Which bagged soil actually grows the best plants? In this Know Before You Grow finale, Kris and Matt rank the top 10 bagged soils, potting soils, garden soils, living soils, and raised bed mixes after testing 26 different products over two years.
Each soil was tested under the same growing conditions with no fertilizer or amendments added. We compared soil test results, nutrient levels, look and feel, smell, tomato and lettuce grow-out performance, and even taste from the harvested lettuce to see which soils performed best from bag to harvest.
This ranking is designed to help gardeners, growers, and homeowners choose the best bagged soil before buying. Whether you are filling containers, planting vegetables, starting a raised bed, or comparing popular potting mixes, this video shows which soils rose to the top and why.
In this video, you’ll learn:
Which bagged soil ranked #1 overall
• How popular potting soils and garden soils compared
• Why MySoil soil test results matter before planting
• Which soils performed best in real grow-out testing
• Why price was removed from the final scoring
Featured soils include BuildASoil 3.0, Fox Farm Ocean Forest, Fox Farm Happy Frog, Fox Farm Strawberry Fields, Roots Organic, Soil King Big Rootz Living Soil, Gaia Green Living Soil, and more from the full 26-soil test series.
Watch the full Know Before You Grow playlist to see the individual soil tests and product breakdowns:
See the full 1-26 ranking here:
https://www.mysoiltesting.com/pages/know-before-you-grow
Need help testing your own soil before you grow?
MySoil Products 2025
Top 10 Videos:
#1 – Build-a-Soil 3.0: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KaRwuZmNPmE
#2 – Fox Farm Ocean Forest: https://youtu.be/NteZXegY3V8
#3 – Roots Organics Lush: https://youtu.be/2KPu4pZ8uxk
#4 – Fox Farm Happy Frog: https://youtu.be/Y_OHhxXPSqk
#5 – Coast of Maine Tomato & Veggie: https://youtu.be/lzjAaHVfguY
#6 – Fox Farm Strawberry Fields: https://youtu.be/Qyo3aZ0KMZ8
#7 – Soil King Big Rootz: https://youtu.be/hV_8KhCZ4Xo
#8 – Vermont Compost Co. Fort Vee: https://youtu.be/yYJZnhuSRZg
#9 – Coast of Maine Stonington Blend: https://youtu.be/zeVGx6VaNGk
#10 – Gaia Green Organics Living Soil: https://youtu.be/mUrmEsgSr1o
Timestamps and Chapters:
00:00 Welcome and Introduction
00:53 How we tested 26 bagged soils-Scoring categories: soil test, nutrients, grow-out, taste
03:14 – Prior feedback and viewing considerations
04:45 Why price was removed from the ranking
05:10 Top 10 ranking begins
05:15 #10 Gaia Green Living Soil
05:29 #9 Soil ranking result
05:45 #8 Vermont Compost Company soil
05:59 #7 Soil King Big Rootz Living Soil
06:13 #6 Fox Farm Strawberry Fields
06:28 #5 Coast of Maine Organic Tomato and Veggie
06:42 #4 Fox Farm Happy Frog
06:57 #3 Roots Organic
07:12 #2 Fox Farm Ocean Forest
07:27 #1 BuildASoil 3.0
07:54 Ranking consideration recap
08:21 How to use this information
09:01 Outro
19 Comments
We tested 26 bagged soils over 2 years and ranked the top 10 based on soil test results, grow-out performance, look and feel, and smell.
What soil are you using this season, and what are some of your favorites?
Watch the full Know Before You Grow playlist here:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLESxMaIucaNs2MV9wA8jZu0kclT4-tqGQ
See the complete 1-26 ranking here:
https://www.mysoiltesting.com/pages/know-before-you-grow
In one of your recent videos you commented how the lettuce from one of the potting soils tasted better maybe due to the nutrients in the soil. I'd like to see a video that find the right mix of nutrients that improves the flavor of various produce like lettuce, strawberries, tomatoes or citrus.
So we're ranking 1 good soil against a bunch of junk soils lmao. Compare it to Bioflower, bioall, stongington blend, indicanja, and other premium soils. I like build a soil but it doesn't come anywhere close to Bioflower. This sounds like a paid ad and too many personal opinions and feelings attached to it. Also fox farms is trash you lost all credibility putting fox farms anything above stongington 🤣🤣🤣
On Epic Gardening youtube channel they tested soil mixes based on plant growth (which is all I care about) and all the Miracle Gro mixes beat out all the Fox Farm mixes. Regular Miracle Gro was #1 and Vigoro was #2.
Test it outdoors in the sun.
Heres some feedback for you, you guys rock!
I get consistently good results from the FoxFarm soils, and always find myself going back to them. The best blend I've ever found out of all the potting soils I've tried is 1/3 Ocean Forest on the bottom of the pot, and 2/3 Happy Frog on top. I grow cannabis in addition to flowers and veggies, and my plants love this blend, plus the FoxFarm fertilizer trio. Coast of Maine Bar Harbor is also a great all-purpose organic soil; the garden store I go to puts it on sale fairly often, so I sometimes I use it instead of Happy Frog. Stonington massively stunted my plants, but I think that one's probably the same as Ocean Forest — you only put it on the bottom 1/3 of the pot. I'd like to try it again like that, but it's so expensive. This year I'm also running one plant each in Organic Mechanics and Coast of Maine Acadia. Organic Mechanics is holding its own; Acadia's falling behind, which sucks, because I really wanted to find a good vegan soil. I'd love to see you test that one!
Would you be able to test FoxFarm Coco Loco next? I’m using it in conjunction with Ocean Forest and would like to see how it compares. Thanks for all of the helpful videos you put out!
Build a Soil Claimed they didn’ pay to be #1 yet The Owner is in All The comments 😂🤣 Foh
Build a Soil is in a class of its own, it has no rivals !!
Not grabbing KiS Organics was a misstep, but I can't argue with the list.
Bio365 Bioflower worked real well for me this last grow. Definitely better than the FF Ocean Forest I was using mainly previously. I have also tried the BAS 3.0 and Mother Earth Groundswell. For my use the Bioflower works best with the BAS 3.0 in second place.
Appreciate the effort put into this video! A few suggestions:
Publish a downloadable list of all the soils, showing all the macro and micro nutrients by percentage. Also add runoff PH, and drainage speed. This info would be far more useful than much of the subjective criteria in this video.
For example, high NPK soils such as Lush and Ocean Forest can burn and stunt many types of seedlings including most autoflowers. But those soils are great for bottom loading a pot. A nutrient % reference chart would greatly assist in soil selection.
I also suggest testing Roots Organic Original. It's probably one of the most popular soils on the market, because it's coco based for fast drainage, the medium-low NPK makes it very versatile, and it's very affordable.
Appreciate the effort put into this video! A few suggestions:
Publish a downloadable list of all the soils, showing all the macro and micro nutrients by percentage. Also add runoff PH, and drainage speed. This info would be far more useful than much of the subjective criteria in this video.
For example, high NPK soils such as Lush and Ocean Forest can burn and stunt many types of seedlings including most autoflowers. But those soils are great for bottom loading a pot. A nutrient % reference chart would greatly assist in soil selection.
I also suggest testing Roots Organic Original. It's probably one of the most popular soils on the market, because it's coco based for fast drainage, the medium-low NPK makes it very versatile, and it's very affordable.
Build a soil literally sold out after this dropped. Congrats Jeremy and @buildasoil
Curious how kis organics would do side by side with build a soil
Been using BuildASoil products for 3 years. Started with Fox Farms Ocean Forest, with BuildASoil nutrients and amendments before they made the 3.0 soil. I knew hen they had the best. This is for mostly indoor plants. BuildASoil is also extremely aware of and makes sure there are no bad things in their soil, like heavy metals or nasty chemicals all organic.
Also keep in mind reusability. I have been using the same soil for 4 grows for two plants at a time in 7 gallon bags, with just amendments added in between each grow. The BAS 3.0 may cost more, but with a few dollars worth of amendments after each harvest, and putting the unused parts of the grown plants in the soil after each harvest (prunings, stems, etc), it will last and grow indefinitely in a cloth pot.
Winning by smell at 3xs the cost. Give me ocean forest