundreds of them off of enormous plants every year growing in that stuff. Its readily available and not the MOST expensive you can buy.

I think EKO is what I bought this year for potting up seedlings. If you go with it, be prepared to fertilize A LOT, or at least mix in some slow realse pellets before planting. Seems that stuff is about equal to growing in straight peat or sand. I eventually dumped what I had left in the compost and bought the MG.

I do like Black Gold, Steve, use it for my houseplants and such, and would love to be able to use it for my vegetable containers, too, but it is too expensive for me; I cannot buy at wholesale prices, either. It is not as if I have a ton of veggies to plant in containers, but the pots I will be using are large ceramic pots and I am not sure of their exact size but I guesstimate that they are all approximately 25-30 gallon containers. That's a lot of potting mix

Wow, I am shocked that you use Miracle-Gro, Zach. (j/k) I have used it happily in the past, ignoring all the folks that say it is junk. I haven't really seen a problem with it, since I only use it for "short term" growing of veggies and annuals. Who know what eating peppers and tomatoes grown in this medium with Miracle-Gro fertilizer will do to you long term, but, hey, I am in my 60's, I am not really worried! And to my knowledge, no one using Miracle-Gro has given birth to a child with an extra eye, so maybe it isn't as harmful as the nay-sayers claim!

Anyone tried out Kellogg Organics All Natural Potting Mix ? According to the comments of "Kellogg Garden Expert" on the linked page, the mix ingredients are: "processed forest products, arbor fines, peat humus, perlite, sphagnum peat moss, composted poultry manure, sand, dolomitic limestone (as a pH adjuster), worm castings, bat guano, kelp meal, dehydrated poultry manure, feather meal. These ingredients are listed on the back panel of each bag for reference. The pH for this product ranges from 7.4-7.6. The NPK is 0.30-0.10-0.10. Additional calcium, magnesium or sulfur is not added to All Natural Potting Mix." Not a bark-based mix but it sounded rather good. I bought a couple of bags and planted my potatoes in it last weekend; we'll see how it does but the texture seemed nice.

I think I am over-thinking this; I will be buying whatever I decide to buy this weekend so I will be making a decision soon. :-)

Holly

There are 2 different Eko mixes,

I meant to say Eko Outdoor Planting Mix (not potting)

Thanks for posting this. I have learned a lot!

I must say that Zach's experience with the Eko potting mix makes me want to steer clear of it, though I have liked their bagged Clay Buster and Compost products.

You liked their Outdoor Planting mix, plantladyco; is this a soil-less mix like container mix should be or is it meant for raised garden beds/adding to your garden soil?

I seem to be leaning towards the Kellogg's potting mix - like everything else, it gets mixed reviews, no pun intended - but I may get several different brands of potting mix, including the MG, and find out for myself which mix does best for me in my garden, with my plants and with my gardening methods.

Holly

I like Roots Organic, anything by Fox Farm, and anything by the local company Maxfield's. I was in a big hurry the other day and decided to tried one from Walmart called "Magic Dirt". It contains no water retention agents or fertilizer. (I like to add my own fertilizer based on the plant type and time of year.)

I just bought some Roots Organic and two different Fox Farm products (Happy Frog and Ocean Forest). I got them at Grow Depot on 104th and Huron for about $18 / bag which is a stupendous deal. It's the benefit of legalized marijuana in our state: great selection of quality products for growing everything at lower prices. I say check it out!

^^^I love Fox Farm bagged potting mixes. That is some of the most beautiful soil I've used. The Ocean Forest is what I normally put my houseplants in, but the Happy Frog is equally high quality. I don't know that I'd buy either one for outdoors...right now I have to fill 11 large terra cotta pots for the patio (average 3/5 gallons each, so I'll make do with something more practical.

Many of the commercially bagged mixes are just too woody. I get really bummed when I open a bag of potting mix and it looks like dirty mulch instead of soil.

Generally though, I'll just pick whichever organic potting mix is readily available at the box store. If it's local, that's even better. I recycle it all into my garden beds every fall, so it doesn't need to last for more than one season.

Eko Planting Mix is not soil-less. It's a nice,dark,moist mix.

Everyone has their own tastes. Most of us have gone through various types over the years until we found what we wanted, or didn't want, or decided to make our own. You can try a couple of different types this year and see what works for you. Keep notes. Then keep the winner and add another type next year. Different strokes for different folks, Holly. Just stay away from the concrete mix known as Hyponex. That is the worst commercial garden stuff on the market. I worked a garden center and after a rain, then drying, those bags of Hyponex were like concrete. They did not move.

But, there are strong opinions. Me. I'm just easily skeered ヅ.

I relate this story every couple of years ... I bought some potting mix one year; an off brand from a hardware store.

I didn't know that there was much difference between them: potting soil is potting soil. Just like, pancake mix is pancake mix! I can still see that cartoon daisy on the bag in my mind's eye, even if I can't remember the name. It nearly ruined my gardening season! I got all these seeds in it - almost nothing came up!

Luckily, I had just enough time to start again. With a fresh bag of soil mix. One that had worked for me before. And, I am afraid to change a thing, even if I suspect that I would be happy with others.

Steve

So Steve, what is the "One that had worked for me before" tried and true potting mix that you use? Curious minds want to know!

Holly

I like Maxfield's as well.

I bought some a few years ago from Ace hardware that was full of big fungus-type things, so I wouldn't recommend that.

digit (ID/WA, border) said

I have been buying and using Sun Gro's Black Gold Organic for nearly 20 years. The company also makes Sunshine mixes. I'm afraid to use anything but the Black Gold for starting seed and potting for the first couple of months of plant life ...

ت

Steve

lol - thanks Steve, just read your post answering my question - which, as you gently pointed out, had already been answered by your first post in this thread, DOH!

I ended up buying one bag of the Miracle Grow potting mix, and several bags of the Kellogg potting mix. Haven't used the MG as yet but potted up my peppers and one of my smaller tomato plants (Silvery Fir Tree) in the Kellogg's, mixed half and half with dairy cow manure. I will see how it goes! At least none of the plants have died or turned yellow as yet so all is well so far.

Speaking of Sun Gro.... I can't afford a premium mix like their Black Gold (or Fox Farm or other non-Sun Gro premium mixes) but I am considering purchasing a big bale of one of Sun Gro's Sunshine mixes, probably their #1 formula. Any opinions about these products for those that have used them?

Holly

OakIris,

Sunshine #1 is all I ever use--for everything! I don't add anything to it--ever!

Someone above--or more than one--said "peat based" products are no good! I beg to differ! I'm Olde, and I've used "peat based" potting soils for MANY years now, and they work for me! When I've tried other things I kill things! When I use the Sunshine #1 for EVERYTHING, I know "how it waters" and how long it takes to dry, so I know what to do, when, for the different kinds of plants, and they (almost always) thrive. When I say "everything," that includes germination/seedlings, succulents (X-mas & Orchid Cactus, aloe, jade), true cactus, winter sowing, and all my "regular" houseplants!

If "peat based" soils/mixes are no good, I find it (very) interesting that my brother (in Illinois) uses one (Pro Mix) for all his commercial growing, and BOTH garden centers (which both grew and sold retail) where I worked here in Denver also used a "peat based" mix, Ball Mix when I was at Center (retail long since closed), and Sunshine at Paulino's. At least one of the growers at Paulino's used to use a different one of the mixes for propagation, but she used a lot of it and knew what she was doing with it, so it worked for her! (She also had "proper" propagation conditions--bottom heat, mist, etc.) I got a bale of one of the mixes one time that had smaller size perlite in it--since I don't like "white pieces" in my house plant soil (or my garden outside!), and I promptly started killing everything I planted in it! Back to #1, and I haven't switched again since!

I use #1 which is supposed to have a "beginning charge" of nutrients, and it's the same price as #2, which is identical but without the fertilizer! When I was at Paulino's one time they had a couple pallets of one of the other mixes out front--don't remember the number--and seemed to be pushing that! When I looked it was basically the same as #1 & 2--but the retail price was higher! I kind of assumed that's why they were "promoting" that one! They ALWAYS have #1 (and #2) down by the side of the "main" building with all the other bagged and baled stuff.

There are Sunshine mixes that have vermiculite in them, and, once again,
anytime I even LOOK at vermiculite I start killing plants! I've tried
(long past) on multiple occasions, and no matter what I did I kept it
too wet and everything just keeled over on me!

A bale of Sunshine is 3.8 cubic feet--and that's a lot of soil! It's compressed, so when it's "fluffed up," that adds up to bags and bags and bags of loose-packed soil! A bale at Paulino's is 30-some dollars. I can't tell you exactly how much 'cause I get the Little Olde Lady Discount, so I don't pay the full price--and I wasn't paying any attention to what the retail price was a couple months ago when I got another bale.

I keep mine outside with the top "folded over" after I open it so it doesn't get saturated when it rains/snows, and since I haven't been starting as many swap plants as I was for a few years, a bale lasts me about a year. It keeps forever, and there have been times when I've had a bale that lasted close to two years. To use it I scoop a bunch out and keep it in a big "Rubbermaid storage container." Spray it in the kitchen sink if it's dry and I want to use it. If you decide to buy a bale, just be sure you get as much as you might need inside in winter when it's not frozen! It's moist in the bale, and it WILL freeze solid at times, making it impossible to get out of the package till it thaws again!

I've expressed my "opinion" about MG products around her on several occasions, and won't go into all that again! But if you should decide to go with the MG, I'd be interested in your opinion of the stuff--AFTER you've gotten and used at least three different bags!

One more thing I'll add! As Jali said above, DON'T get Hyponex! Ever! It will virtually guarantee failure, and odds are you'll think YOU did something wrong when it will have had nothing at all to do with anything you did or didn't do!

If you want to get a good soil/mix as cheaply as possible, I very definitely recommend a bale of Sunshine #1! If you decide to go with a bagged soil/mix, try some different ones and see which one works the best for you. I agree with Digit that the Black Gold is good stuff--but I just can't afford the stuff! And some of the Black Gold mixes are virtually the same as Sunshine.

Let us know, when you've decided for yourself, what you wind up using,

Skybird

Edited to add this link!

http://www.sungro.com/professional-products?brandID=1&productID=76

Thank you for your informative post, Skybird. I did notice that the one person (in this thread anyway) that recommended using bark-based mixes or adding lots of bark to any peat-based mixes has Pacific Northwest listed as her gardening zone. I learned something a couple of weekends ago from Kirk of LaPorte Ave. Nursery in Fort Collins. He said one of the problems we have here with nursery stock from the PNW (who hasn't purchased plants that were grown in Oregon?!?) is the bark-based mixes they use. They use bark in their mixes because that it what is readily available in their area, but, even more importantly, they also get lots and lots and lots of rain there so their nursery stock needs to be in a very fast draining, if not water-repelling mix so the plants don't get root rot. We get the plant here, plant it with its intact root ball still in the nursery pot soil (most of us don't bare-root a plant when we take it out of the pot, at least, I don't....) in our soil, and have no idea why the plant struggles so hard and perhaps even seems to not be getting enough water. Well, Kirk explained it better than I did, but it made sense to me, and I think a peat-based mix is just what we need here!

So, I think I am going to go for the Sunshine, if I can afford it. I know it is equivalent to about 4 normally sized bags of potting soil, once it is expanded, but it also costs about $50 without the Little Olde Lady discount. (Do you actually get a senior discount at Paulino's? They certainly don't advertise it and if you only paid $30, that is a heck of a discount! I thought maybe it was because you were a former, valued employee! Anyway, I am a Little Olde Lady, too, so I may check into that!)

Holly

Holly, you should price check the Sunshine mix at Grow Depot. I'm pretty sure they have it there. You can call for a price. While you're there, pick up a giant bag of worm castings! Since I discovered I could buy huge bags of them there, I've been putting them in everything. I used to dole it out in small portions, but now I don't have to conserve it.

I found it! Here's the info about the price and the discount!

In March the regular retail price for a bale of #1 was $42. The senior discount is 20%, but it "goes away" over summer! The discount is good on Wednesday, from October thru March only. So you'd need to wait till fall to get it at the discount. I don't remember what their "senior age" is, but it seems to me it was pretty young, like maybe 55! I'm so far past it now that I don't even ask what the age is to qualify for senior discounts! After the discount I paid $33.60 for the bale. Call them to verify what the "olde age" is! [I am lucky in that I still know somebody who works there, so I get a "warning" in spring when the Little Olde Lady Discount is about to Go Away!]

I've never tried to measure this, and it obviously depends on what size bag you're talking about, but I believe if an entire bale was "fluffed up" all at the same time, it would be more than four "bags full." I fill up my 20" x 14" x 9" Rubbermaid tub over and over and over....... Besides all my own plants, I grow veggies and other things for my neighbors, and I had a whole car full of plants along with me to give away when I just went trippin'--I go thru a LOT of soil! You really don't get all that much in a loose-pack bag.

Hope the price and discount info helps!

Skybird

P.S. Yeah, I was surprised when I saw GardenGal from the PNW came to post here too! She's been around for a long time, and she really does know a lot of stuff, but most people really don't understand the conditions under which we garden here in the High (DRY) Desert! Glad Kirk was able to help explain about that for you!

I second the INAPPROPRIATENESS of "super draining" mixes based on things like bark and crushed granite in in Colorado. All, or nearly all, of the people who swear by them get 2,3,4 times as much precipitation as we do. Here, we would be watering every hour on the hour.

Not only do we not get rain, we don't get humidity either, so plants loose A LOT more water through transpiration than they do in a more "muggy" environment. Then you factor in the fact our sunshine here in Colorado is tenfold what "sunshine" in a place like Seattle or New Orleans is, and the issue compounds even further. So, unless you are growing plants adapted and designed for dry, hot, environments, the ones with small, hairy, and/or silver leaves, most garden plants, especially those grown in containers, use much more water here than they do almost anywhere else in the country. A bark based mix is, in my opinion, simply not a good fit for this place. It is also very expensive. Not my cup of tea.

I bought a bale of sunshine peat at HD a couple weeks ago because I reuse my potting mixes from year to year and simply "freshen" it up with some new stuff. Now, peat does have draw backs, it tends to become hydrophobic when it's very dry and rewetting can be a little frustrating. Sure it's easy to say "just don't let it dry out" then I'll reference you to the above paragraph, lol. In any case, I HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend this stuff, and when I bought it was because it has been highly recommended here.

Now, being the "laissez faire" gardener I am, I also mixed in some MG potting mix simply because of the added fertilizer, and because I needed to add some more volume (growing more things in more pots this year). I don't like having to worry about fertilizing, I like to set it and forget it. The same thing could be accomplished by adding slow release pellets to the pure peat. Like Skybird says this bale goes A LONG WAY. Combined I probably used almost a whole pickup bed full of potting mix this year, and this bale (combined with my saved mix from previous years and some MG mix) is still 1/3-1/2 full. Definitely worth the 12.00$ I paid for it. I am very pleased.

I am going to wait for the "Little Olde Lady" discount to "come back in season" at Paulino's and get a bale or two of the Sunshine mix over the winter/early spring. I may still be compelled to add cow manure to it for my veggies, despite the contention that it is fine just as is, but we will see! Maybe I will do some containers with the dairy cow manure and some without to see if I can tell if there is a difference!

I am going to check out the Grow Depot, too, popmama, to do a price comparison, and to see what else they have to offer, like the worm casings. Thank you for the suggestion!

I agree, Skybird and Zach. Every area has its gardening challenges, but it is so hard to explain how much more intense the sunlight is in Colorado/the Rocky Mtn. Region, and just how arid it can be here, to those that don't live and garden here. My brother is quite a brilliant plantsman, can grow just about anything and can give you the botanical and common names for any plant that exists, or so it would seem, can talk to you about its genetics and relatives and structure, etc., but, he grew up in R.I., as did I, then went to college in Michigan and he has spent most of his adult life living and gardening in Vermont and Oregon; he just doesn't quite get Colorado. He still recommends things for full sun here that I know darn well will burn up and die, and as for humidity....Where he lives in Oregon, he gets an average of almost 48 inches of precipitation a year; here in Westminster, though we get a bit more than many areas of Colorado, we still only average about 18 inches of precipitation a year. Quite a difference. And of course, as far as in-ground growing is concerned, the stark difference in amount of precipitation, combined with the major differences in soil structure and PH, makes gardening a bit more challenging than anything he is used to - he just has to deal with rocky soil and deer, after all, lol.

Holly

Holly, you have touched on garden forum reality! When we think that we have a few things figured out, we tend to assume that they are Grand Truths!

Everywhere is different. How possibly could it be otherwise? The soils are different, the weather patterns are different, there are differences in elevation, sunlight - we get more summer daylight and light from the northern horizon than Colorado. That's just a small thing ...

I used to spend time on the PNW forum. There just is too great a difference, even at only 300 miles from salt water. The less than 20" of precipitation annually, is a big contrast.

Steve

I recently began working part time at a local nursery, where they sell a potting mix called ProMix. Previously I've used EKO potting mix and Fertilome potting mix. Both EKO and Fertilome work well, but ProMix is amazing. It's fluffy with good drainage, yet it retains enough moisture that you don't have to water every single day. It'll be my go-to potting mix from now on.

The ProMix looks interesting, colorado_plantswoman, and it comes in bales like Sunshine, too. Too bad that the formula they have for the US contains "polymer gel" as its moisture retaining substance while the Canadian formula contains coir instead, which would certainly be my preference! ProMix does contain Mycorrhizae, however.

Here are the ingredients for the premium mix meant for outdoor containers from the ProMix website, :

"Canadian sphagnum peat moss; *Coir / coconut fibre (*Canada only);**Polymer Gel (**USA only); Perlite; Limestone; Controlled release fertilizer; GHA297 (Mycorrhizae Glomus Intraradices"

This from the SunGro website: "Sunshine Mix #1 / LC1 Mix #1 is, by far, our most versatile formulation expert growers choose for the production of a wide variety of crops. Ingredients: • Canadian Sphagnum peat moss • Coarse perlite • Starter nutrient charge (with Gypsum) • Dolomitic limestone and our long-lasting wetting agent"

(I don't know what this "wetting agent" might be; I thought it was probably polymer gel but they list both the wetting agent AND polymer gel for their #7 mix, so apparently not!)
Has anyone compared the growing results from the use of Pro-Mix versus the use of the Sunshine Mix?

(By the way, I am curious as to whether or not the Sunshine #4 mix is in fact organic; does anyone know? The sign for the #4 mix at Paulino's claims that it is, but this is what Sun-Gro says about it: "Sunshine Mix #4 / LA4 Mix #4 is recommended where high air capacity and fast drainage are needed: during winter months, with water and salt sensitive crops, or where frequent leaching is required. Ingredients: • Canadian Sphagnum peat moss • Coarse perlite • Starter nutrient charge (with Gypsum) • Dolomitic limestone and our long-lasting wetting agent" There is nothing about it being organic; these days most companies what to trumpet that because "organic" and "natural" have become the "in" thing, so SunGroi is showing considerable restraint by not even mentioning that it is organic, if in fact it is. The mix has the exact same ingredients as #1, with presumably a different formula for the ingredients in order to make it have "fast drainage." The #4 does cost more than the #1, typical of the mark up that organic products get... (Why is it that it cost more NOT to add chemicals and other artificial ingredients to something?!?))

Holly

Typically, if a product is organic, it says so on the package. There's also the OMRI seal. So if Sunshine doesn't have those markings, I would guess that it's not organic.

"(I don't know what this "wetting agent" might be; I thought it was
probably polymer gel but they list both the wetting agent AND polymer
gel for their #7 mix, so apparently not!)"

The "wetting agent" is just a surfactant that allows the peat to soak up water more easily--rather than to repel it like dry peat does so very well! For all practical purposes, it SOAP!

When Zach posted that he got a bale of pure peat and talked about how hydrophobic it is, I almost posted (but the Nasty, NASTY has been preventing me from reading so I've just been x'ing out when it appears most of the time!) that all the peat-based soils/mixes must have a surfactant in them, because even when they dry out ALL the way, they're quite easy to re-wet to make them "usable" again. Without a surfactant they'd take hours and hours to moisten well enough to be able to use them!

Polymer, in my opinion, is entirely unnecessary for growing things in pots or in beds that are regularly watered and taken care of. When I was getting started buying the seedling trees that are being planted on the mesa top just south of Mesa Verde I thoroughly researched the stuff, and I found comments by people who were putting it in their "hanging baskets," and "when they watered their plants the soil was all falling out of the top of the basket!" Polymer E-X-P-A-N-D-S! I did buy some to be used where the seedling trees are being planted--in a situation where they get maybe a gallon of water when they're planted, and then they're 100% on their own, but to be using the stuff in an urban garden makes no sense whatsoever to me! When I bought it the first time I wanted to see "what I had," so I put a level teaspoon of the dry polymer in a water glass and filled the glass half up with water. After an hour all the water was GONE! I wanted to see if it would soak up more, so I added more water! Hour later the water was GONE! I dumped what I had in a clean (regular size) peanut butter jar and added more water! Kept adding water till it was up to the top and left it sit! I wound up with a jar filed up to the top with "expanded" polymer---from ONE LEVEL TEASPOON OF DRY POLYMER! The stuff is intended to be used in situations where plants will not be able to be watered, where they need "the extra stored water" for when there's no precip.

And, clearly, the people who were using the stuff in hanging baskets and "small" pots didn't have a clue what they were doing and hadn't taken the time to figure it out! My guess is they were taking a half a cup or a cup of the stuff and mixing it into the soil in their 8-10" pots--and then they were wondering why the soil was all falling out of the top of the pots when it started to expand!

Virtually everybody with an "urban" garden waters--except for those who plant true xeric gardens, and polymer in the soil would kill xeric plants real quick! For me, if I had polymer in my "potting soil" I'm sure I'd promptly rot off all the plants--the same as I do with vermiculite--and vermiculite holds far less water than polymer does. As I see it, polymer is a Buzz Word these days, so the companies put it in the mixes and sell it for twice as much as the stuff without it--and since "everybody knows how good polymer is" everybody falls for the "Pintrest Wisdom" and pays for it! "Good" is relative! What's good for something can be very, very bad for something else!

Having said all that...... Try whatever you think might work for you and see if it does work or not. If it works, keep on keepin' on! If it doesn't, try something different! If you try something with polymer, or add polymer to something, remember! One Level Teaspoon absorbs enough water to fill up, to the top, a 16 ounce peanut butter jar! It may have soaked up even more water, but I never took the time to put it in something bigger to find out!

Mycorrhizae! Some of the sunshine mixes have mycorrhizae these days too! And ProMix (the stuff my brother uses), like Sunshine, comes in ALL different mixes. Mycorrhizae is something else you don't need for growing things in your Urban Garden! This came up on B2's "evergreen tree garden" thread last year, and there's a whole buncha links about the stuff on that thread if you want to read more.

http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussions/3117113/my-evergreen-tree-garden-2011-2015?n=9

Sunshine #4 must be the one they had out when I saw the pallets of it out front that one time--that cost more than #1--and I couldn't figure out why! Still don't know why! It sure looks to be the same as #1 to me! I buy "the cheaper" #1!!!

And I prefer to stay out of the "organic" brouhaha! As far as Sunshine #1 goes, the Canadian peat is organic, the perlite is organic, and the dolomitic limestone is organic! That's 99.9% of what's in the bale, and that's good enough for me!

Skybird