Microgreen Soil Buyer’s Guide 2020 USA & Canada

Unlike sprouts, Microgreens need a growing medium for support and for the best flavor. Growing Microgreens works great in a variety of soils, and soil-less mixes, this page will show you some of the ones I’ve found to work best.

There are a few things you’ll want to look for when choosing a soil for microgreens:

• Pest-free: Getting a fungus gnat, white fly, or other insect infestation in your microgreen grow is really annoying. A huge benefit of ordering soil online is that it’s likely being stored indoors. Proper storage is key for preventing pests.
• Organic: this means a lot of things, and they’re all positive. Organic soil usually means there haven’t been any prohibited substances applied for three years or more.
• Good drainage: using pure compost, or denser soils high in sand or clays won’t work well for microgreens.
• No slow-release fertilizer: you don’t need a ton of nutrients, and they can change the flavor and potentially contaminate the microgreens.
• Well-balanced: use a healthy mixture. Using pure compost, or a soilless mix that’s mostly vermiculite, sand, perlite, and other light-high drainage ingredients isn’t as good as a middle of the road potting or vegetable mix

Buying Microgreen Soil in the USA

In the USA there are a lot of great options, buy local if you can, but here are some great choices if you want to avoid the hassle of picking it up yourself, or don’t need a huge quantity.

The Best Overall

My number Two Choice

Mother Earth HGC714837 Coco Plus Perlite Mix (link to Amazon)

This is a soilless mix, which is an interesting alternative to organic potting mix. Soilless mixes have a few benefits, the biggest benefit being that there is a much lower chance of mold and insect growth. Soilless mix is usually much closer to sterile than soil mixes. They’re called soilless because they aren’t usually biologically active (full of microorganisms, like many soils). They can still have plant matter in the form of coconut coir and other ingredients.

Buying Microgreen Soil in Canada

Canada’s a huge country, with a lot of gardeners in cities and towns, that means great selection of soil and mixes online.

The Best Overall

Promix Premium Organic Vegetable and Herb Soil Mix 9L Resealable Bag (Links to Amazon)

This is what I use! It’s a good well-rounded organic soil. For growing indoors the bags are really convenient, I like the larger sized bags. There isn’t too much debris, but I do have to pick out the occasional bit of wood, or pebble. But overall it’s one of the cleanest most consistent brands of soil available in Canada. Definitely give it a shot if you haven’t already. 

If I were you I’d order one online to see if you like it before investing a lot of time looking locally. If it works for you, then you can track down a local source and do some shopping around to see if the price is better locally.

My Number Two Choice

Home Depot. They have great selection, do pick-up and delivery. It’s kind of the obvious answer, but they do online well for a big box store. If you decide to order something other than I’ve recommended below: be careful there aren’t any slow release fertilizers, or other ingredients that won’t work well with microgreens.

Looking for other Microgreens Supplies & Equipment?

If you’re looking for good quality microgreens supplies and equipment, I have other pages like this one recommending tools, supplies and equipment based on whether you’re a beginner or commercial operation. Check out my recommended supplies and equipment here.