Critical BuildASoil reviews
Every review rated 1, 2, or 3 stars — 489 total. We publish them all, unfiltered, alongside the positive ones. A growing product that works perfectly for every customer every time doesn't exist, and we'd rather you see the whole picture.
228 3-star·96 2-star·165 1-star·1.8% of all reviews
A note from BuildASoil
Over the last 13+ years, we've grown into a much better company — and a lot of that growth came directly from our critical reviews. Every 1, 2, or 3-star review on this page taught us something. New formulations, better packaging, improved shipping, clearer instructions, stronger customer support — almost all of it traces back to a customer who took the time to tell us what wasn't working.
If you haven't tried BuildASoil in a while — or you tried us early on and it didn't go great — we'd genuinely love another shot. We get better every year, and we have the receipts to prove it. See what's new at buildasoil.com →
Showing 226–250 of 453 critical reviews
Warren F.
good book, solid tenets, pruning and soil stuff is fairly basic.
on "How To Grow World Record Tomatoes" →Patrick B.
A cubic foot of straw is a pretty loose term since it doesn’t really account for density. I was expecting this to be stuffed more densely in the bag than what I received for the price. I realize that most of the price is to pay for shipping, so I figured it wouldn’t be hard to add more straw to these bags. This is the first build-a-soil product I haven’t been extremely happy with though.
on Certified Organic Straw Mulch →Bennie L.
The mulch is good. I used it in 6 3 gallon pots so far I had to cut it because it was long compared to the pots and I waned coverage on the edges. I had to cut it with scissors quite a bit to cover all edges. I only had 1 seed sprout from it so it is weed free pretty much. It comes with a tad of moisture in it, but not a bad thing.
on Certified Organic Straw Mulch →Richard C.
Giving 3 stars only because there is no application instructions and I haven't had a chance to use it yet. Shipping was good and the product looks good also
on Alfalfa Meal Organic →Off2cWsP
Look, I love the cowoco story and everything they do. And maybe I got caught up in Jeremy’s excitement about their castings and had higher expectations than i should have. I’m sure a lot of this is batch to batch but in my experience so far, I kind of like the BAS castings better. And they are a lot cheaper. They were def more moist, dark, and full of life. My COWOCO castings seem very dry, and I’ve only seen one beetle so far. I also like the zip lock style bag on the BAS castings better. No hate at all toward cowoco I know the castings are extremely high quality. But my honest review so far, as a new Gardner who has bought one bag of each, I like the BAS castings better. Cheers everybody!
on Colorado Worm Company Premium Vermicompost Worm Castings →Mike G.
Completely filled with big fat grubs. Product is unusable. Just like my blue oyster straw log that was filled with metal flakes. I'm a new customer to BAS and have only ordered a few things. Most products had something wrong. Broken open during shipping, grubs, metal, etc... dealing with this company has been a losing proposition for me.
on Colorado Family Combo →Grubs are part of living vermi-compost! Typically these are from the black soldier fly and are a beneficial part of the process. Please don't toss the castings out! Give them a try. BuildASoil specializes in living products and there can be some confusion because of the unique quality of our materials. If you would like a replacement we can send you a bag of our BuildASoil castings as these are made in bulk and more uniform without nearly as much life.. As far as the Blue Oyster log, we did find out that the shiny material in the straw was not metal flakes but was vermiculite from the Organic Mushroom farm as part of the manufacturing process. We really want you to have a positive experience, if there is anything we can do to help make this situation better for you please don't hesitate to reach out.
Scot D.
I like the ingredients in this product. It’s a little course for my liking I make my own soil also. And add amendments to my own liking. But the ingredients in this could be ground slightly better and have less chunks matted together of particular individual ingredients. I’m not giving this a bad review by any means. But I had to re-crush or pulverize some of the ingredients better for a fast break down and availability to my plants. Overall a very good product. Would be great if processing was a little more thorough. Thanks build a soil for your ur hard work and research and great videos.
on BuildASoil Craft Blend - Nutrient Pack →Steve P.
Can’t really see a difference more time maybe ?
on Organics Alive V-PK Dry Soluble Bloom Formula →Jeremy H.
Trash. This is common no matter where you get these little one.
on Hygro-Thermometers →really? I like this little ones for reading in the ballpark. They often take a few hours to get accurate on humidity. How off was it?
Robert B.
I have been trying for months to get a shirt. Never in stock frustrating. Will post photo's of all the stuff I have bought soon. Guerilla grow
on Loyal To The Soil T-shirt →Jon C.
WTF, how do I know! Used it, it stinks, how ever to early to see results.
on Growing Organic - ALFALFA Fermented Plant Extract →tom m.
Can't see any difference it might actually have caused some tip burn,can't b sure.
I hate the stuff.waste of money 4 me
on Fermented Plant Extracts: Liquid Pumpkin Extract - Seasonal →Jason W.
The clone box is great. Nice size. Opens and closes east enough.
The cubes are straight garbage. Every clone I’ve put into them has rotted. Will not be buying again.
on Complete Clone Kits (Ships Free) →Wade B.
I really don't care for this product I know it's a necessity but it clogs up my sprayer every time. Wish it was a little more broke down or More soluble.
on BuildASoil BIG 6 Micronutrients + Humic Acid →Wade B.
I still have fungus gnats .😳 The rove beetles are everywhere,not sure if there were predator mites in my order but my eyes are not as good as they used to be
on Beneficial Insect Combo Packs (Small) →Rick R.
I’ve had a bag of this before with no problem. This time all I can say is these seeds look like junk and they maybe sprout 1%. I’ve tried 5 different times and different methods. Just junk seeds. I sent them an email few days ago. Have not heard back.
on Yellow Corn Seed - Heirloom Organic For Sprouted Seed Tea →Dev D.
Was really excited to give this a try after seeing it on the 10x10 YouTube series. Of 7 seeds that popped a healthy taproot in water and then placed into soil, 6 of them sprouted. Used a dome until all the sprouts popped.
Gave that 7th seed 2 weeks to sprout, holding onto hope lol no dice.
Now in the product video Jeremy says you shouldn't have run into a limiting factor before transplant. After about 2 weeks, once the girls were big enough to transplant, they were DEFINITELY getting hungry for multiple nutrients.
Now this next part may be user error. I'm not sure. But for the first time on any of my grows, I had the root ball collapse on me during transplant. I noticed the soil was SUPER airy compared to what I usually use for seedlings, not sure if that's why or if I let the soil dry out too much prior to transplant but it was no fun having vigorous seedlings with collapsed rootballs.
I also never got any of that fungal growth across the top of my soil like in the video.
I will definitely continue using this soil but may need to tweak it a bit to correct those issues.
on BuildASoil Heady Start Seedling Soil Recipe →Corey W.
Healthy soil=healthy roots=healthy plants=fat freaking buds. Keep it alive!
on Rootwise Mycrobe Complete →Jeff P.
The plants responded well to it generally, but there are an awful lot of wood chips in the bag, I'm guessing from the O.M. compost. The problem is, the thicker wood chips and sticks are not composted. Difficult to impossible to break them open (composted chips should be soft or crumbly), and fresh looking wood inside. I've never seen this in the Malibu compost, so maybe a recipe change?
on BuildAFlower Top Dress Kit →PAUL K.
I mixed this 2 parts water 1 part Phydura. It did not even kill the grass around the wild parsnip I was trying to kill. Not impressed.
on Phydura - All Natural Organic Weed and Grass Killer →Teresa h.
I have not used this product yet but if it is like the rest of this companies products that I have purchased I will not be disappointed
on Dolomite Lime - Granulated →Armando V.
It works great but like I said my wand came kinked. I fixed it with my soldering gun was hoping maybe to get another one but if anything no worries like I said it works for now so far so good with all the soil built. Products that I have purchased can’t wait to see the results for this year and next year
on Chapin 19069 Industrial Stainless Steel Sprayer →Max
Homeboy refuses to answer just a few lousy followup questions. This interpretation presented way more questions than answers. He won't answer questions via email and will only talk to me via phone for an additional $75. Buildasoil won't help me either. Very disappointing.
on Soil Test Interpretation →Bill F.
I order it previously and received a clear package of rove beetles and another clear package of steinerma. This time I received a small white bag with powder that had nematodes in them. Completely different then what I wanted.
on Beneficial Insect Combo Packs (Medium) →Paul H.
Opened the bag to do a soil re-amend, dipped my measuring cup in and hit something hard and unable to scoop anything out. Opened the bag completely and pulled out a grey colored chunk the size of a mango, dumped the bag and found 2 more mango chunks and many smaller chunks. I called customer service and was told to use a hammer to break it up, that didn't work very well so I added 2 gallons of water to the chunks to reveal reddish brown chunks, I guess this was the Karanja cake, after 24 hours in the water it did break up easier, I'll let it dry for a week and add back to the mix... so not great..
on BuildASoil Craft Blend - Nutrient Pack →That's awful! I'm sorry this happened to you. Sometimes the oils in the karanja meal can cause clumping. We are looking into a hammermill and other machinery that might help eliminate this completely. In the meantime if this is still an issue please don't hesitate to reach back out for a replacement.