I am using the Miracle Gro Moisture Control soil. I bought it at Sam's and Walmart for $10.58. It's a pretty big bag and each one filled about 10 pots ranging from 10"-20". It is a mix of peat and coir, but it doesn't dry out like most other peat mixes. I think the coir aids in this as it rewets much more easily. It also has bark fines in it. Do a search for Al's mix. It has peat and I've never had a hard time rewetting it. Of course for outdoor container gardening in the summer, your soil should never dry out 100% unless you're using it for cacti and succulents. I'm with you, though. Most commercial soils are horrible. If I could do it over again, I would have mixed my miracle gro soil with some turface or oildri to aid in allowing more oxygen in the soil. I am worried that this soil will stay too wet during the rainy season. It's been so cool here in Houston. I think it will get better in summer.

You're really asking for more than you're going to find. By saying you don't want peat in the mix, you eliminate about 90% of what's on the market, and what you do find won't be readily available. It sounds like you're unwilling to make your own soil, so you'll be limited to a coir mix with hopefully some bark and perlite in it. Avoid manure, compost in any significant volume, top/garden soils, and other ingredients that break down quickly.

I don't particularly like peat as a primary component in my soils either, but I DO use it in reduced volume along with pine bark fines as the primary.

If you have time - you may wish to read a little about container soils by clicking this link. It may help you understand a few things. You can also use a wetting agent if you have a tendency to allow your soils to dry down too much. Using organic fertilizers also has the tendency to promote an algal crust on top of the soil that remains hydrophobic even when the soil below is willing to accept water.

Just a few thoughts. Good luck.

Al

Thanks for the link - but wow. It'd take me days to read it all - LOL!

I'm not opposed to mixing my own, I suppose, as long as I can find the ingredients. Like bark fines - I've never even seen something like this - where do you find it? I just came back yesterday from our best garden center in the city, and never saw anything labeled bark fines. Ditto on a wetting agent. Help!

All of the information you need to be a successful container grower fits together like a jigsaw puzzle you're trying to assemble. Every one of the pieces are somehow connected to the other - some directly, and some a little more extraneously, but they ARE all connected. If you've ever put a jigsaw puzzle together, you probably remember that most people try to get the outer 'frame' together first. This 'frame' represents the basic knowledge, like how soils work & how the individual components interact to make the whole, how fertilizers work, a little about how different cultural conditions affect plant growth/performance, how plants work (physiology) . . . things like that. Just like in the puzzle, after you have the basic framework completed, assembling the rest of the pieces will occur at a rate exponentially faster than the rate at which you first started. We can help, like a friend or relative that helps you do a couple of pieces every now & then or here & there. This is a good place to increase your knowledge and sharpen your skills if you're willing to make the effort. ;o)

Pine bark fines are often labeled as 'pine bark mulch', 'soil conditioner', or any one of a half dozen other names. The first pictures in the thread about Container Soils shows what to look for. For a little about a wetting agent (you don't need one if you're diligent about watering your containers) entering the search words "coco-wet" or "AGRI 2" will provide some info.

Al