ON OUR SHELF · THE SOIL ROOM
Pick the bag by how much feeding you want to do.
Our soil room holds seed starters, bare peat and coco mixes you feed yourself, amended soils with food already in the bag, and living soils built to run on water. Here is how every bag compares, and how to match one to your plant and your habits.
How we stock it at Green Zone
The soil room is a walk-in room of its own in our store, with a printed menu by the door. Every bag on this page is on that menu, on the soil floor in our October photos, or both. Bagged soil and coco are pickup only.
The question we hear most in that room is "which bag?" The brand on the front matters less than three things: how much food is already in the bag, how much air the mix holds, and how you like to water. Answer those and the choice gets short.
Four kinds of bag, in one paragraph
Every bag here is one of four kinds. A seed starter is fine and light, for seeds and cuttings. A bare mix, peat or coco, often with perlite, lists no fertilizer, so the feeding is yours from the start, and so is the control. An amended soil has food blended in from castings, guano, meals or compost, so you wait before you feed and then add on top. A living soil recipe is built to carry a plant on water, with extra food going on the surface rather than into a bottle. The lineup below runs in that order, with two special-job bags at the end.
The lineup
FoxFarm Light Warrior seed starter
Made for germination and root development, with soil microbes and earthworm castings for light nutrition. FoxFarm names seeds, cuttings and new starts.
Where it fits: Seed starter: seeds and cuttings
Coast of Maine Sprout Island Blend Seed Starter
A compost blend for starting seeds and rooting cuttings: lobster and crab shell meal, kelp and worm castings, with peat, perlite and mycorrhizae. The bag on our floor carries the OMRI Listed seal.
Where it fits: Seed starter: seeds and cuttings
PRO-MIX HP and HPCC with mycorrhizae
Peat with a high share of coarse perlite, limestone to adjust pH, a wetting agent and mycorrhizae, which PRO-MIX now sells as AGTIV REACH. HP stands for High Porosity: good drainage, lots of air, low water holding, and PRO-MIX says it is harder to overwater. HPCC (High Porosity Chunk Coir) adds chunk coir to cut compaction in big containers. No fertilizer is on the ingredient list.
Where it fits: Bare peat mix: you feed it
Char Coir Coco Coir
100% coconut fiber, RHP certified, buffered, low in salt and triple washed. The maker lists no nutrients in it, so it is fed from the start.
Where it fits: Bare coco: you feed it
Char Coir 70/30 Coco + Perlite
70% coir and 30% perlite, buffered, low in salt and triple washed, mixed for a balance of air, drainage and water holding, indoors or out.
Where it fits: Bare coco: you feed it
FoxFarm Coco Loco potting mix
A coco-based Bush Doctor mix, triple washed to cut salts. FoxFarm says plants in it won't need water as often as in a usual potting mix, and pairs it with its own liquid feeds.
Where it fits: Coco mix: baskets and containers
FoxFarm Ocean Forest potting soil
A ready-to-use container soil of aged forest products, sphagnum peat moss, earthworm castings, bat guano, fish emulsion and crab meal. FoxFarm says there's no need for nitrogen feeds at first.
Where it fits: Amended soil: wait before feeding
FoxFarm Happy Frog potting soil
A container soil amended with soil microbes, earthworm castings, bat guano and aged forest products.
Where it fits: Amended soil: containers and houseplants
Roots Organics Original Potting Soil
A ready-to-use mix of peat, coco, pumice and perlite, amended with castings, guano and meals plus mycorrhizal fungi. Roots builds it to drain quickly and dry evenly, so you can feed fast-growing plants often.
Where it fits: Amended soil: built to be fed
Roots Organics Formula 707
A ready-to-use soil that holds more water, with fewer nutrients and less perlite and pumice than Roots' other mixes, made for large containers. Roots says to start feeding it sooner than Original.
Where it fits: Amended soil: big containers, you steer the feed
Coast of Maine Stonington Blend Grower's Mix
Peat, composted manure, coir and perlite with mycorrhizae, fed with lobster and crab shell, kelp, alfalfa and fish bone meals plus castings. Coast of Maine says it does best in big pots and still needs occasional feeding.
Where it fits: Amended soil: big containers
Roots Organics Lush
A heavily amended peat mix with coir, perlite, pumice, worm castings, beneficial bacteria and mycorrhizal fungi. Roots designs it for a water-only or reduced-feed schedule.
Where it fits: Heavily amended: start on water
Gaia Green Living Soil Blend
A biologically active mix of peat, perlite, coir, fir bark, composted litter and worm castings, pre-charged with Gaia Green's organic fertilizers made from rock dusts and meals. Airy, but it holds moisture.
Where it fits: Living soil: pre-charged
BuildASoil Light Recipe
A living, unsterilized soil of peat, pumice, rice hulls, basalt, biochar, meals, castings and kelp. Full strength but not overloaded, so it works from seed on; extra food goes on top or in the water.
Where it fits: Living soil: seed to full term
BuildASoil Potting Soil Recipe 3.0
BuildASoil's richest recipe: peat, pumice and rice hulls for structure; compost, castings and charged biochar for biology. Built to run on water with no bottled nutrients, and reusable when you re-amend it.
Where it fits: Living soil: water only, bigger pots
Coast of Maine Indoor Houseplant Mix
A compost-free mix of bark, peat, perlite and chunky coir for drainage and air, made for indoor houseplants and flowers.
Where it fits: Special job: houseplants
Black Gold Succulent & Cactus Mix
A fast-draining, OMRI Listed mix for cacti, bromeliads and other succulents, in pots indoors or out.
Where it fits: Special job: cacti and succulents
Also in the soil room: perlite, vermiculite, peat moss, coco blocks, clay pebbles, worm castings, biochar, rice hulls and Quoddy lobster compost, for growers who mix their own or top up a bed. PRO-MIX comes as a compressed bale and as loose fill, and Sprout Island in two bag sizes.
The pH lane comes with the bag
Pick the bag and you've picked your pH lane. Peat and soil mixes fed from bottles run about 6.2 to 6.8. Coco runs lower, about 5.8 to 6.2. In an amended or living soil, the soil buffers its own pH, so the number on your input water matters less.
Feed strength works the same way. In a bare peat or coco mix fed from bottles, start around 0.4 to 0.8 EC for seedlings, 0.8 to 1.4 in veg and 1.2 to 1.8 in flower, and let the plant and the bottle's own chart move you from there. In an amended, just-add-water soil, input EC isn't the lever. Our pH and EC meters guide covers the pens: pH and EC meters.
How it fits your grow, in 3 steps
Step 1. Decide who feeds the plant: you or the bag.
If you want to feed from bottles in the first weeks, take a bare mix: PRO-MIX or Char Coir. If you'd rather wait, take an amended bag. FoxFarm says Ocean Forest needs no nitrogen feeds at first, and Roots builds Lush for a water-only or reduced-feed start. If you want to water and top dress, look at the living soils.
Step 2. Match the mix to how you water.
Heavy hand on the watering can? Go airy. PRO-MIX says HP is harder to overwater, and Roots Original drains quickly. Forget to water, or running big pots? 707 and Coco Loco hold water longer. Either way, lift the pot and water when it's clearly lighter, then let it dry back.
Step 3. Transplant, then give it time.
Transplant droop usually eases in 1 to 3 days, and a rough one can take up to a week. Allow 5 to 10 days before the next big stress. Roots says to ease off feeding after transplant until you see new growth. Then change one thing at a time: first signs show after one full watering cycle, and new growth gives the verdict in about 7 to 10 days.
Who it's for, and who it's not for
A good fit if
You grow a few plants in pots or bags and want the right bag the first time.
You know how you like to work, feeding often or mostly watering, and want a mix that suits it.
You're moving up from seed starter to a final container.
Not the right fit if
You grow in stone wool or a water system. That's our hydro shelf: Hydro.
You want the whole program from one brand, bag and bottle. See FoxFarm family, Roots Organics family or Coast of Maine family.
You want to build and reuse your own living soil. Start at BuildASoil: the living soil system.
Common mistakes we help people avoid
Feeding a loaded bag like a bare one. Ocean Forest and Lush come with food in them. Full-strength bottles on top is an easy way to burn tips.
Starving a bare mix. PRO-MIX HP and Char Coir list no fertilizer. A plant in one of them waits on you for every meal.
Packing the pot. Coast of Maine says not to overpack Stonington. After a full watering and drain, about 10 to 20% of the pot should still be air, and mixes settle and lose that air over time.
Running the wrong pH lane. Coco and peat sit in different lanes. A coco number in a peat bag, or the other way around, starts a chase you don't need.
Starting seeds in the richest bag. BuildASoil says seeds and clones grow slower in 3.0 at first and starts them in Light.
Keeping an open bag for seasons. Coast of Maine says to use Stonington before the date on the bag, because that date is for the mycorrhizae in it, and to store it cool and dry.
Frequently asked questions
What's the difference between potting soil and coco?
Coco is coconut fiber. The coco bags here list no food, so you feed them from the start, and their pH lane runs lower, about 5.8 to 6.2. A potting soil is peat or forest-product based, and most of the ones here have food blended in.
Which bag should a first-time grower buy?
Tell us how often you want to feed. If the answer is "not yet", an amended bag lets you start on water: FoxFarm says Ocean Forest needs no nitrogen feeds at first, and Lush is built for a water-only or reduced-feed start. We'll walk you through it in the soil room.
Do I need to pH my water for living soil?
Less than you'd think. Amended and living soils buffer their own pH, so the input number matters less than in a bottle-fed mix.
Can I reuse the soil?
BuildASoil builds 3.0 to be reused when you re-amend it. For the other bags, ask us before you replant in an old one.
Will living soil bring gnats?
It can. BuildASoil says its living, unsterilized soil can carry fungus gnats from time to time. Our pest plan covers what to do: Pest plan: what we reach for first.
Are these bags organic?
Some are certified and some aren't. Black Gold's cactus mix is OMRI Listed, the Sprout Island bag on our floor carries the OMRI seal, and Coast of Maine posts an OMRI certificate for Stonington. If you need a certification, read that bag.
Do you ship soil?
No. Bagged soil and coco are pickup only at the store.
Keep going
Departments: Soil & growing media · Living soil · Propagation · Houseplants · The soil room
Grower answers: How often should I water, and why is she drooping? · How can I tell when my plant wants more food? · My runoff number is high. Should I flush?
The brands, one at a time: FoxFarm family · Roots Organics family · Coast of Maine family · BuildASoil: the living soil system
Next on the shelf: pH and EC meters
Want the short version of how we keep a grow steady? Get the free Stability Playbook
Before you drive
In the soil room: every bag on this page, on the printed menu by the door. Bag sizes vary, and not every size is in at once.
Bagged soil and coco are pickup only at the store.
Need one exact bag or size? Call (508) 459-9609 first.
Photographed in the store on October 9, 2026.