Dr Earth Homegrown soil

Just a fair warning, and I believe it has been posted up here or elsewhere. Bought a bag of the Dr Earth "Homegrown" soil, cleverly packaged POTting soil for "Medical" gardens. I was expecting better than what we got, ended up getting Iron, Zinc, Manganese and Sulfur deficiencies on our Sour, and massively overfed-with-N Bubba, all at 5 sets in. I loaded up the Sour with some micros, seems to be recovering but still partially yellow new growth. Bubba has finally dried out and gave it some high P K to even out the feed. Think Im going with Roots next time, we have had issues with FF OF in the past, Pro Mix has always been solid, and in their defence, Dr Earth orange and green/blue bags are good performers. But this cleverly advertised and labeled Black bag seems to be missing micros in a big way, never had this many issues on a single plant, especially a stronger Sd strain like this.

The Smoking Man

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Lets all try and get along. Life is short.

i believe you're right. can't say i used it straight, but i know a guy that owns a hydro shop and their have been a lot of complaints with the dr earth. i've mixed it with other soils and it was fine, but i wouldnt use it by itself. i like half fox farm, half either fertilome or lamberts. they're both like pro mixes. ff is a bit too hot on it's own imo. i also add a bit of lime. like a handful per gallon.

beer316 said:

i believe you're right. can't say i used it straight, but i know a guy that owns a hydro shop and their have been a lot of complaints with the dr earth. i've mixed it with other soils and it was fine, but i wouldnt use it by itself. i like half fox farm, half either fertilome or lamberts. they're both like pro mixes. ff is a bit too hot on it's own imo. i also add a bit of lime. like a handful per gallon.

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i use a custom blend of mostly happy frog(really good as is) and a light local nursery mix of canadian sphagnum peat moss, chunky perlite, gypsum, dolomitic lime? maybe one more thing i feel like im forgetting. But i also add in bat guano and earthworm castings(alot) along with azomite and a couple other organic things.

Anyways point is about half of my total blend is happy frog. You will have no issues with this stuff (you shouldnt its really hard to lol) its got really good stuff in it and well balanced. The happy frog has dolomitic lime as well as the nursery mix so my ph is always perfect if blended thoroughly.

never tried the homegrown, but had the same problems with their regular potting soil. to make it worse, it was a few weeks into veg. sounds like a good soil at first glance, but doesnt measure up.

happy frog give you flies.

just get some sphagnum moss for half the price and start making your own amended soil.

tomcatjones said:

happy frog give you flies.

just get some sphagnum moss for half the price and start making your own amended soil.

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Really? maybe just depends on location i havent had any problems..

Dr earth is a the worst shit ever. I feel your pain. I used the orange bag one batch and the medical black and.white bag. Wish i.never did. Ive used everything. Roots organic original is my favorite now. I even re-use it. I amend the used soil before using it again.

If you use alot of soil. Google places in your area that sell yards of potting top soil. 1/2 yard is a 100 bags. Usually goes for around $30 to.$40 for a 1/2 yard. You will most likely have to amend your self too. At that point just make it into super soil.


If you have pests in your soil. Ancient forest compost gets rid of them. When top dressesd. Compost kills prevents disease and is an inhibitor to pests. Plus predatory mites breed in compost. They eat pests, adult, babies and larva and eggs too. Once their food source is gone they die off. Predatory mites are little redish orange crawlers.

Happy yard work..

Happy Frog has usually treated me right, but FF stuff gets buggy, I end up with fungus gnats on occasion. I remember one time they came like the borg for real, larvae pulpating all over my friggin room too. That could have been because of the Sour clones, a couple had to be wet nursed out of some moldy rockwool. I think Im just going to make the move to Roots, Ill roll up the semi and load that sucker up

The Smoking Man

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Lets all try and get along. Life is short.

farmerjoe420 said:

never tried the homegrown, but had the same problems with their regular potting soil. to make it worse, it was a few weeks into veg. sounds like a good soil at first glance, but doesnt measure up.

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exactly, it seems fine until 5 sets in, and then BANG! I fixed my micro def on the Sour Diesel thank god, I cannot lose that. The bubba is pissed off, but not super droopy anymore. The Homegrown bag is Iron Manganese Zinc and Sulfur deficient, *or has pH balance issues* and has way too much N if you like to actually garden and amend, I added some Natures Solution worm castings and switched to HPS, and they both went apeshit.

The Smoking Man

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Lets all try and get along. Life is short.

the sour P1 is back to normal finally, micro def has cleared up and its stretching like a good girl. bubba was culled for super slow growth and rams horns. Even closer inspection of the bag and they "recommend" you use all of their products nearly as additives to the soil. Going to roots organic only now, bad purchase there for me.

Ive been using Dr Earth for over a year now and love it. Never have had any problems that have been talked about ITT.

If your going to go cheap, use Kellogs Patio Plus

Or grab a bale of sphagnum and start your own, You'll sure know what's in it, and it'll be goooood.