Substrate

[Ultum4Spiderz]

I use topsoil mixed with coco fiber or each by itself .

 

[Wolfram1]

Glyphosate is banned where im from and yeah you re right, the slow release fertilizer is something i would avoid. Its just the "added insect pesticide" crowd im trying to challenge.

you also wouldn't believe how invasive the application of insecticides is in the US, this scews the view on this forum quite a bit

i mean the predominant building material of houses seems to be wood and the bones of these are sprayed or bombed at set intervalls to kill off any termites or wood borers. The use is excessive. Think Breaking Bad, where they erect a tent around a house in order to saturate it with poison. Sometimes landlords seem to do minor applications without prior notice and lets not even talk about what i have read about gardens and lawn treatments. If you stick around long enough you are sure to read about it.

Tom Moran's wife is an exterminator by profession so he occasionally talks about some aspects of it as well, which can be helpful.

As a fellow european i collect a lot of my substrate straight from the wild like Dave does, personally i consider this much safer than buying any substrate but you won't find this attitude much over yonder.

And since you are from sweden you should have nature aplenty, just go out with a bucket and shovel and you should be good .

 

[Arachnophobphile]

This is why I never used the two bags of Timberline top soil I bought years ago from Home Depot. I have no clue if it was stored next to fertilizers or what.

 

[Spifdar]

As another plant nerd, I'd like to add something. You CAN purchase organic soil. COOK IT BEFORE YOU USE IT.

Organic, at least here in the EU, means there's no pesticides or chemical fertilizers but in turn, that means there's natural organisms in it. I have had organic potting soil for my plants pop out a flourish of what I'm pretty sure were psilocybin mushrooms (which grow locally on manure), along with a HORDE of fungus gnats. There's no telling if there might be bugs or eggs of bugs that might be dangerous to your pet in there. So definitely boil or bake that dirt first to make sure nothing's left alive in it.

Personally I use coco fiber or a mix of that + heat-treated, clean soil. I think anything 'clean' of both pesticides & living organisms should be fine as long as it can maintain structural stability for burrowers.

 

[Kada]

Because there is no harmful chemicals? Thats the point, show me an example of potting soil/compost with harmful additives.

Many commercial potting soils have fertilizers in them.

The sterilized ones are usually done so with heat, not chemicals.

Some countries will require containers being imported to be fumigated. I expect places like California, Australia, New Zealand and there similar regions with strict laws about importing agriculture anything to be more likely to have strong fumigation laws.

If any do add things, they will clearly label it on the bag. more likely for mollusks or fungus, if anything. I presume most do not add as that makes a compost company registration WAY harder as now they are a dangerous chemical company as well which is an entirely different operation. I would only assume massive companies have the money to be able to setup such manufacturing facilities that jncorporate harmful chemicals, eg. Miracle grow.

If worried, buy certified organic, not organic. Organic has 2 meanings. Organic material and certified organic. The latter will have been tested and be liable for contamination.

I use coco as well.

 

[viper69]

@Teotihuacan - curious, what didn’t you like about my post?