in this video i'm going to show you guys
how we can make a potting mix from home
that's going to be pretty much the same
thing or even better than what you'd
find in the store
i'll show you guys right here so
something like this
that is typically
what you're going to find that's going
to be like a high quality potting mix at
the store and this bag cost us 12
so that's really expensive for like one
bag of potting mix and cool thing making
it at home is going to cost way less
money like
ridiculously less money real quick guys
nick here again with the bravo 6
gardener if you guys end up enjoying
this video i would super appreciate a
thumbs up also if you want to see more
gardening how-tos tips and tutorial
videos i do them at least weekly
probably more once we get into the
growing season i'm excited for today's
video let's get into it guys so probably
the biggest reason i'm making this video
i see a lot of beginner gardeners
getting really discouraged when they go
to buy potting soil to use for their
garden like i said the one bag of
potting mix costs us 12
that's kind of going to be the going
rate for a high quality potting mix that
you can get from the store anywhere from
like the 10 to 15 range is what it's
going to cost you and that's kind of a
bummer you know that one bag is gonna
fill up a couple maybe three four
containers if that depending on the size
of the container that you're using if
you're wanting to do a good amount of
gardening you know if you're looking at
10 containers or more that's really
going to add up just a quick note for
those of you that have been gardening
for a while this video might be a little
bit of a review for you guys you know
we're not reinventing the wheel here by
any means but i want to put a heap a big
emphasis on how much money you can save
by making your own potting mix versus
going to the store and buying it it's a
lot like it's a ridiculously large
amount of money you will save by making
your own potting mix as opposed to
buying it from the store so again the
bag we have here is what's going to be
considered a high quality potting mix
this is what a lot of beginning
gardeners would go to use for a potting
mix what's in this bag is good and will
work i'm not necessarily a fan of
miracle grow products but again it would
work and it's just so overpriced and you
can easily make the same thing yourself
so down here if we look at the
ingredients we can see
this is formulated from peat moss
perlite compost fertilizer and yucca
that is exactly the ingredients i'm
going to show you guys for the potting
mix that we're going to make today
except for yucca i have no idea what
yucca is to be honest all right guys so
here's everything that we're going to
need for this so we're going to be using
peat moss compost any aged finished
compost is going to be totally fine
perlite and fertilizer fertilizer is
going to be optional you don't have to
do that it'll help out a little bit with
your mix though and then we're just
using a storage tote to mix all this in
first thing we wanna put in is going to
be our peat moss you know i worked up
the cost on the peat moss for how much
it's gonna take for one three gallon
container and it comes out to about 40
or 50 cents somewhere right in there so
when we're i'm gonna factor up again
this uh cost for a three gallon
container here so we're just going to
call it 45 cents when we go to factor up
how much that's going to cost
and i've went ahead i've already went
ahead and done that for each of the
products i've figured out how much it's
going to cost in perlite how much it's
going to cost in peat moss compost
fertilizer everything as far as the
ratio goes for how much of everything
we're gonna use it is not an exact
science but kind of a good guide i like
to go off of is two parts peat moss two
parts compost to one part perlite so
like for example if we were using the
scoop i would do two scoops uh peat moss
two two scoops compost and then one
scoop perlite fertilizer is basically
just a handful no exact science to that
really so we've got the 3.8 cubic foot
bag of peat moss cost us 11.50 again i
factored in how much what we're using
for the container costs comes out to
we're just going to call it 45 cents
should be available at any home
improvement store or check with your
local greenhouse or nursery they should
have it as well and the reason we're
doing the peat moss first something very
important that we want to do when we're
creating this potting mix we want to wet
our peat moss before we add anything
else to it so pmos will actually resist
water at first like if i put water in
here right now all the water is going to
go to the bottom and i basically just
have to agitate it to the point where
the peat moss has absorbed it so we're
going to go ahead and do that and again
there's no exact science we're basically
just going to add a little bit to this
until we get a good consistency
and we'll go ahead and add a little bit
more
you don't want it super soaking wet
but you just want it enough to the point
where it's not resisting water anymore
so this is probably pretty good i'll
bring it up so you guys can see so if i
take this and if i ball it up and i've
got a few drips coming out there that
means it's good so next ingredient is
going to be our compost again we're
doing two parts peat moss to two parts
compost so we don't really have to
measure it out we're basically just
gonna do the exact same amount uh
compost that we did peat moss
so that's about good right there the
cost of the compost came out to about
eight cents again it's not an exact
science but that's roughly the number
that i came up with um to coordinate to
one three gallon uh container that we're
going to use here and you know the the
reason for compost for you beginner
gardeners you know compost is going to
give us our organic matter the organic
matter is what's going to feed your soil
and then that in turn is what is going
to feed your plants so that's kind of
the reasoning for the organic matter and
again the cost of these numbers is not
going to be exact we're just kind of
using it as a yardstick to give us an
accurate idea of how much it's gonna
cost to fill us one of these buckets
here i go to my local resource supply
center and i get the bed of my truck
filled up with compost for like ten
dollars if you can find a good landscape
supply center it's gonna be super
affordable if you don't have a landscape
supply center near you some people will
sell compost independently like if
you've got a farm horse farm
chickens that kind of thing a lot of
people will sell it that way so check
for that if you don't have a supply
center and if you don't have a truck a
lot of people will deliver compost to
you i know my landscape supply center
offers delivery and you might get like
farmers that would deliver it out to you
if you paid them and it's still going to
come out to be way less expensive than
again if you're going and buying a
bagged potting mix so again next
ingredient is going to be our perlite
and i'm just eyeballing it not an exact
science we're basically just
getting it to where we've got
a good amount of perlite in here and if
we need to we can add as we go cost us
about 20 cents worth of perlite that
we're putting in here you might not be
able to find perlite at like your home
improvement store in bulk but again most
greenhouses or nurseries should give you
bulk perlite availability i know that i
don't have the bag here but the bag i
got cost ten dollars it's like a it's a
super huge bag it's like this tall and
the last ingredient is going to be our
fertilizer so again with our fertilizer
we're just putting in a handful doesn't
have to be an exact amount i just do a
handful in there quick tip on fertilizer
while we're talking about it i strongly
recommend using an organic fertilizer as
opposed to a synthetic or man-made with
man-made fertilizers it's much easier to
over feed or burn your plants when
you're feeding them an organic
fertilizer again organic it's it's
occurring naturally so it's going to be
much more difficult for you to give your
plant too much of it they should be
available at your home improvement store
again if not your local greenhouse or
nursery and there's plenty of
accessibility to organic fertilizers
online i'll put some links to amazon for
those as well so you guys can get some
ideas on organic fertilizer and it's
going to cost you a little bit more
money up front since we're kind of
buying in bulk here to an extent but
again you are going to save so much
money if you make your potting soil like
this so the cost if we add all that up
again we're averaging 45 cents for our
peat moss compost came out to eight
cents per light came out to 20 cents and
our
fertilizer came out to five cents if i
did my math correctly that comes out to
78 cents for all the ingredients to put
into one of these containers and then
comparing that to the
the pre-made mix if we wanted to fill
one of these containers it's gonna cost
us eight dollars so it's basically like
a bag of this is going to fill one and a
half of these 78 cents is the cost to
fill one of these with our homemade mix
eight dollars to fill one of those with
the store-bought mix that's terrible
okay so i will bring both of these up
close just so you guys can see
so again
this mix
is our homemade mix
and this mix is our store-bought mix so
just so you guys can see
the consistency
of that homemade mix i don't know how
well you guys can see that
if we ball it up in our hand it makes a
ball
but if we
gently let it go it crumbles right apart
that's kind of the consistency that
we're looking for and if you look at
these two they actually look almost
identical you know
they both have the same ingredients
peat moss perlite compost fertilizer
again
78 cents
eight dollars and they're literally the
exact same thing and so just another
number to think about so if you do a
good amount of gardening say you wanted
to do
10 of these containers you needed to
fill up
think about the cost of that so again
the the store-bought stuff it's gonna
cost about eight dollars to fill a
container that's eighty dollars if you
wanted to fill ten containers or if you
wanted to fill you know 20 containers
that's 160
that's a lot of money that is not cost
effective to be gardening with it it
doesn't financially make sense
now again the cost in your area might
not be exactly the same as mine but even
if it varies a little bit even if this
is a dollar fifty container versus eight
you're still saving a ton of money and
also what i'll do i'll put links down
below for as many good products i can
find that you can actually purchase
online to help you guys out with
sourcing these i'll also put the link to
the container mix if i'm able to find it
online just so you guys can check that
out again this is probably a pretty good
mix and i'm gonna use it on my garden
it'll probably work well it just it just
doesn't make sense
to use that when you can make the same
mix for literally a tenth of the price
and as far as products online that i
found there's a really good organic
fertilizer that i found online i'll put
an amazon link down in the description
below for that i've also bought perlite
before on amazon and it actually comes
out to be fairly cost effective again
compared to doing a potting mix from the
store i'll put a link down below for
that as well and guys i have been
gardening for years and only last year
have i exclusively made my potting mix
like this if i had done this from the
get-go as opposed to buying bagged mixes
from the store every time i needed
potting mix i would have saved hundreds
and hundreds and hundreds maybe even
thousands i don't know i would have
saved a lot of money if i would have
made my own mix as opposed to going to
the store so again you can save so much
money i strongly recommend making your
own mix
it's fun to get out here get your hands
dirty out in the garden anyway so why
not do it i hope you all enjoyed this
video i hope you learned something new
if you guys enjoyed this video i would
super appreciate a thumbs up also if you
want to see more gardening how-to tips
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hit the subscribe button i plan on doing
gardening how-to videos weekly maybe
even more once we get into the growing
season we'll see that's all i got see
you guys next time bye