# Garden soil vs super grower mix (price issue)



## huachinango (Jun 21, 2007)

Here's the deal. I'm building raised beds for tomatoes and other tasty things. I will need about 3 yards of material (2.83 to be exact) and there are two types of soil that I am considering. The first is a "garden soil" priced at $26 per yard. It's basically topsoil with some mulch and other stuff throen in for drainage. The other is a Super Grower mix at $35 per yard. It's topsoil with manure, compost, mulch, sand for drainage, etc.

There is a third option. I could buy straight topsoil at $20/yd and add my own fertilizer, but that may be more expensive in the long run.

This is my first run at a raised bed setup, so any suggestions are appreciated.


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## 47741 (Jan 5, 2010)

for 30 bucks I'd probably give the grower mix a whirl. Or just get the topsoil and get it tested and add the specific additives it needs. Its probably worth testing even the expensive stuff if you want to get super picky.

I did a heck of a garden on fill dirt, compost and peat moss last year.


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## Rubberback (Sep 9, 2008)

I've had good luck with mushroom compost.


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## dwmason (Aug 12, 2007)

Use the topsoil and mix in a 5lb bag of table sugar into the soil. You can plant toothpicks and grow fenceposts


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## salth2o (Sep 21, 2004)

dwmason said:


> Use the topsoil and mix in a 5lb bag of table sugar into the soil. You can plant toothpicks and grow fenceposts


explain...


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## dwmason (Aug 12, 2007)

plants need micro-organisims to grow. Any type of sugar such as molasses, table sugar etc stimulates the micro activity and makes the plants thrive. A lot of folks use dry molasses as a fertilizer but I have had incredible results with basic table sugar. Go to dirtdoctor.com and read about the organic programs


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## Tate (Aug 25, 2005)

It is expensive, but the best soil I have used is the Garden and Flowerbed mix at Nature's Way Resources. It is $42 a yard. I went cheap and got some soil in the $20 - $30 range initially and had poor results. I got some of the soil from Nature's Way and my pepper and tomato plants were twice the size with twice the yield of the plants in the cheap stuff. I am about to get 6 - 7 yards of the Garden and Flowerbed mix for my garden expansion. I figure if I am going to put all this work into it then I might as well spring for the good stuff. Good luck.

Tate


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