Choosing what soil to use for your grow can be challenging. There’s a lot of great companies making soil these days, and they’re all using the latest science and technology to make theirs the best, by constantly improving their mixes. For this review, we have chosen a line of soils that we’ve used in our own garden, and can personally attest to its quality. Royal Gold soils are easily available at grow shops in Oregon, and they have many different types of soil to suit any grow. For this review we are focusing on three of their soils: Basement Mix, Tupur and Mendo Mix.
MENDO MIX
INGREDIENTS: coco fiber, aged forest materials, compost, perlite, coco chip, lava rock, alfalfa meal, feather meal, fish bone meal, basalt, composted chicken manure, kelp meal, bat guano
This mix is great for outdoor, indoor and containers. It’s coco fiber base is better than using peat as it’s more sustainable, so better for the environment. It can hold eight to nine times its own weight in water without becoming anaerobic-even when saturated it can still hold on to around 22% air, providing your plants with a lot of porosity to develop great roots. It’s loaded with organic material so growers don’t need to feed plants till about 4-5 weeks. The cocoa chips in this mix help with drainage but also retain water keeping your plants from going dry and also giving the roots room to grow.
TUPUR (two-per)
INGREDIENTS: coco fiber, aged forest materials, perlite, crushed basalt
Tupur soil is highly versatile, and works well in most conditions. It doesn’t come as loaded with organic material like Mendo Mix so you can add your own amendments to make this soil just what you want. Good to use when crafting your own mixes. It works well with automated watering systems, such as ebb and flow or deep-water culture, because of its balance of oxygen and water holding capacities due to the coco aged forest materials and perlite. Crushed basalt, the last ingredient, may be one of the most important. Crushed rocks provide micronutrients and trace elements that are important to the life cycle of plants and which enhance the ability of beneficial microbes to flourish.
BASEMENT MIX
INGREDIENTS: coco fiber, aged forest materials, perlite, lava rock, compost, coco chip, alfalfa meal, feather meal, fish bone meal, basalt, kelp meal, bat guano
Basement mix; a ready to use, lightly amended soil that’s great for use in organic or biological gardens, and performs well with conventional feeding methods. It’s been tested through trial and error and has shown itself to have a great capacity to hold on to water and air. This is due to the additions of perlite, lava rock, and coco chips. Prepare to have your plants blow up, they love the bat guano which has a good supply of nitrogen, phosphate and potassium.
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