Mel's Mix dry weight?

edfhinton 3/26/2013, 10:36 pm

Time is a issue for me, so I decided to go ahead and spend more and order the mix from Home Depot that Mel references as a source of Mel's Mix: "Square Foot Gardening Potting Soil Mix". It shipped yesterday, so I should have it next week. But I noticed the UPS tracking says shipping weight 70 pounds. That is for 28 bags (42 cubic feet). That's less than 2 pounds per cubic foot of dry mix. Should I be worried? I expected it to be light, but that's lighter than my soilless starting mix. I would have thought the 1/3 compost would have added to the weight. UPS is usually pretty accurate about shipping weight, so I am starting to wonder if the compost in it is going to be any good.

Anyone else bought the premixed from Home Depot and have any thoughts about how light this sounds?

I guess it will be an interesting experiment for me seeing whether the veggies will grow well in it.

Thanks,

-Ed

southern gardener 3/26/2013, 11:41 pm

we purchased a lot of it, and it was much heavier than what you're talking about. Our bags were the 2 ft bags, but there were a lot heavier than 4 lbs. You can PM me for more info if you'd like....

Lindacol 3/27/2013, 12:08 am

That is probably the weight per package. I would imagine it is 1 or maybe 2 bags per package.

edfhinton 3/27/2013, 6:30 am

That makes sense. The 28 bags come 2 per package. So then that would be 70 pounds per 3 cubic feet. That makes more sense. (So now I feel a bit sheepish for not thinking of that myself. This whole being first year aspect causes me to keep coming up with things to worry about.)

I have now looked up average weights for compost (varies by what was composted), dry peat moss, and vermiculite. It does, in fact, add up to somewhere in the general vicinity of 70 pounds +/- for 3 cubic feet, so the shipping weight being per package is it. All of you on this forum are grea for helping me think. Thanks.

Thanks,

-Ed

**RoOsTeR** 3/27/2013, 7:24 am

For what it's worth, peat and vermiculite weigh next to nothing. Most of you're weight is compost. Smile

**sfg4uKim** 3/27/2013, 8:36 am

I'm puzzled. I produce the growing medium for my customers and the 1 cf bags run, on average, 20+ lbs - MUCH more if it's wet. So a 1.5 cf bag would be 30 lbs and a 2 cf bag would be 40.

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