Oy! Well, you could also just make your own soil, using some good topsoil, and then add some coir, compost, and all the organic nutrients, plus worm casting. If I had to make the choice between the two commercial potting soils, I'd probably choose the Confio. Please remind me... did Confio send you an analysis?
Hey, CBD!
Great questions!
Yeah,
@Azimuth did help me to make my own soil at one point, a little over a year ago. I was having a hard time finding organic soil, so he helped me make a simple three-way soil, and actually, it worked pretty ok! (I am sure I could do better a second time around!) Only, finding components with guaranteed analysis on the components is not easy.
I know what you are thinking, but it is not like in the States here. And it would take forever to chase down substrates with guaranteed analysis, etc. And I have not found anyone who will stand behind their products or workmanship here, like they do in the States.
I appreciate your protectiveness after the "Salted Sodium Soil" nightmare soil from Bendita Sea. The bags came in plastic wrappers, so I did not see that it was just a simple home-spray-painted bag, and not a professional label. (They wrap packages in plastic here sometimes, to stop theft and substitution.)
Bendita Sea seemed like a haven but it seems their ethics are not the best. They sold me their "house mix" but it was someone else's "Tablesalt Supreme". So I just need to not use their house mix anymore.
I have always been a guy to try to be thrifty, and save where I can--but I think given this last experience, I think I might want to pay a little more, and get the best products I can, to save more nightmare experiences like with the Bendita Sea Salt Soil.
I think the Confiabonos is probably not a bad option. It is "the" only respected Colombian national brand.
I wrote them, and they do not provide any technical analysis on their soil (period).
I wrote again and asked them about sodium content, and they did not even respond :-[
Just based on the fact that it is "the" Colombian "premium" brand, and they have a reputation to uphold, I think it is probably "good decent basic base soil".
I don't think it is probably anything fancy, but it looks and feels pretty good.
I think if I had known to buy Confiabonos Biogreen Premium a year ago I would not have had the Salt Disaster, and I would probably still be using it.
It feels pretty good. It feels like a good decent "basic premium" soil (just guessing, based on their reputation).
In contrast, we determined that the Roots Organic soil is a bonafide US soil, made by Aurora Innovations, Oregon, USA.
Homeboy said they make and bag it in Oregon, and then they ship it through their two official importers, Tech Industries and Dr. Wee (which are the same company, just two different websites, basically).
They have to put a stupid label on it, as it if was intended as an agricultural amendment for hectacreage, because the Colombian government is filled with people who are hired because someone likes them, rather than through any technical merit--so they have to put a slap-happy-stupid label on the bag, to get it through government customs.
(Really, probably some government agent said, "You have to print this horticulture information on the bag", and they knew how stupid governments can be here, so they probably literally did a "copy-paste" onto the bag label, and left it, to get the government to give them permission. I cannot see it happening in the States but I can totally see it happening here. Our accountant advised us to do something similar twice, just to avoid any government hassles [and there are many].)
When I asked home-grow if it was genuine Roots product, his first question was where I bought it. I said I bought it through Tech Industries, and he said that is one of their two official distributors (so when I cut the bag open I should at least hypothetically get a whiff of Oregon air, haha).
I will say that the stuff looks and feels plush. This sounds weird to say, but it feels like the nicest and plushest soil I have ever felt (hard to explain). It just feels good.
I can see why SubCool recommended this soil for his original soil.
If I was counterfeitting soil, I don't think I would try this hard to make a batch of soil that looks, feels, and smells this good. (Someone worked at this.)
One really nice thing about this whole debacle is that I am learning a lot about soil.
I think for this batch I am going to go ahead with the Roots, but I am also thinking that I could probably doctor the Confiabonos up in the future, to make it match the Roots. Because they had a few articles out, and I think it shows what premium "extra" ingredients they put in the Roots bag--so just add those ingredients.
But I also think the texture of the Roots is very different than the Confiabonos. I am not sure what it is yet, but there are less long fibers, and more perlite, and more vermitculite.
It just feels different.
Anyway, I appreciate the protectiveness, but I think I have confidence with either product--but since the Roots seems genuine, and since SubCool's original formula calls for Roots, I will go ahead and mix it up with the Roots.
And then next time we can try Confiabonos, or we can try to recondition the Roots soil.
The Roots soil seems really interesting, because there are just no long fibers, and it feels really good. So I am curious to know if it grows stuff as well as it feels.
