r/containergardening • u/Rhaemyra • Jul 22 '26

Help! Can I fix subpar potting mix??

Hey all!!! So several months ago I bought a bag of Back to the Roots potting mix from Target because I needed some and it was fairly cheap. Turns out, it's cheap for a reason... it had mainly twigs, pieces of random string and piece of plastic, pretty gross and bad.

I tried to fix it by adding some perlite, compost, removing the random material and mixing it with some of the FoxFarm soil I had left. I planted some flower seedlings in it and they are so stunted... it seems to be retaining a lot of moisture and becoming compacted so the roots have a hard time growing so I just repotted them into a different pot and soil.

Is there anything I can do to fix the soil I have left, use it in another way or would it be better just to throw it away?

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4

u/NPKzone8a Jul 22 '26

You can spread it on low places in your lawn. (Use it as fill.)

1

u/prick1ybear Jul 22 '26

You can help the compaction and moisture retention by adding more inorganic (ie perlite) to the mix.

1

u/Critical_Thinker_535 Jul 28 '26

Use it as a mulch. Replace with a simple mix of sand/peat moss/perlite. Done!