Not all soil is created equal!
Choosing the right soil will make all the difference to the health and success of your plants. Soils mixes will vary in price based on the quality of ingredients and the specific recipe. Cheap soils often have poor drainage, resulting in plants that are easy to over water and choke from lack of oxygen. Quality soils have properly balanced water holding and water draining capacity, depending on application, to make watering easier and to help your plants grow faster. Cheap soils usually come with little to no nutrition and biology as well and will require extra fertilizer almost immediately. A quality soil will come packed with minerals, compost and active biology to break those minerals down into useable food for your plant.
Different plants have different needs.
Plant species have different needs when it comes to nutrition and soil moisture. For example, heavy metabolizing plants like tomatoes or medical herbs require larger amounts of fertilizer than plants like lettuce or houseplants. We want to be careful to be aware of which stage of growth our plant is currently in, as younger plants won’t require as much nutrition as more mature plants. A great soil will be well balanced to provide the right amount of food for the plant as it grows. Some plants, like orchids or succulents require specialty mixes and they won’t perform well in a standard soil.
Are Super Soils worth the money?
It’s important to determine how much work do we want our soil to do for us. Some soils only have enough fertilizer for as little as two weeks while others can feed your plants for months or even the entire growth cycle. Super soils are high quality recipes designed to give your plants the best growth and overall health possible. Super soils have numerous benefits including making your plant more drought resistant, pest resistant and customers even report better flavour and taste after harvest than cheap blends. A Quality Super soil like our Black Swallow / KIS Mix or the Gaia Green Living Soil are going to provide the bulk of the plants nutrition throughout its life, and provide the best possible base for growers to build on.
Don’t throw away your super soil when you’re done! It’s still packed full of valuable inputs and nutrition. Try re-amending your super soil with nutrients between grows to keep that soil going strong!
Here is a quick guide for choosing the right soil for your plants:
For younger plants or “light feeders” here is a list of our recommend soils:
For mature plants and “heavier feeders” here is a list of soils we recommend:
- Stepwell SS-W Super Soil
- Fox Farm Ocean Forest
- Gaia Green Living Soil
- Black Swallow KIS Mix (Staff Pick)
Internal testing and customer feedback finds the Gaia Green Living soil and Black Swallow KIS Mix balanced so well they can be used from seed/clone for fast growing plants with great success!
For specialty plants like orchids, succulents or tropical and other houseplants, see our specialty mixes!
Want to take full advantage of your super soil? Visit our nutrients and soil amendments collections to see what fertilizers can improve your soils quality.