Hmmm, it sounds like moisture got into the bag and soured the soil. Or maybe they just package up whatever they've got on hand.

A couple of years ago I bought a bag of super cheap potting soil from Big Lots and it was the most horrific stuff ever. It was like they went to a clay pit, dug clay and added black dye. Awful stuff.

Since then, I only buy brand name potting soil.

This stuff you bought would probably be fine for adding to topsoil, but not so good for planters. You could do the things you mentioned with it (compost, work it into your garden) or take the unopened bags back. I agree not wanting to gather up the opened stuff...I'd take the empty bag and tell them if they want it they can come dig it up themselves because it's nasty stuff.

But if your Wal Mart is anything like ours, it's getting very difficult to return things. Even when you have a receipt they yell at you and act like you're a burglar. Good luck.

I wouldn't shop at Walmart in the first place, but it's a little late to tell you that. I would say return it and say it isn't soil and you want your money back for all of it. If they won't give your money back, you could always pour it out on the floor so that they can observe personally through sight and smell that it isn't soil. :-)

Below are three links about the evilness of Walmart.

Marcia

www.intellectualpoison.com

http://walmartwatch.com

Here is a link that might be useful: why to boycott Walmart

Hi, the first link above leads to a page with many issues on it, this is the link specifically about Walmart. (I know we are supposed to be able to edit postings but I couldn't see how.)

Marcia

Here is a link that might be useful: Walmart is evil

"it looks like nothing but a combination of shredded cedar mulch and cow manure", and that is probably just what it is and that is why I keep telling people to expect nothing from anything labled "topsoil", "garden soil" or similar stuff. There is nothing to regulate those terms, anywhere, and anyone can sell anything under those labels.

I have bought the cheap .98 potting soil from there as well and learned my lesson quick! It's full of chunks of hard stuff as well as sticks. I just mix my own these days with cow manure, peat humus, and my own soil.
I'd bag the stuff up in a trash bag and throw the bag in there and take all the mess back to them. I wouldn't even keep the one you opened. Put it in the trash bag and take it back to them! LOL

The bag said it was "Garden Soil", it did not claim to be "Potting Soil". "Garden Soil" can be absolutely anything you might find in your garden. Can anyone come up with a formula for "Garden Soil"? Al

I googled around and came up with garden soil is like "dirt" combined with organic material. Can be a combination of sand, silt, clay, manure - in effect anything organic can be thrown into it and apparently in any proportion. Potting Soil is in reality potting "mix" and has no soil in it; shouldn't contain any sand, silt or clay.

Other than being unpleasant - as say a fresh load of manure might be - I don't think there's anything in the Wal-Mart Expert Garden Soil that would hurt anything except perhaps plants in a container... it will clump making drainage an issue. I don't do any edible gardening but might not put it on/in a veggie bed, but I'd consider working it into regular beds or in a mixed shrub border.

Sounds like what you got is intended to be mixed in the native soil in the ground as an amendment. It will not be good in containers. Shredded bark and manure would be a good soil amendment but not a container mix. If it's labeled Garden Soil, you could not expect them to refund you the money on the opened bag but you should still try to return the unopened ones and exchange for a potting soil, if it's potting soil/container mix you want. I don't know how they are about returns as I do not shop there. I know if I had my receipt, and the product is unopened and still exactly as it left the store, and I'm within a reasonable time frame, I would insist on a return and demand to speak to a manager if they gave me any lip.

Soil for the ground and soil for the pots are two different things. Organic amendments for the soil in the ground is a third thing, and it sounds like this is what you got. You do not want fresh smelly manure in containers! that's for sure. Bags of potting soil should have a list of ingredients on the bag, which I would read when looking at a new brand. No ingredients? no sale.

As long as you buy bags termed soil or potting soil you will be fooled into expecting something that doesn't exist. There is organic matter which is good for the soil and potting media which should be a soilless mix which means it has inert items that will allow you to grow in a pot.

On Sunday I purchased a bag of Expert Potting Soil (I think that's the brand---comes in a pink bag)from my local W**-M*** store to plant my containers. This is about half the cost of other brands and I have never had problem with it before. Not this time. When I opened the bag, the top part of the soil was covered with white cobwebby-like stuff and smelled foul!! In spite of that, I was stupid enough to go ahead and use it in several containers. WARNING: the terrible smell is persisting and I have already lost my rosebud impatiens and the rest of the annuals I planted are not looking good at all. (Fortunately, I ran out of time and didn't get everything planted so it's not a total loss). The store did refund my price of purchase for the soil, but I will have to buy a lot new plants. I hope I have learned my lesson---from now on I'm sticking with Miracle-Gro soil. I have instructed my husband to dump the containers today as far away from the house as he can get! Just be warned that this is NOT the soil to use!

Sorry for your negative experience with it, mainerose. Mine is just the opposite and I have used Expert gardener mixes off and on for years.

I bought 5 2 cu. feet bags of it - the pink ones - just 2 weeks past week and all mine were in great condition. I potted up 2 more tomato plants, a pepper plant and several different containers of flowers. All are doing very well.

I don't think it is the brand that's the problem, it is the way some of the bags are stored where they get wet, baked in the sun, compressed, etc. and so turn anaerobic - thus the smell and fungus. I alwlays dig through the bags a bit and go for the ones lower down that weigh less - that way I know they aren't wet. In the Walmart yard here there were broken open bags of MG potting mix that had the same problem - stinky.

And the problem is made even more complex when folks don't understand the differences between the different types of mixes sold or read the ingredients. The OP of this thread "expected actual soil". had they read the print on the bag - it is a soil-less mix intended as an amendment for garden beds and is not for use in containers.

Brand names and vendors often get an unfair bad rap when the customer is inexperienced or under-informed. ;)

Dave

Actually, I used the Expert Potting Mix. According to their website: " Expert Gardener Perfect Mix All Purpose Potting Soil is pre-mixed and needs no additional amending. Simply add the potting soil to containers or use as a soil amendment in the garden. You can grow just about anything in containers, including delicious vegetables, flavorful herbs, and beautiful flowers.Look for helpful potting and planting tips on the back of each package. " Unfortunately, I have lost another container full of nasturtiums and will probably lose a couple of calibrochea. I have been gardening successfully for 20-+ years and am a reference librarian so I really don't feel that I am inexperienced OR under-informed. :)

What you probably bought WAS bark and cow manure. They just mixed it together and bagged it, without letting it compost first.

WalMart sells the cheapest stuff made from the cheapest materials via the cheapest labor. That combination just doesn't make for quality products.

Another thing I've noticed is that even when they sell brand names of some stuff, they seem to be 'seconds', esp with shampoo, laundry stuff, and other 'dilutable' (?) products.

Just dump the contents of the open bag under a bush somewhere, and take the others back.

Like the others said, potting soils and similar aren't regulated, and not only can be junk, but they can differ considerably from bag to bag. I used SuperSoil for years and liked it better than anything, but now it's just chunky garbage. Live and learn.

Sue

I have noticed that all the popular brands of commercial potting mix, available at large outlets, are now using wood chips or black mulch as filler. This is a rip off.

Buy your potting mix from a commercial green-house supply.

you have small pp its just garden soil

^^ Can you explain how your post, which is cryptic at best and insulting at worst, adds anything to this 8-year-old thread?

His misspelled user name says it all, doesn’t it?

I bought $20 worth of this product and it killed my plants so I don’t recommend it. It killed my aloe and my pineapple which are super easy to grow and you were almost 3 y

As with most bagged products, this stuff will be: 1) made at different facilities regionally, 2) made using a basic recipe which is not very exacting for the cheap stuff, and 3) as a result it may have just about anything in it when you buy any given bag. Finally, 4) if it gets wet in transit or storage it's going to be trouble. This is a good reason not to buy the cheapest, especially where potting mix is concerned. I've bought cheap compost bags but I was prepared for the results and it would be tilled into the soil. Potting mix, you don't have much margin for error.

I just purchased two bags for my class, I have Pre-k and our class plant is growing mushrooms, I’m going to toss it and start over with Miracle Gro, every day that I come to work I have new mushrooms, today I have 10 and one

is super big.

Mushrooms grow in decaying organic matter, particularly wood, so don't be surprised if they grow out of the MG stuff too. Is there a reason spontaneous mushrooms are unacceptable? Are you growing edible types to eat? In that case you should use a 'sterilized' medium. Mushroom growers steam theirs, for exactly this reason.

@Mickie, if you're a teacher - go with it! Fungi are super-interesting, maybe even more interesting than plants, and a great intro to soil and the life around. (Okay some of the fungi topics maybe a bit advanced for pre-k, but still pretty cool)

It's true. Random fungi are a fun project to identify, and learn how they break down wood fiber and make it part of the soil again.

I found stinkhorns in some mulch in my yard this week, never had any before!

Im really uoaet, i need customer service nd dont know how to get it. i bought bags of expert garden in garden soil. put in huge pots on my front porch and watered my plants, plants are g]doing good but under the pots and all over my porch its turned black like black dye is in that dirt…..looks terr.

Did you read any of the previous comments? A bag labelled "garden soil" is NOT something that should be used in a container!! What is coming out under the pots is just a leachate....very common with any bagged soils.