Organic Potting Soil, Seed Starting Mix, Fertilizer & Compost For Your Garden
Organic soil mixes, compost and fertilizer are the best choice for your organic garden, and they’ll benefit your health and the health of the planet too. I’m sharing the best organic seed starting mix, potting soil, raised garden bed mix, compost and fertilizer for your organic garden.
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If you’re looking to garden without harmful chemicals like pesticides and herbicides, organic gardening is the perfect way to grow your own food while contributing to the health of the local ecosystem. Getting started on your garden is easy if you have the right garden essentials, like healthy soil and organic fertilizer.
A basic tenant of organic gardening is to start with healthy soil. Healthy soil provides essential nutrients for plant growth, including nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and micronutrients. These nutrients are released slowly and steadily, ensuring that plants have access to what they need to thrive.
If your garden soil has good structure and organic matter content, it will retain moisture more efficiently, reducing the need for frequent watering and helping plants withstand periods of drought. It will also be well aerated, which promotes strong root development, leading to healthier and more resilient plants.
Healthy garden soil supports a diverse ecosystem of beneficial microorganisms, including bacteria, fungi, and earthworms, which can help control pests and diseases naturally. It also prevents erosion, filters pollutants from water runoff, and provides habitat for a variety of organisms.
When it comes to organic gardening, prioritizing the health of the soil through practices like composting, mulching, crop rotation, and avoiding synthetic chemicals is essential for sustainable and productive food production.
What Certifications To Look For
The Organic Materials Review Institute (OMRI) is a non-profit organization that evaluates and approves products for use in organic farming and gardening. The OMRI certification verifies that a product complies with the organic standards set by the USDA National Organic Program (NOP) or other recognized international organic standards. OMRI is basically the gardeners’ version of the USDA organic certification.
For a product to receive OMRI certification, it must meet strict criteria regarding its ingredients, manufacturing processes, and environmental impact. OMRI evaluates inputs such as fertilizers, pesticides, soil amendments, livestock feed additives, and other materials used in organic production.
The OMRI certification helps consumers make informed choices about the products they use in their organic gardens, promoting transparency and integrity within the organic industry.
Beyond soil health, make sure to use organic weed killer and plant seeds in non-toxic containers and planters for the health of your garden. A non-toxic hose allows you to water your garden without contamination from harmful chemicals like phthalates and lead.
If you’re ready to roll up your sleeves and get your hands dirty, we’ve got recommendations for organic seed starting mix, organic potting soil, organic raised garden bed mixes, organic compost and organic fertilizer.
Seed Starting Mix
Seed starting mix provides a controlled environment for germinating seeds, offering optimal conditions such as loose, well-aerated soil and consistent moisture, warmth, and protection from pests and diseases. This allows seedlings to establish strong root systems early on, which is essential for their long-term growth and productivity.
Starting seedlings in a sterile seed starter mix reduces the risk of soil-borne diseases like damping-off, root rot, and other common seedling diseases.
By opting for an organic seed starting mix, you won’t have to worry about synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, or other chemical additives. Here are 4 seed starting mixes that are OMRI listed for organic gardening.
Coast of Maine Organic & Natural Seed Starter
Cost: $1.49 per quart (37 ounces per quart)
Use: Designed specifically for germinating seeds and rooting cuttings.
Certification: OMRI listed for organic gardening
Key Features: A rich mixture of blended sphagnum peat moss, compost, aged bark, perlite, kelp meal, lobster and crab shell meal, worm castings and mycorrhizae.. Features natural slow-release nitrogen that encourages healthy, disease resistant plants. Approved for organic growers. Target pH 6.2. Available in 8 Quart, 16 Quart and 2cf bags.
Shop: Coast of Maine Organic & Natural Seed Starter
Sunday Organic Seed Starting Blend
Cost: $12 for 8 quart bag
Use: Use it for indoor and outdoor seedling flats, small fiber pots, or any other container for planting seeds.
Certification: OMRI listed for organic gardening. Rodale Institute Approved
Key Features: It’s powered by high-quality coco coir, pine bark, rice hulls, and worm castings, which hold vital moisture but drain excess water. Plus, it contains an organic fertilizer that boosts your seeds for 3–4 weeks. Good for veggies, herbs, annuals, perennials
Shop: Sunday Organic Seed Starting Blend
Black Gold Seedling Mix
Cost: $0.02 per ounce
Use: For seed germination
Certification: OMRI listed for organic gardening
Key Features: This highly refined, organic seedling mix is excellent for root growth for newly germinated seedlings, has low-salt and is fine, yet porous and water-retentive and has an organic wetting agent to ensure uniform water penetration.
Shop: Black Gold Seedling Mix
Purple Cow Organics Seed Starting Mix
Cost: $0.06 per ounce
Use: For seed germination
Certification: OMRI listed for organic gardening
Key Features: Purple Cow Seedling Mix is a blend containing everything needed to start seeds, including enough fertility for up to 45 days. This mix is created using activated compost, a premium soil amendment with over 20 years of growing success. It promotes rapid germination and vigorous seedlings with strong root systems able to withstand transplanting and thrive
Shop: Purple Cow Organics Seed Starting Mix
Potting Soil
Organic potting soil is free from synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, and other chemical additives. This reduces the risk of exposing your plants to harmful substances and promotes a more natural growing environment.
Here are 4 brands of organic potting soil to use for potted plants, and you won’t have to worry about harmful additives because these mixes are OMRI listed for organic gardening.
Dr. Earth Pot of Gold Premium Organic Potting Soil
Cost: $0.06 per ounce
Use: Designed for outdoor and indoor containers. Can be used as a soil amendment for in-ground planting: trees, shrubs, bare root planting, flowers and vegetables; mulching; and seed cover. Great for indoor garden production.
Certifications: Organic Transparency; OMRI (Organic Material Review Institute), OIM (Organic Input Materials), CCOF (California Certified Organic Farmers) and NOP (National Organic Program).
Key Features: Dr. Earth potting soil contains TruBiotic® beneficial soil microbes plus mycorrhizae. TruBiotic® ensures organic nutrients are thoroughly broken down and then released in the soil for plant roots to absorb them as they are needed, contributing to drought tolerance, enhanced nutrient availability and increased plant performance. 100% organic – no synthetic ingredients or GMO infested chicken manure. Manure & odor free.
Shop: Dr. Earth Pot of Gold Premium Organic Potting Soil
Miracle Grow Organic Potting Mix
Cost: $0.10 per ounce
Use: container vegetables, fruits, flowers, and herbs
Certification: OMRI listed for organic gardening
Key Features: Grows bigger, more beautiful plants—naturally* *vs. unfed plants. Contains a blend of sphagnum peat moss, composted bark fines and natural fertilizer to help container vegetables, fruits, flowers, and herbs to thrive. Natural fertilizer features both quick- and slow-release nitrogen for thriving, attractive plants and flowers. Natural and organic ingredients continue to feed up to 2 months.
Shop: Miracle Grow Organic Potting Mix
PittMoss Potting Mix
Cost: $0.02 per ounce
Use: ideal for raised beds, vegetable gardening, indoor plants, and anywhere else you would use traditional potting mix
Certification: OMRI listed for organic gardening
Key Features: This organic potting mix is a lightweight and soilless mix with exceptional wettability, water retention, and availability. 100% peat free, containing no pathogens, weed seeds or other heavy metals and harmful ingredients. This is a great all-purpose organic potting mix ideal for raised beds, vegetable gardening, indoor plants, and anywhere else you would use traditional potting mix. PittMoss is made out of revolutionary recycled paper fiber which improves water and nutrient retention and stimulates biological development. PittMoss sources all paper ingredients from local recycling facilities, hand sorts each batch to ensure zero contaminants and conducts extensive testing to create a perfect living soil environment.
Shop: PittMoss Potting Mix
Whitney Farms Organic Potting Soil
Cost: $0.04 per ounce
Use: Indoor and outdoor container plants including vegetables, fruits, flower, and herbs
Certification: OMRI listed for organic gardening
Key Features: This rich, premium blend of organic materials and natural fertilizer allows you to grow beautiful and bountiful container gardens — naturally. Exclusive mix of organic and natural ingredients. Feeds plants for up to 2 months.
Shop: Whitney Farms Organic Potting Soil
Raised Bed Soil Mix
Using organic soil in your raised garden bed supports sustainable gardening practices, promotes soil health, and produces healthier plants. Soil nutrients come from natural sources like compost and decomposed plant matter, and is teeming with beneficial microbes such as bacteria, fungi, and earthworms.. Organic soil tends to have better structure, with good drainage and aeration. This allows roots to penetrate easily, access water and nutrients efficiently, and promotes healthy plant growth.
By opting for an organic raised bed soil mix, you won’t have to worry about synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, or other chemical additives. Here are 4 raised bed mixes that are perfect for organic gardening.
Coast of Maine Organic & Natural Raised Bed Mix
Cost: $0.03 per ounce
Use: Great for growing healthy vegetables, herbs, and flowers.
Certification: OMRI Listed for organic gardening
Key Features: An enriched blend of fully cured compost, sphagnum peat moss, dehydrated poultry manure, lobster and crab shell meal, greensand, biochar, worm castings and mycorrhizae that helps to retain moisture & improve aeration. Natural slow-release nitrogen and rich in organic material. Target pH 6.5. Available in 1cf and 2cf bags.
Shop: Coast of Maine Organic & Natural Raised Bed Mix
Coast of Maine Organic Tomato & Vegetable Planting Soil
Cost: $27.33 for 20 quarts
Use: For tomatoes and vegetables
Key Features: This optimal soil conditioner revitalizes the soil in and around your vegetable garden beds. It is naturally lightweight and contains just the right mixture to grow plentiful tomatoes and vegetables. Made with premium ingredients, compost, sphagnum peat moss, and aged bark. It’s perfect for healthy and flavorful tomatoes & vegetables. Ideal for planting in containers. Available in 20qt bags.
Shop: Coast of Maine Organic Tomato & Vegetable Planting Soil
Whitney Farms Organic Raised Bed Mix
Cost: $0.008 per ounce
Use: Raised garden beds
Certification: OMRI listed for organic gardening
Key Features: A specialty soil designed for raised bed gardens to grow all types of plants including vegetables, fruits, herbs, and flowers. This mid-weight soil is specially formulated for raised beds, and features a rich mix of organic and natural ingredients including kelp meal, alfalfa meal, bone meal, and earthworm castings.
Shop: Whitney Farms Organic Raised Bed Mix
Vermont Compost Raised Bed Mix
Cost: $0.04 per ounce
Use: Raised garden beds
Certifications: All ingredients used in Manure Compost have been approved for certified organic production. Vermont Compost Company’s composting process meets the National Organic Program (NOP) standard requirements and their products are approved by Vermont Organic Farmers (VOF), the certification branch of NOFA-VT.
Key Features: Helps optimize your nutrient input and maximize your harvest. With a larger percentage of garden-boosting compost, this mix is packed to the brim with stem-strengthening, fruit-fortifying nutrients to ensure that your raised beds raise healthier crops.
Shop: Vermont Compost Raised Bed Mix
Compost
Compost is decomposed organic matter, and it benefits your garden in numerous ways: it provides organic material that promotes the growth of beneficial bacteria, fungi, and earthworms that make nutrients available to your plants, it improves drainage in heavy clay soils, and increases water retention in sandy soils, it helps stabilize soil pH, it improves the effectiveness of organic fertilizers, it prevents nutrients from leaching and it improves resistance to disease.
We avoid compost made from biosolids (treated sludge from wastewater treatment plants) because it can contain contaminants that we don’t want in our garden.
Here are 4 brands of organic compost to use in your organic garden, and you won’t have to worry about biosolids or harmful additives because these mixes are OMRI listed for organic gardening.
Coast of Maine Organic Lobster Compost
Cost: $0.11 per ounce
Use: For vegetables, flowers & lawns and conditioning beds and borders.
Certification: OMRI listed for organic gardening
Key Features: This “seafood” compost is made with lobster and crab shell meal blended with compost, sphagnum peat moss and aged bark that improves and revitalizes soil. The result is a complex soil that drains well and is ideal for conditioning beds and borders. Excellent for high yield vegetable gardens. Adds calcium. Approved for organic growers.
Shop: Coast of Maine Organic Lobster Compost
Fishnure Organic Compost
Cost: $0.29 per ounce
Use: For indoor and outdoor plants- potting plants, established plants and vegetable gardens
Certification: OMRI listed for organic gardening
Key Features: Fishnure is an organic fertilizer and soil conditioning humus compost made from fish manure. It increases yield, provides aeration, has excellent water holding capacity, increases soil fertility, is loaded with organic matter, and provides enhanced plant disease suppression. This is an odorless formula that is concentrated for longer use.
Shop: Fishnure Organic Compost
Blue Ribbon Organic Compost
Cost: $0.05 per ounce
Use: Vegetable gardens, fruit trees, lawns and seedlings.
Certification: OMRI listed for organic gardening and meets the US Composting Council “Seal of Approval”
Key Features: Food residuals are the key ingredient in the finished product, and the nitrogen-rich compost is recycled and processed at a local DNR-permitted facility and turned into the natural materials of this plant-loving, easy-to-handle mix. After months of turning the compost with care, monitoring windrow temperatures, maintaining moisture, and taking all the necessary steps to create a quality and safe finished product, this organic compost is ready to jump-start your vegetables, fruit trees, and shrubs…top-dress sections of your lawn…or start your hardiest crop of seedlings yet! Monitored for trace metals, unwanted pathogens, and compost maturity. Tested quarterly to ensure the product is safe and free of weed seed.
Shop: Blue Ribbon Organic Compost
Eko Organic Compost
Cost: $8.59
Use: On fruits and vegetables, flowers and foliage
Key Features: EKO Compost is 100% organic. It loosens hard packed soil and adds billions of micro-organisms which keep the soil “alive”. Micro-organisms are an important part of the composting process. Micro-organisms convert carbon into energy for their own growth. They recycle the nutrients from decaying material into their own bodies and eventually back into the soil. Your plants use the nutrients stored in the micro-organisms for food, and the process begins again.
Shop: Eko Organic Compost
Fertilizer
Organic fertilizers are derived from natural sources such as compost, manure, bone meal, and seaweed. These materials provide a wide range of essential nutrients, including nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and micronutrients, in a form that is readily available to plants.
Many organic fertilizers release nutrients slowly over time, providing a steady supply of nutrients to plants without the risk of over-fertilization or nutrient leaching. This gradual release helps prevent nutrient imbalances and ensures consistent plant growth and development.
Here are 4 brands of organic fertilizer to use in your organic garden, and you won’t have to worry about synthetic chemicals or harmful additives because these fertilizers are OMRI listed for organic gardening.
Neptune’s Harvest Organic Hydrolized Fish & Seaweed Fertilizer
Cost: $0.67 per ounce
Use: On fruits and vegetables, flowers and foliage
Certification: OMRI listed for organic gardening
Key Features: Neptune’s Harvest Organic Fish/Seaweed Blend Fertilizer gives you the perfect blend of hydrolyzed fish and seaweed, ensuring a complete fertilization program. Growers using our Fish/Seaweed Blend Fertilizer on a regular basis have reported increased marketable yields and improved shelf life on fruits and vegetables. Fish and Seaweed are known to build the natural sugar in plants.
Shop: Neptune’s Harvest Organic Hydrolized Fish & Seaweed Fertilizer
Dr. Earth Organic Tomato, Vegetable & Herb Fertilizer
Cost: $0.17 per ounce
Use: Formulated to feed vegetable gardens, summer and winter crops, container plantings or native backyard soil. Use it during initial planting of seeds, transplanting, and on a regular basis as a top dressing or compost tea.
Certifications: Organic Transparency; OMRI (Organic Material Review Institute), OIM (Organic Input Materials), CCOF (California Certified Organic Farmers) and NOP (National Organic Program)
Key Features: Contains TruBiotic® beneficial soil microbes plus mycorrhizae. TruBiotic® ensures organic nutrients are thoroughly broken down and then released in the soil for plant roots to absorb them as they are needed, contributing to drought tolerance, enhanced nutrient availability and increased plant performance. No synthetic ingredients or GMO infested chicken manure. Enriched with organic nutrients found naturally in land plants, ocean plants, fish, fish bones and mined minerals from the earth. This nutritionally balanced formula promotes very rich and healthy soil equipped to grow the healthiest plants.
Shop: Dr. Earth Organic Tomato, Vegetable & Herb Fertilizer
Coast of Maine Earthworm Castings
Cost: $26.90 for 8 qt
Use: For top dressing outdoor containers, windows boxes, hanging baskets, flower & veggie gardens.
Certification: OMRI listed for organic gardening
Key Features: This compost contains a rich blend of digested organic matter left behind by earthworms. Odorless and finely textured castings enrich soil with active biology and plant ready nutrients. This compost improves water retention and is a premium soil builder. Made with 100% Natural Ingredients.
Shop: Coast of Maine Earthworm Castings
Coast of Maine Organic Kelp Meal
Cost: $0.42 per ounce
Use: Use in a vegetable garden, around trees and shrubs, on lawns and in garden beds, or to top-dress containers. Promotes budding, flowering & fruiting. Add to planting holes for flowering bulbs.
Certification: Complies with USDA National Organic Program (NOP) rules and are included in the NOP listing of all-natural, non-synthetic substances permitted in organic production
Key Features: 100% dehydrated Norwegian Kelp (common seaweed) improves crop yields. NPK (1-0-1) with 1% Calcium. For use by organic growers.
Shop: Coast of Maine Organic Kelp Meal
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