Johnsons's Garden Centers Text File document - copyright 2007
PDFfile available at http://www.johnsonsgarden.com/newsletter/organics.html

J U N E  2 0 0 7

Good Things From the Earth and Sea ... FoxFarm Potting Soil
Jeremy Johnson, Johnson's Buyer & Kansas Certified Nursery Professional

    I think most gardeners know that regular old top soil isn't the best
(or even good!) for container gardening. From there, however, most of
us have traditionally chosen some sort of "soilless" mix. These mixes
generally include any number of things, but most are peat based with
other ingredients varying greatly by brand.

Buyer Beware
    A certain national brand advertises that their potting mix will
"grow plants twice as big" as ordinary soil. If you read the disclaimer
in fine print, it spells out ... you guessed it, "results will vary." What
does this mean? Either your plants will grow twice as big ... or they
won't. That company spends an enormous amount of money every year
advertising their fertilizers and soils. While their products really
aren't too bad, there ARE other options. Options that can and will make
a HUGE difference in your containers, and once you try them, I know
you'll be hooked.

FoxFarm Products
    At Johnson's, we've carried the FoxFarm products for a couple of
years now, and we began offering their potting and planting mixes in
2007. I had seen their soils in various trade publications over the
years, but finally picked them up this year. Boy, am I glad we did.
FoxFarm produces all of their products in small batches to ensure
premium quality and optimum results. While FoxFarm offers several
soil/planting mixes, I'm going to focus on my favorite, the Ocean
Forest Potting Soil.

Ocean Forest Potting Soil
    FoxFarm promotes Ocean Forest as "Good Things From the Earth and
Sea." This mix is a delightful blend of fish, crab and shrimp meals,
earthworm castings, and fossilized bat guano combined with unsterilized
forest humus and premium peat mosses. When I got my hands into a bag
this spring, it was the finest potting mix I had ever experienced. The
texture is fabulous!
    I also bring to your attention the unsterilized nature of FoxFarm's
soils. FoxFarm closely monitors all of their composting, which allows
them to produce a soil with huge amounts of beneficial bacteria--just
another thing you won't find in the national brand. With all of the
beneficial bacteria in the mix, along with the fish meals, earthworm
castings, bat guano, etc., you are really building a very strong soil
structure for your plants, and when we feed the soil, plants are happy.

Potting Soil Comparison
    This spring at Johnson's, we did a few tests comparing the FoxFarm
Ocean Forest with a couple of other brands. The pictures really speak
for themselves, as the FoxFarm plants are not only larger (and not
leggy), but more floriferous and a have a greater intensity to the
flower color. You probably have most of your containers already planted
for this summer, but I would challenge you to plant just one more pot,
using the FoxFarm Ocean Forest. You'll be glad you did.