Esbenshade's Professional Lightweight Potting Mix, 44 Quart Bag - Soilless Blend for Indoor/Outdoor Plants - Raised Beds & Containers - Peat Moss, Perlite, Bark, Lime

Not thrilled with this soil- it’s more like peat moss/mulch in a lot of ways. When I water my plants that I’ve either topped off with this soil or actually planted them in- the soil soaks and then dried to become hard as paper mache. I am constantly “breaking it up” to help my plants/roots breathe and not get sealed in by this plaster type consistency. Lastly, it has huge random chunks of wood/roots/ dry mystery dirt clumps that might be totally normal but for me they’re really annoying, especially for smaller seedling plants when a big random stick thing takes up half the small pot and when roots fall out and shift when the plants are moved even slightly (which makes no sense since they should be glued down by the mortar-type consistency!) I will say it came really fast and the free shipping/price was impressive.

As the description makes clear, this is a soil-less potting mix and it is excellent. The peat in this mix is high quality and quite a find. Experienced gardeners know exactly what I mean by this. It is NOT the unwettable dry-shipped stuff from the box stores that require boiling water and, once dry, is bone dry and unwettable, repelling rain or watering can - actually, never again can become wet unless you wish to pour boiling water on the roots of the plants. Besides this great attribute, it has other qualities. This mix is airy and moist, with great drainage and substantial enough texture to develop good soil roots for transplant into garden soil. It has no sogginess and maintains its volume after planting - does not compact after watering in your transplant, requiring more soil. The color of the surface reliably signals an approaching need to water. It doesn't shrink from the sides of even square pots. I have used it to pot on seedlings of delicate and hardy plants, from melons to tiny nicotianas with great success. I used it to start begonia bulbs. If I had an endless supply, I'd use it for everything. It's just about perfect.

I have recently become obsessed with house plants & desperately want to have a prolific green thumb. I’ve been watching lots of instructional Planterina videos on Youtube to make sure I get the soil just right since that’s half the battle. This is a good addition to potting soil & for under $30 the 44 quart bag is really an amazing value considering how much you get. I make a mix of 60% Miracle Grow soil, 30% of this product & 10% perlite. My plants are flourishing, which is important since they cost me a small fortune. I just purchased my second bag of this product & highly recommend it to anyone looking to up their plant game. I have over 80 plants now & attribute some of their success to this product.

I don't often write reviews, but this soil is so great I wanted to come back and take the time. I received this soil April 2nd, 2020 and I took the picture the day of this review. I needed to transplant some seeds I had started and like some others here, I didn't have many options due to Covid-19. I needed more soil than I had, so what ended up was a mixed use of soil unwittingly conducting an experiment. The plants where I used this soil, even in mixes with top soil, have grown gang busters. I'm not doing anything that advanced, but a variety of peppers, tomatoes, and eggplant. I highly recommend this soil, and I have not had the issue with clumping that others have said. Other plants are doing fine with other soil I used (miracle grow, topsoil, other soils), but not as good growth and health. I have used the same care, fertilizing, watering ect. across the plants. It is very light and does compress. I'm not sure why that's a complaint though in some of these reviews, that actually made it easier to work with. The five star reviews are here for a reason, this soil is worth the cost of admission.

My 90 year old Mother needed potting soil for her garden, but cannot go out because of the virus. We sent her this, and she could not quit raving about how much better it is than any other soil she has ever bought in person from HD! YAY!! It was a HUGE HIT!:-)

This is by far the best soil I've ordered. It's my 2nd time ordering I've used this with all my flowers vegetables fruit and even my succulents and they all are growing great this year last year I used miracle grow soil and all my fruits and veggies rotted as they grew. This year I decided to try this soil and I love how great my flowers and foods growing.

This past summer I decided to grow some tomatoes in patio pots. This potting soil was perfect, nice and dar, rich, and I had tomatoes all season. Now I've pulled the old vines, and the potting soil will be usable again next spring. Great!

I ordered this during snow and ice so I wouldn't have to go out. I think it did a good job when I used it. I had great plant growth.