Potting Soil ( BRANDS )

[Fuggrur]

I was wondering which BRANDS of soil you soil using people use in your tanks?

Everywhere I go to look for soil, its always the same thing: Plant food mixed in! Fertilizer enhanced!

Damn gardeners
Why cant they just be happy with organic?

 

[Wade]

I used to use Peter's in many of my naturalistic reptile tanks, it seemed to be pretty basic without a lot of added stuff.

You may want to check out top soil instead of potting soil. It's more like regular dirt, and it's cheaper than potting soil. Some might have composted pine products, so watch out!

I usually mix my own substrates, like peat, vermiculite, coconut coir...these are the primary ingredents in potting soil anyway.

Wade

 

[JacenBeers]

Lots of gardening places offer a u-bag system where they hgave actual piles of peat or potting soil where you can fill your own bags with a shovel. THese never have the fertilizers because they are natural. Just get some and nuke it in the microwave for thirty seconds, let it cool a bit and use it. It has worked for me for years.

 

[Fuggrur]

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, Jacen... I have seen them piles... They did "look" tempting....But I figured they werent Pure...

Thats not a bad idea.

 

[Vayu Son]

><

sta-green peat and sta-green vermiculate from lowes.

 

[Rookie]

close call?

hey guys,
you may have very well saved my tarantula's life (and i don't even have it yet!). fuggrur, you mentioned how a lot of potting soil is enriched with fertilizer and such. i never even thought to check with the potting soil i got. it contains some good stuff (peat, verm), but it says one of its components is lime. lime doesn't sound good for anything living. should i not use this particular potting soil? it also contains perlite, but i don't know what the hell that is. anyway, please tell me if i'm worrying about nothing, or if you guys are my new spider saviours!
Paul

 

[Valael]

I use Sta-Green Verm also. Never bought the Peat, because I already had Peat from Wal Mart (Shultz Peat Moss)


Shultz is expensive, but thus far, I've had nothing die and I use it with all of my inverts. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Although, I may try the Sta-Green Peat now.

 

[Fuggrur]

Rookie: The Perlite is just fine, thats the white snowy looking stuff in the soil. As far as lime is concerned.. I dont know... I really dont "think" it would be a big deal since its just a mineral... But like I said, I dont know.. Hopefully someone here does

 

[Chris]

I use PlantSMART brand... I think its exclusive to Walmart according to the packaging.

 

[jwb121377]

The lime is in the potting soil to balance the ph. Peat is very acidic, so they put lime in it to make it more alkaline. It should be so minor in quantity as to not cause a tarantula any harm.