Baking Substrate

[Trenor]

Topsoil is usually used as a filler - to add to a concentrate, or to fill holes in the yard. No added fertilizer and no idea of growth in mind when packaging. Just. Plain. Dirt.

Brands will vary wildly when searching for this. As @Poec54 once said, "They'll only ship dirt so far"... (paraphrasing). You simply need to look at listed ingredients, and run the cricket test on every new batch. The latter step may be excessive, but better safe than sorry.

This thread has a lot more info from @Trenor, someone versed in agriculture.

Speaking of, did you leave us Trenor?

I'd guess it's topdressing that you're looking for. Here in the States, "loam" means this. Basically, sandy moist soil. That actually sounds ideal to a tarantula keeper. Not too common out here, or at the very least I haven't seen it prominently for sale. I usually collect that substrate out in the wild, not in stores.

I still get on every once in a while, usually to answer PMs I get notified on. Life has been changing/busy and I don't have the time to spend on here that I did. My Ts are doing great though I lost my P.cam sack last month. I see you, CB and Ungoliant are Mods now. Congratulations.

 

[EulersK]

I still get on every once in a while, usually to answer PMs I get notified on. Life has been changing/busy and I don't have the time to spend on here that I did. My Ts are doing great though I lost my P.cam sack last month. I see you, CB and Ungoliant are Mods now. Congratulations.

Ah man, that's too bad. Sorry to hear that. But I'm glad to see you're still lurking and keeping. Hopefully those life changes are for the better.

And thanks Still learning the ropes.

 

[Michael Newman]

Will the cricket test work the same using dubia? Just a curiosity question when I want to test new substrate as I have plenty of dubia on hand.

 

[Dave Jay]

We don't have dubia roaches here so I couldn't tell you for sure but it's my understanding that in general roaches are fairly resistant to chemicals, perhaps crickets are more sensitive than roaches, but if that's what you have why not use them, if they died i doubt I'd even use it for plants! I've never tried crickets either though, I don't use soil or potting mix with my animals. Quite honestly I'd be surprised if crickets died due to fertiliser in potting mix anyway, mostly it's nitrogen ,phosphorus and potassium which all occur naturally anyway, just not in concentrated pellet form. I think an animal would have to eat the pellets to be poisoned myself, which I guess crickets or other insects might, like I said , I haven't done it myself. I certainly wouldn't use a mix where I can see the slow release fertiliser though. You could always leach any fertilisers out by soaking or running water through a mix as some nurseries do when planting seeds or pricking out small seedlings I guess if you have time to dry it. Maybe someone with first hand experience will advise you further.