Living Soil Cost: What Does a Grow Really Cost vs. Bottled Nutrients?

What does living soil cost compared with bottled nutrients? Many growers assume organic growing is the expensive option. When you add up everything a mineral setup needs – base nutrients, boosters, pH correction, a pH meter and fresh soil every grow – the picture changes. Here is a transparent comparison.

What you need with bottled mineral nutrients

• a nutrient line: base nutrients plus boosters and additives;
• pH up / pH down and a pH meter;
• fresh potting soil for every grow;
• time: mixing, measuring and following a feeding chart every week.

What you need with Monster Soil

• the Monster Soil Pot (€29.95 per plant, or €84.95 for a 3-plant set), or
• the Monster Soil Concentrate (€89.95 for 50 L) plus 50 L of organic soil – 100 L of living soil for up to 9 pots of 11 L;
• water and light. That’s it.

Example 1: three plants, one grow

Setup	Cost
Monster Soil Pot – 3-Plant Set	€84.95
Monster Soil Concentrate + organic soil	€104.85
Bottled mineral nutrients + pH meter + soil	€166.80

Example 2: nine plants, three grows

Setup	Cost
Monster Soil Pots, refreshed with Concentrate after each harvest	€379.52
Monster Soil Concentrate + organic soil, refreshed after each harvest	€229.52
Bottled mineral nutrients + pH meter + fresh soil every grow	€347.10

The bigger and longer you grow, the more the Concentrate pays off, because you refresh your soil instead of replacing it: 3–4 L of Concentrate per 10 L of used soil.

How we calculated the living soil cost

Monster Soil prices are our webshop prices. For the mineral setup we used a typical soil nutrient starter kit (€52.90 at gogrow.de), a pH meter (€99 at growend.de) and €14.90 for 50 L of potting soil. One mineral kit is counted per grow, the pH meter once. For refreshing living soil we count 3.5 L of Concentrate per 10 L of used soil. Prices of other brands change and vary per shop – your own numbers may differ.

Want to see it in practice? Follow test grower Grünblick growing with Monster Soil on YouTube (videos in German).

Try your own numbers with the cost calculator on our homepage.

The cost you don’t see: time and mistakes

Money is only part of it. A mineral setup asks for measuring and mixing every week, and a wrong dose or pH can cost you part of your harvest. With living soil there is simply less that can go wrong.