Potting soil prices have exploded, but the real truth about potting soil is worse than just inflated prices. There is a secret scam at work. The potting soil we are buying today is not the same product we were buying a few years ago, and there has been a change made to most potting mixes that nobody noticed. The potting soil industry’s new trick is diabolical, and I’m going to expose it and show you how to fix it.
• How To Make Potting Soil In Bulk: https://youtu.be/t3kx5PhCJU8?si=jrU_6RHo_xcBj0zU
• How To Make Seed Starting Mix: https://youtu.be/jbsIHN3Zb0w?si=VRL6QflB5Y-kIe00
• How To Start Seeds, Complete Guide: https://youtu.be/PCGZ5wp8_kY?si=XteFQNYMb2AHuGUm
I use the following products* for starting seeds and vegetable gardening:
Soil Sifter (Featured, High Quality): https://amzlink.to/az0x2xCzz4bmp
Soil Sifter (Cheaper Alternative): https://amzlink.to/az0e7SQ33vail
Soil Sifter (Cheaper Rectangle Alternative): https://amzlink.to/az0lbwOPJyzAT
Jiffy Organic Seed Starting Mix: https://amzlink.to/az0EKqmaTXRe4
Back To Roots Seed Starting Mix: https://amzlink.to/az0c0D4EI6ILo
MiracleGro Potting Soil: https://amzlink.to/az0b3BzyTFBV2
Coco Coir Large Brick, 10LB: https://amzlink.to/az003UTtU8eIw
Coco Coir Small Bricks : https://amzlink.to/az05v1LAS0uVD
EZGRO Indoor Plant Food [15-30-15]: https://amzlink.to/az0NY44MUZlGS
True Organic Vegetable Fertilizer [4-5-6]: https://amzlink.to/az0r93j9MDJxk
True Organic All Purpose Fertilizer [5-4-5]: https://amzlink.to/az0lVAel6Wss7
Espoma PlantTone Fertilizer [5-3-3] (36lb): https://amzlink.to/az0SocAgVlySv
Espoma Bone Meal (10lb): https://amzlink.to/az0KAuCOZcPgQ
Alaska Fish Fertilizer [5-1-1] (Gallon): https://amzlink.to/az0Jhw8liNoe3
Pruning Snips: https://amzlink.to/az0S6BULZGPmi
Indoor Watering Can (1L): https://amzlink.to/az0DLHxdf26bx
4FT LED Grow Light (60W): https://amzn.to/46C71j4
Seedling Heat Mat: https://amzlink.to/az0KMyq9jcd2G
Seedling Heat Mat & Thermostat Kit: https://amzlink.to/az0vrFvoz0Chs
Grow Bags (Black): https://amzlink.to/az0UDaVzkSLWi
Grow Bags (Tan): https://amzlink.to/az02kBaExY5sL
Jack’s All Purpose [20-20-20] (1.5lb): https://amzlink.to/az0JG0Dv6Da0h
Jack’s All Purpose [20-20-20] (25lb): https://amzlink.to/az0F6FgxdhKjO
• Full Amazon Store: https://amzlink.to/az0yli4Cz0iXX
TABLE OF CONTENTS
0:00 Intro
0:33 How I Save Money On Plants
1:19 Making Potting Mix VS Buying It
2:52 Trick 1: Inflation
3:53 Trick 2: Shrinkflation
4:54 Trick 3: Quality Reduction
6:14 Big Potting Soil’s Diabolical Trick
8:18 How I Fix Potting Soil
10:20 Potting Soil And Container Gardening
11:01 Potting Soil Tips
13:51 Adventures With Dale
If you have any questions about how to start seeds for a vegetable garden, want to learn more about growing fruit trees or the things I grow in my raised bed vegetable garden and edible landscaping food forest, are looking for more gardening tips and tricks and garden hacks, have questions about vegetable gardening and organic gardening in general, or want to share some DIY and “how to” garden tips and gardening hacks of your own, please ask in the Comments below!
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ABOUT MY GARDEN
Location: Southeastern NC, Brunswick County (Wilmington area)
Zone 8B, 34.1°N Latitude
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© The Millennial Gardener
#gardening #garden #seedstarting #vegetablegardening #vegetablegarden
46 Comments
If you enjoyed this video, please LIKE it and leave a comment! Thanks for watching 🙂 TIMESTAMPS here:
0:00 Intro
0:33 How I Save Money On Plants
1:19 Making Potting Mix VS Buying It
2:52 Trick 1: Inflation
3:53 Trick 2: Shrinkflation
4:54 Trick 3: Quality Reduction
6:14 Big Potting Soil's Diabolical Trick
8:18 How I Fix Potting Soil
10:20 Potting Soil And Container Gardening
11:01 Potting Soil Tips
13:51 Adventures With Dale
Have to make your own potting soil…..the stuff bought today is garbage basically fine mulch with some fertilizer thrown in so plants will grow in it…..mulch has to break down (rot) into the soil to make its nutrients available…..
Stop saying "Forrest products", It's F-ing sawdust and wood chips! Every brand I have access to here in this place is 90% wood chips now and it should be illegal to sell this sh@t as soil! Scotts, miracle grow, all of them suck now! Thanks for the video, you should have just come out the gate and burned them by telling people it's a HUGE amount of wood chips now. "Forrest products" what kind of corpo BS is that?! Take care!
Thank you for sharing this info and illustrating resolve for soil and gnats. I was wondering what was going on, too.
Blame the Climate Change/Green lunatics, they ruin everything with their global warming hysteria. With every heating period comes a cooling period.
I have absolutely noticed the decline in quality of the potting soil. Thank you for informing me why my house was full of gnats after repotting my plants!😝
Yep! Prices are way up, and I’ve found lots of bark in my potting soils.☹️
I have found fungus gnats in my organic seed starting mix. I put boiling water into the mix. Let it cool and use. I have also added beneficial nematodes to make sure the larvae is gone.
Nailed it!! I thought it just my imagination. Thanks!!
Yes! Definitely noticed including yellow plastic strapping and other pieces of red hard plastic! Going back to Gardeners Supply coir and soils.
Well said. I think every gardener has experienced this frustration of inferior soil. So disheartening .
I no longer purchase the yellow green and white bagged potting soil. My entire tropical plant collection died back in '21-'22. Can't say it was the potting soil, but I've switched to a leading organic mix.
And I couldn't even find Canadian peat moss spring 2025. Tariff wars anyone?
I only use Premier Pro mix BX with mycorrhizae for seed starting, now about $50+ per bag. The compressed bales are even more expensive.
Duuuuude the forest debris in these products has gotten out of CONTROL!
I live in the desert, so I was working in my garden just a couple weeks ago, getting some of my seedling mixes—mixed.
I go to dump in a bag of miracle grow soil mix and HALF A FRIGGIN TREE plops out of the dang bag!!!!
…..ok, maybe I’m being a smidge dramatic.
But still, it was such a HUGE branch/chunk of wood, that we actually used it as a starter for our Christmas Eve fire (and it worked perfectly)!
🤣😂
I was already annoyed at the higher amount of wood chips that I have been finding in most mixes—but that was seriously the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever seen so far!
Hopefully it’s absurdity will never be dethroned (knock on wood…)
Eh? Eh? Thank youuuu, I’ll be here all week! 😂❤
Has anyone else noticed that it's not "potting SOIL" anymore – it's "potting MIX" now. Because there's so little actual dirt and it's mostly sticks, wood chunks, rocks and shredded plastic.
I had to pay a lot more for real garden soil(amended with worm castings in the bag) but it was sooooo worth it. 🌱🌱🌱
I had several rocks in my cotton burr compost
If you shop around for best price I like coast of maine or epsoma
A quicker way to bake the soil is put the pan in your heated outdoor bbq, if you have one.🙂
I start order about 3 yards of soil from one our local landscaping in south jersey a couple of years in the row price about 100$ mix mashroom compost soil… small baby truck coming drop it on my driveway little bit a work but its ok… soil is soft and well mixed . I didnt understand yards and first year order 6 🤦🏻♀️😂 so… had fun for a while
"starts with B, ends with Reyers" LOL i was wondering why ice cream is different now. i love the focus and surrounding spectrum of info, tysm.
These companies that employ these dirty strategies might improve their products if we all just let their low-quality items rot on the sales floor. Don't buy their crummy products! We don't have accept sub-par materials; by doing so, it will only encourage companies to further decrease their quality the following year.
I had to sift my organic, sterile, $$ seed starting soil last year…glad I had some hardware cloth lying around! Guess we will adjust to this new “normal” 😅
I would think it’s possible that the peat moss (Canada) prices are impacted by the tariffs
Organic apple cider vinegars are all now watered down. So angry!
Thank you, as a new gardener, I had noticed that the mix had huge pieces in it and was not fit for the purpose of starting seedlings. This video has been extremely eye opening.
Yes, in fact, I did notice. It never occurred to me to sift the soil! So I had to keep pulling out twigs and bark to make sure they were not smothering the seeds. Now I know, thanks! BTW, I wholeheartedly agree. They I prefer inflation to shrinkflation. Turned out my favorite ice cream contained "engineered" ingredients, I had to read the label to find out why it was making me sick. Tiny cartons. Found only one ice cream (in only one flavor) that just had ice cream ingredients. Costs a fortune.
Thanks for your succinct presentations, as always.
Been aware of the wood chip scam for over ten years now
What used to a vibrant, nutritious economy has morphed into an air filled froth. So goes the future
Great podcast – informational, well thought out, useful, and detailed –
Inflation is caused by increase in money supply. It is ultimately due to government spending. It is like a hidden tax when the Fed Reserve prints money.
You are so right! It is awful to pay the price and then have forest material in it so much.
Gezuz H Christopher Columbus.. potting soil!! wtf☹
There was a bill introduced during the Biden administration to outlaw “shrinkflation” and McConnell and the republicans killed it. We get what we vote for.
Peat is incredibly bad for the environment. Look for alternatives
I'm not a Gardner but I really enjoyed you interesting information 😊
mankind, i make a lot of things that nature makes, but soil is not one true soil is not 1 that they can manipulate and make, no, that can take all kinds of different things and mix it together and call it soil, but the natural original. No, they can't period all soil that you buy in bags. Are ground up wood bark . Last year , I ordered from amazon not their fault , organic soil, it was so organic, they had literally nothing in it. No amendments. And I didn't catch on to that cause, I just wanna putter around even puttering around in gardens can get expensive. It got the wrong fertilizer right up to the thing, some kind of chicken or rooster pellet, I got put that out in March so it can break down into the ground and in the pot, but anyways don't hold out, look at how some of these master. Gardeners make their own soil.That is about the best you're going to do unless you know , there's some deity of dirt .
So lots of blessings for your coming two thousand and twenty six garden .
What is the purpose of ruining a product so much that no one really buys it any longer!
YES, I absolutely have noticed the tiny sticks/bark in my seed starting mix and I was not happy with it. I grew seeds about 8 years ago on a former property and the seed starting soil was beautiful. We moved and after of few years of not starting my own seeds, I went back to it in early 2025 and noticed the difference! We downsized and a bag or two of the Jiffy Mix is the way that I will go. Thanks for the tip:) Oh, and I noticed a lovely lemon tree growing in your garden! I have a Meyer in a pot and have also noticed that the specialized potting mix for this has also changed. I had to add much more vermiculite to the soil last year when re-potting. It comes in/out of our home and is a very spoiled plant that we absolutely love:)
Thank you, I now know how to kill those pesty bugs ❤❤
Yes, almost every food has guar gum and other gums in it. I bought a WalMart ice cream. I threw it out in the back yard and it didn’t melt. The mess was disgusting. Even canned cat food, not very nutritious anyway, has gum in it. Check the labels on the food you buy. Grated Parmesan cheese is full of sawdust.I wonder if this is just a USA problem because it is a problem for people who don’t make everything from scratch. Another trick is a smaller amount of product for the same price in a narrower box (cereal) or a smaller box at the same price. I READ LABELS. Beware, the packaged food we buy is not as nutritious as it used to be, or as it should be.
Do you still use the Jiffy starter pods?
Shrinkflation annoys me most !
If you can, culture your own sphagnum moss. That’s all peat moss is.
Doesn’t peat moss come from Canada? Stupid tariffs.
love this guy already
Cocopeat is pretty cheap in India (though that's inflating and shrinkflating too) but if it is affordable, mixing it with (dried and sifted) vermicompost has usually been bomb proof for me.
Same in the UK, so much uncomposted wood bark and chips. They banned moss peat a few years ago, so it's mostly coir. Since then those pesky gnats have been a headache. Managed to get them sorted last year thank goodness. Seems when you find a decent product, it isn't long before they go down too. Found a good local source last year with very few wood chips – brilliant veg as a result, both seed, potting on and for final spots in the greenhouse and polytunnel.