I’ll get back to this thread in a bit, mmm Jacks 321 is my favorite.
But on promix… guys… I’ve mixed thousands, and thousands of bags, by hand, into a concrete mixer, half a bale at a clip (we cut them in half first) adding play sand for our special little annuals mix. Never ever have I ever found like… anything in promix. Not rocks, metal, lizards lol. I’m not saying it can’t happen, but to see multiple people state that promix can be dirty is pretty startling to me!!!
I just switched to a lighter soil mix, for my back and my roots both, since I sized up to some 15 gallon fabric tree pots that are pretty beastly if still manageable for a young guy like me. But I also have some 25g ones to try and those are just gonna be heavy no matter what.
So I picked up a bale of Promix HP-CC, the peat and coco mix one, which tracks with what I’ve used for soil mix ingredients so far, bagged peat-based soil (mostly CoM Stonington) and pre-buffered loose coco (Root Kandy from a company in Connecticut). Mixed it up with my heavy recycled dirt and a little extra granular gypsum and a local rock duct called Stoned Dust that’s a recycled byproduct from a drilling company that does wells and test holes etc. It comes micronized and homogenized with test results and is cheap enough I’ll use it for now until I get one of those big sacks of something from Rockdustlocal, but I gotta go get those in person on a road trip, not paying shipping on fucking rocks.
The end mix was beautiful, nice and rich but also light, I actually didn’t pack my pots as firmly as I should have and it’s not settling the same way the unamended dirt does, so oops a slumpy pot or two. Since transplant the ladies have been taking off and happy as clams, I think this is my new medium for indoor, and maybe outdoor, a mix of homemade super soil with HP-CC and minerals.
Sound like a great mix @Dirt_Wizard
Unfortunately the only pro mix I can get locally is the bx. I would like to give that one and the regular hp a try. Not sure how i feel about ordering bales of medium online lol
I’m sure you did this but for all, if you can’t find HP locally… Do a google search for greenhouse supply, and see you have anything resembling a Griffin Greenhouse Supplies in your area. Call them and ask if they do counter sales, they usually do for promix due to demand. You won’t find any of this on a website nor can you order it online. One of those old school “let me look up your account” deals.
The grow store manager I dealt with was about my age and really knows his shit (and was also willing to admit what he didn’t know, which is more important to me) and gave me a little schooling on Promix, hopefully I get this right. He said the HPCC is closest to the mix that’s (and probably sometimes even is) the base for most high end weed soils, other than the organic certification, which I’m not super attached to for these ingredients TBH. So adding my heavy, rich, cold composted dirt full of good dry amendments to this got me something a lot like what I was buying with Stonington or if I got Roots or whatever. He said normal BX is great and really simple/neutral if you want to do true soilless or hydro as an approach, and that the HPCC is basically that with a brick of ready to use coco and some extra liming mixed in, plus I got the version with mycorrhizae already in it. Apparently it’s optimized for the sort of organic growing I do with dry amendments and topdressing etc. First time using one of these, but it was the cleanest and most even grow medium I’ve used yet.
Yep you speak the truth, that’s one of the big distributors and that’s probably the cheapest way to get it from what people say.
I usually go to an agway I’ve honestly not checked to see if they carry it online. If they do I’m sure I can go in and have them order it for me. Since I started using the bx I’ve liked it so much I never thought to try out their other stuff.
Agway is dope, I grew up next to one and it’s as good as one of the real serious True Value places, they can order you a bunch of stuff there too. There’s a bunch of little True Value hardware stores around here that don’t have a lot of things in stock but they can get it on a pallet in a couple days for you, I know a couple of folks that do their spring garden and yard orders that way.
@Dirt_Wizard that was part of the reason why I went with the bx, it’s always available. Price fluctuates but they price match. I didn’t realize how cheap coco was
Oh! I forgot! I also got a 25lb sack of BuildASoil pumice from him and mixed that in, highly recommended for texture it’s what I was looking for instead of chunky perlite and now the mix has everything from big chunks to little granules. Before I plant with the rest soon I’m gonna amend with some washed coarse play sand for a little more weight, right now it’s very fluffy and I do want it a little heavier, plus I love silica.
I did find there’s a hydro shop maybe 25-30 minute drive away that carry’s all the pro mixes. Just a little pricey
I think @Papalag
I’ve found that it’s best to call ahead to the local hydro shops since their stock fluctuates…especially as we get into growing season and demand for various flavors of Pro-Mix goes up. Even though they may show in-stock on the website, that may include a centrally located warehouse in addition to on-hands at the store.
Yeah almost always call ahead lol just actually clicked on em and it says they’re out of stock of rhe hp and hpcc.
The last bale of bx I got for my outdoors I believe had the bio fungicide and mycorrhizae. The one I have now is just the myco. Seems like it would be a better bang for the buck to just get the bx and add coco myself with some extra perlite and maybe lime
Yea just make sure to use chunk coco and not fiber, that’s the trick with the HPCC is the peat does its hairy peat thing and the coco is big chunks for aeration and for all the soil food web guys to live in, just like biochar or the pumice I added, or large perlite. It’s just that going down thst list from biochar to perlite you get less of a convoluted and porous surface to make a habitat for all the stuff we have living in our living soil.
These ones look like high quality products that are easy to order and a lot more innocuous I think than a bale of Promix in the mail:
Yeah I just saw that in the hpcc description 
They’re a little more expensive for the chips. But not bad. Home Depot has 18gal for 33 bucks
Yea just make sure to buffer them with calnit or just bottled cal-mag before you add them in, as long as they’re already washed the liming in the Promix would probably handle it but you don’t want it going wonky at first until it gets a chance to self correct, or to use all that up before the plant needs it.
Thanks for the note
I think I’m gonna give this a try. Time to bust out the kiddie pool and give it a good scrubbing. 
