Which of the products are you inquiring about? These people sell potting mixes, fertilizers, mulches, etc. a whole range of products. I find them, generally, to be quite expensive.

As was mentioned, ProMix products can be a bit on the pricey side. To my knowledge, the ones who use it are professionals and serious gardeners who have an interest in the guarantees that the ProMix company provides. I would estimate that their most popular products are those which are used for seed starting and transplant mediums. The cost comes from a higher standard of preparation and care.

I've bought similar products from other companies that carry insects and disease, don't drain well, and suffer from inconsistent fertility. ProMix has fewer such negative incidents. I find the price too high, so I don't use it - choosing instead to make my own such mediums myself - but those who do use it seem to appreciate the consistent results.

I'm unsure how to answer this. Either you understand this, or you don't. If you are comfortable with the use of the term 'media' to refer to the soil-less mix you use to grow plants, you likely get it.

There are times when the price of cheap can be the most expensive decision you ever make.

The advantage of a product like ProMix is the reliability. Last year's product will most likely perform like the year before, as well as next year. You can establish a growing schedule and not have a 25% longer growing time because of inconsistencies in the media. Other inputs become fixed...fertility is likely to be the same, not requiring more this year than last year...fixed costs become accounted for in pricing. Unexpected costs have a nasty habit of eating into profits.

Do you have the space to stockpile and mix your media components? Now think about preparing and mixing 2 to 3 cubic yards every hour. Or storing a couple thousand yards. Suddenly, the economics of purchasing a reliable product can change.

I know some growers that use several thousand yards of media a year that mix their own...they accept the cost as part of their quality control. And often, they'll be candid about the economics, but not always. Some admit they lose money doing so, some figure it's more or less a wash, and some have perfected their formula to the degree they sell their media mix, sometimes bagged, sometimes bulk.

I also know some very large growers that buy in their media, and cite various reasons in doing so.

Bottom line, if a product line has been available for a while, there's a reason it continues to be a viable product. You don't have to understand it, you should be willing to respect that someone does.

This is normally when I'd ask if you have tried it yourself. If not, why. If yes, what was your experience. Where the conversations follows depends on the answers.

I had no idea that "Promix" was a product line. I hear that it has no nutrients and that it is only a potting medium. Also, it is definitely not what one would use to repot house plants. Price is no object here because I was given three bails.

I don't know where this goes.
Some one please tell me where to put it.

Emerogork, of course you can use it for indoor containers. Promix is an excellent, all purpose planting medium for anything that grows in a container. It's up to you to provide the fertilizer, typically one manufactured for containerized plants such as houseplants, annuals, nursery and vegetable transplants.

Why would you think that you could not use it to repot a houseplant?

Does it, in itself, provide nutrients to the pant?

No. You need to acquire a suitable fertilizer.

"You need to acquire a suitable fertilizer."

As is the case with any high quality potting soil.

Does a potting soil not provide nutrients to a plant as well?

Am I in for another experience where everyone else is in-the-know about this already? "Yes, didn't you know?"... "We have always done it that way"...

I have to hear from more readers but I fear it is true.

Promix has been the medium that I have been using, as is, for replanting, starting seeds, growing sprouted hard wood cuttings and the like for all these years without any concern about fertilization because I thought it was "the perfect start".

I wonder what I have been accidentally been doing right to result in so many years of good results? Maybe everything could have been more successfuller?

Hmmmm....
Even potting soil unless it has been amended?
Without using a chemical/salt based fertilizer, what is recommended?

Emerogork, your questions aren't making sense to me. You use it and it works but you wonder why?

Sterile potting mix like Pro MIx prevents diseases in potted plants and seed starting pots. It contains what is needed for roots to grow healthy. You have to add fertilizer. Out in nature, there are hundreds of animal, plant, rock and bacteria/fungi that do this job of feeding plants but they would become unbalanced in a pot. So we have to add what the plants need in a way that won't unbalance the plant's environment or ours indoors.

I use Pro MIx for seed starting under lights and for all my potted plants indoors and out. I have tried others and this is the best.

This thread sounds like you are working for Pro MIx and are trying to convince people it's the best by encouraging posters to tell why.(??)

Because most potting soils do not contain readily available sources of oganic matter or any real soil, they do not support the populations of soil organisms necessary to convert any dry organic ferts to plant usable forms. And since liquid or water soluble organic ferts generally do not have a full compliment of necessary plant nutrients (lacking most micros and trace elements), most of us who focus on container gardening prefer to use a full range water soluble synthetic fertilizer (like Dyna Gro) or a similar slow release (like Osmocote). Organics are generally considered to be highly inefficient in container culture.

Seeds generally require minimal fertilization as do cuttings. But any long term growing in a container should include a routine program of fertilization.

This is all discussed very thoroughly on the Container Gardening forum if you want to gain a broader understanding.

Just to add to gardengal's last comment... there are organics that can work fine in containers, but these are soluble products and like most things, require a bit of knowledge to use properly.

"Emerogork, your questions aren't making sense to me. You use it and it works but you wonder why?"

I always wonder why.... It messes up people in the medical profession (:

"Some people see things as they are and wonder why. I see things as they never were and ask why not?" JFK

"This thread sounds like you are working for Pro Mix and are trying to
convince people it's the best by encouraging posters to tell why.(??) "

Interesting, but no.... Maybe it is more like: Had I known this years ago, things could have been better. What failed probably was chalked up to reasons other than needing to fertilize.

I rarely fertilize anything. More so yet, remember to fertilize. All house plants go out for the Spring Summer and Fall and comes back in for the winter: probably 15 - 20 plants. (They fill in every last available space where the sun shines). I stopped chemical fertilizing my lawns and gardens at least 15 years ago. My grass is just as green as the Chemlawns down the street. I hear that people who drive by my property say "That is where the gardener lives."

Fall leaves get blown into the yard and, along with the cut back of perennials, all get mulched with the lawn mower. It all gets blown back into the gardens. That has been it for amending anything other than irrigation as needed and the occasional truck load of wood chips as a cover. Maybe that in itself is enough to accommodate for lack of spreading store-bought fertilizer.

Also: "This is all discussed very thoroughly on the Container Gardening forum if you want to gain a broader understanding."

I will continue to read here and look into the Container Growing forum too.

You are correct to assume that inground gardening often doesn't require copious amounts of supplemental fertilizers. What the plants need to grow, and generally to grow well, is already present in the soil and is augmented by both the natural and manually applied additions of organic matter in the form of mulches, etc.

But container gardening is a completely different ballgame and routine fertilizing is a standard operating practice. Container grown plants have no access to necessary nutrients without it.

"But container gardening is a completely different ballgame and routine
fertilizing is a standard operating practice. Container grown plants
have no access to necessary nutrients without it."

I may have to have a talk with my container plants. (:

After all, I have permanent out side plants that are show some bloom right now: Rhododendron, Variegated Forsythia, Pink forsythia, Andromeda, and and occasional Star Magnolia flower.

Or what I have for container things are not all that persnickety for added supplements. 20 year old Rubber tree, 15 year old Yucca trees, a 30 year old Pony Tail Palm, a pineapple plant, several Clivia and a few Bromeliad. Maybe these don't require as much TLC as what people commonly grow which spend only a few months inside for the winter. They all seem to thrive on neglect, surprisingly enough, especially the Clivia.

Granted, the 20 10-year-old geranium plants I bring in could fare better if I gave them a breakfast once in a while during the winter.

All of these are in Promix and rarely get repotted. Something is accidentally going right. Maybe it is due to being outside on bare soil all season that they get critters from the soil and through the air that they are not arguing with me.

It has always been survival of the fittest.

OT, but if you have a Hydro. store near you, I've found promix is insanely inexpensive at these places that your typical nursery store. It's my go to indoor potting mix

I think you are confusing top quality soil mixes (like ProMix) with the array of cheap and low quality mixes commonly sold through the big box stores. Often, when someone starts threads about stuff like this, there are a lot of general comments thrown about.

Knowing that you were given a few bags changes the question. You use it like potting soil...it is potting soil. Or rather, there used to be a time, in my working career, when you could buy products under the major consumer brands that were comparable. Now, I can find it hard to locate the components of my soil mixes. Cuz while I use a good bit, I'm not ready to stockpile 5 yards or more of each of four or five items.

"You use it like potting soil...it is potting soil."

Wayne, if for no other reason than to avoid more confusion, please allow me to nit pick just a bit...

Technically, ProMix isn't a 'potting soil'. Yeah, I know - and you're right - it's a common term, but one of the reasons it's such a good choice is that it contains no actual soil at all. To reduce the confusion, it's probably best to use a term like 'container medium', or simply... 'growing medium'.

Again, I apologize if this seems an unnecessary distinction, but those who aren't aware of the differences can be easily confused when we have to go into detail as to why soil isn't usually the best choice for containers.

I believe it is rather common knowledge that a potting soil is a soil used for pots - ie. containers. While it is referred to as a 'soil', potting soils are soil-less mixes, containing no garden soil or anything that would pass as soil. So yes, ProMix is most definitely a potting soil, aka container medium. The terms are interchangeable.

"The terms are interchangeable."

Yep, and continue to add to novice confusion. It is, at best, a 'potting mix'... but alas...