Which is better for indoor growing, potting soil or potting mix. Potting soil looks like really good topsoil. Potting mix has a lot of mulch mixed in.
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Dirt belongs outside . . . just my opinion but if you’re putting the time, effort and $$$ into an indoor setup why not take full advantage of it and go soilless or hydro? Soilless with coco is easier and performs better than dirt. Hydro/DWC will out perform coco (barely) but is harder to set up and maintain.
If you just got to get dirty . . . a lot of soil growers swear by Fox Farm and swear at Miracle Gro. Happy Frog and Ocean Forest both seem to be pretty good stuff . . . and are available and cheap at the local Rural King. Nothing wrong with MG products, you just have to be sure you know what you are buying . . . their general pre-charged potting soil for example should be avoided unless you’re one of the few who make it work.
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I say coco as well. Learn the plants then pick the soil that has what you know will work in it or build your own.
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I use Happy Frog for my seedlings and transfer into SOHUM Soil. I’ve grown in nothing but sohum before with minimal deficiencies.
I use soil, but I started with it a long time ago and I am used to growing with it. Use what you think will work best for you. Good luck and enjoy.
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Depends on your grow style, time, etc. Growing with soil in containers, you will want to use a premium soil with good water retention and drainage. (Fox Farm, ProMix, etc.)
If you want something pre-amended, the most commercially available is likely going to be the Fox Farm products. Ocean Forrest is the better product for growing MJ of the FF line.
If I were going pre-amended, I would personally go with a combination of Build-a-Soil 3.0 and Lite depending on phase. I like there ingredients and I also like the pumice rather than perlite for drainage.
For unammended I would go with something simple like Promix HP, and then add worm castings and pumice. Then you can tailor your soil build however you like.
My advice would be… If you are going small containers (3-7g) then you might as well just grab some ocean forrest and make it easy.
If you are going large container or bed (earth box is probably the easiest for organic growing) then build your soil. Pretty simple and then you have all the ammendments to reammend so you don’t have to keep buying soil.
I use a pretty diverse mix but you could just go super simple and amend with Gaia Greens and castings.
For my soil builds…
Promix HP
Pumice
Wormcastings (best you can get)
Rock dust (Im current using the Gaia)
Insect Frass
Micro nutes (big six by BAS)
Fish Bone Meal
Kelp Meal
Kashi blend
Gnarly barley
Alfalfa meal
Rootwise extreme
karanja/ neem 50/50
Im probably forgetting some things and I also use some other things throughout the grow for foliar cleaning and maintenance like em5 and horticultural aloe…
That’s pretty much it. Then for top dress I use some craft blend, fish bone, kashi and then bury it all in a couple inches of top dress blend by build a soil. In an earth box you can just heap the compost/ top dress and then pull the mulch cover over.
OG Kush (ethos) 35 days from seed in earthbox.
Samsquanch OGs (Mephisto) 25 days from seed in earth box. For Autos, two plants per box works great.
After the harvest, pull the root ball and re-ammend and your ready for the next run. In an earth box it makes everything super simple and watering a breeze… Just dump a gallon of water in every time its empty. The plants can draw clean water and send feeder roots out to eat and its the best way to keep your indoor plants from over/under watering.
Good luck whatever you decide. Lots of options for indoor growing but big container organics is the easiest and will produce the results you want.
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I agree totally with Robert, but in my case I don’t have room for even a single earth box. I am currently using a 3 gal air pot which barely fits into the small grow space I have. I have to be covert (grandkids).
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