So i have heard that Fox Farm ocean forest works wonders for plants, but the problem is i live in Canada and fox farms is an American company. I don't want to order it online, and i don't want to use miracle grow for obvious reasons.. is there any other types of potting soil i could use that is available in Canada?
I too have heard awesome things about FFOF. If ordering online is out of the question then you could try a brand called Black Gold. I've seen it mentioned before. Apparently it has no nute value so you can control it easier. You could also make your own mix. Just search forum for soil mix recipes. Anybody else got reccomendations?
Pro-mix is made in Canada. Pro-Mix BX (classic black bag) is awesome, I bought an enormous bail of it today (it comes in giant bails if you use that much), I had to have the guy that worked at the nursery carry it out to my car, and even he struggled with it!
It didn't fit in the trunk! The guy lined the backseat with plastic while my dog snarled at him!! When I got home I rolled it out of the car, and had a girlfriend help me carry it in When I was younger I probably would have at least tried to carry it by myself, but there's no way I want to throw my back out these days!! I got smarter as I got older, besides I'm cute and there's always some guy around that wants to carry my heavy stuff!! Who I am to say no?
Do you think local garden stores will carry Pro-Mix BX or am i going to have to make a trip to the hydro store?
pro mix bx is the way to go man. you might find it at some home depot stores of something like that. just look around.
Mix your own with ingredients from Home Depot, Wally World, local nursery, etc: 4 parts 100% organic potting soil (Home Depot sells a 40lb bag for under $3 US) 3 parts sphagnum moss 2 parts worm castings (Wally World sells a bag for about $3.50 US) 1 or more parts perlite 1 or more parts clean sand Make sure none of these ingredients has added ferts (caution: even Miracle Gro perlite has added ferts!) You can also add bat guano, fish emulsion, seaweed etc to the mix if you want.
I've never seen it at Home Depot or Walmart or anything like that. I got mine from a greenhouse/nursery. They use it for their seedlings. Call around, it's very popular with professionals. Places like HD seem to only sell big corporate soils from Scott's and the like. If you chose to mix your own soil like Toasty does, make sure you add about 1 TBspn of finely crushed (powdered) dolomite lime (garden lime) per gallon of soil, and mix it well. When peat moss breaks down it tends to make the soil acidic. Soils like MG are pretty acidic to begin with, then you start having ph problems and nute lockout and you'll go nuts trying to correct it. It's easier to spend $6 for a 40lb bag of lime and take an hour to mix the soil well to begin with, then to try to correct things later. If you can't find powdered dolomite lime, buy the pelletized form and put it in a blender to grind it into a powder. That 40lb bag will last pretty much the rest of your life, so you only have to buy it once in a blue moon.