Oregon Commercial Grower Tour: What soil should I use?
Choosing the soil for your grow season is stressful at best. There are countless options and it is a very crucial decision for your plants!
Fish from Wild West Growers
Look for something that’s sterilized, you know, there’s a lot of pest problems out and a lot of that is transmitted through the soil. So, you know, something that I would really look for is a high quality soil that is a clean product, not, you know, just a bunch of bark and mulch that somebody has blended up.
Fish stresses the importance of pest control. You can help avoid pests by using sterilized soil. Another thing to consider is how much soil you’ll need, and how you’ll get it to where you need to be.
Justin from House of Leaves
We had to go with Hilton Farms this year. I actually wanted a different company but they wouldn’t deliver to my house. Unfortunately, the good dirt comes in totes and they’re specific on where they’ll deliver to. I would have wanted better drainage but I’m working with what I got.
Hilton farms is an industrial landscape supply company. This means that the soil, even if it is sterilized, won’t have all the goodies and amendments that more custom soil companies carry. Speaking of custom soil companies, a couple of the people that we interviewed used them.
Tyler from Hitman Farms
You gotta use Rogue Soil, Southern Oregon brand. Simon, who owns Rogue Soil, is a very good friend of mine. We are treated very well. He puts a lot of high quality ingredients in his soil. I just would only use the best and that’s Rogue Soil. He’s located right here in Southern Oregon. All the soil is brought in from local sources in Oregon and it’s the product to use.
Rogue Soil is a company local to Southern Oregon. So is Rogue Valley Garden Supply, Shawn McCreery’s choice:
Shawn McCreery
We chose it through a Rogue valley garden supply. They make their own. They do a pretty good job. It’s got compost in it and all the goodies, it’s a very good blend. That’s how I chose mine.
If you speak to a custom soil company about what you want to see out of your soil, they should be able to help you identify the type of soil you need. Alternatively, you can go the route of Rob and Dan, and make your own soil!
Rob and Dan
We go to Biomass. It sounds funny, it’s cheap. We get the cheap stuff. They have it, it’s $24 a yard. We bring it here. Then we buy the moodoo. We buy soil conditioner from Hilton. We get forest loam to help aerate it and perlite. We do a 1-1 mixture on everything except for the moodoo, we do a 4-1 mixture on the moodoo. Then bloodmeal, bonemeal and kelp. Mix it all up, takes us like 2 days to really mix it. Then we let it set, mix it again. Takes about 2 weeks to do our dirt. We do it ourselves, cheap as possible. Dirt’s not cheap.
tl;dr
When choosing soil for your grow, make sure that it’s sterilized. Choose your soil based on your location and your budget, or if you’re up for the challenge, make your own soil.
Tags: soil