BuildASoil Starter Kit: Grassroots Edition
BuildASoil Starter Kit: Grassroots Edition is backordered and will ship as soon as it is back in stock.
Quality First
Quality First
BuildASoil is committed to sourcing the highest quality ingredients you can trust. over 10,000 Five Star Reviews and over a decade in business
Delivery and Shipping
Delivery and Shipping
Shipping Policy
Shipping is expensive, and it gets more expensive almost every year. We are not going to pretend otherwise. What we can tell you is that we work hard to find the most reliable and affordable way to get your order to you, and we pass along free shipping wherever it makes sense.
Free shipping on any order with two or more items. The one exception is bulk items, meaning the large or heavy products that have to move by freight or oversized parcel. If your cart qualifies, free shipping is applied automatically at checkout.
Why two items and not a dollar amount?
Most stores set free shipping at a dollar threshold. That works when you sell light things like clothing. We don't. We ship soil, amendments, and heavy real goods that are expensive and awkward to move, so a dollar minimum doesn't reflect what shipping actually costs us.
We are a small business with no outside financial backing, and we are not Amazon. We manufacture, pack, and ship everything in house so we can control quality, which means real people picking, boxing, taping, and labeling every order, and that means real jobs. When we ship a single item for free, the only way to cover it is to raise prices across the board, and we would rather not do that. Asking for two or more items on free orders lets us keep prices lower for everyone and keep shipping sustainable. We hate high shipping costs as much as you do, and this is the fairest way we have found to keep them down.
Delivery estimates
Every product page shows an estimated delivery window based on current fulfillment and carrier schedules, so you know what to expect before you buy.
Shipping Options
Free on eligible orders with two or more items. We select the carrier and method.
Standard ground service.
Same standard transit, but we push it out the door the same day when we can.
Prioritized fulfillment with faster transit.
The fastest option we offer.
Bring your order confirmation and a valid ID.
For large or heavy orders.
For large or heavy orders, faster transit.
Carriers
We ship with FedEx, UPS, and USPS, and we pick the carrier that gets your order to you reliably at the best cost. We cannot guarantee a specific carrier unless you arrange it with us ahead of time.
PO Boxes
Orders to PO Boxes often cost more and usually do not qualify for free shipping. Use a physical address to avoid delays and added fees.
Outside the Continental US
We ship to Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the US Virgin Islands. Free shipping generally does not apply to large or bulky items going to these destinations, though Hawaii and Alaska have more flexibility depending on carrier policy. Rates are quoted at checkout or on request.
Canada
We ship select items to Canada. Canadian customers need to choose "UPS Standard Shipping to Canada" at checkout so your order clears customs cleanly and you avoid surprise brokerage fees. Orders placed with other methods can be delayed or rejected at the border.
Vendor-Fulfilled Items
Some products ship directly from our vendor partners and show their own estimated ship dates on the product page. Questions about these go to support@buildasoil.com.
Freight Shipments
Freight orders arrive on pallets by box truck or semi. We assume you need liftgate service unless you tell us otherwise.
Inspect every freight shipment before you sign. Count the packages and check for damage. Signing the delivery receipt confirms the order arrived complete and undamaged, so note any problem on the receipt before you sign it.
Full Truckloads
Full truckload (FTL) orders are custom quoted after checkout based on your location, order volume, and how the truck will be unloaded.
- Let us know if you have a dock, forklift, or other unloading equipment.
- Tell us if you need liftgate or manual unload service.
- Email support@buildasoil.com ahead of time for an FTL quote.
Order Tracking
We email tracking as soon as your order ships. If it does not arrive, check buildasoil.aftership.com with your order details, or email support@buildasoil.com.
Shipping Protection
This optional add-on at checkout covers your shipment against loss, theft, and damage, and we fast-track those claims for replacement or resolution. Even with protection, photos and documentation help us move carrier claims along faster.
Claims
Send all claims to support@buildasoil.com. We do not process claims by phone.
Include:
- A description of the issue
- Photos or video of the damage, or of missing or incorrect items
- Images of the packaging and labels
Hold onto the packaging and any damaged items until the claim is resolved, since carriers may require an inspection.
Claim deadlines
- Damage or missing items: within 60 days of delivery
- Incorrect products: within 60 days of shipment
- Lost or misdelivered packages: within 60 days of shipment
Once Your Order Leaves Our Facility
We help with every carrier claim we can. But once an order is in the carrier's hands, we cannot control delays, damage, or misdelivery, and the carrier makes the final call on claims.
BuildASoil Starter Kit: Grassroots Edition is backordered and will ship as soon as it is back in stock.
Description
Description
Living soil in a 15-gallon pot, the classic way.
Everything comes in one kit: the 15-gallon Grassroots fabric pot and the living soil and amendments to fill it. No bottles to mix, no feeding charts. You water by hand, top it with a living mulch, and the soil does the rest.
The Grassroots pot is included, along with the soil and amendments to fill it.What is in the kit
The pot and everything to fill it. One kit takes you from empty to growing, with no shelf full of bottles in sight.
The 15-Gallon Grassroots Living Soil Container
A Grassroots fabric pot with a food-grade plastic Moisture Lock Liner, and the sweet-spot size for living soil. The liner keeps moisture inside where your living soil wants it, instead of wicking it out the sides like a plain fabric pot. Roots run all the way to the bottom and air-prune along the last 4 inches, which keeps the whole root system healthy. Fifteen gallons is where the biology really takes over and the soil becomes genuinely powerful. It is big enough to buffer your mistakes and push yield, and it is a great size to run no-till, where you keep planting back into the same living soil round after round instead of starting over.
BuildASoil Recipe 3.0
Our flagship living soil, and the same mix that earned the number one spot in an independent test of 26 bagged soils. It arrives biologically alive and fully amended, ready to plant the day it lands on your porch. Two cubic feet is right around 15 gallons, just what one pot holds.
BuildAFlower Compost
The living, biologically active compost layer you lay on top, built from compost, worm castings, biochar, rice bran, kelp meal, mustard seed meal, and gypsum. This is the layer your plant actually feeds from. You add about a gallon at setup and reapply as the plant grows.
Craft Blend 2-4-2
Our most popular all-purpose top dress. A slow-release blend of premium dry amendments that keeps your soil fed for weeks at a time. This is the product that replaces a whole row of nutrient bottles.
Organic Straw Mulch
Your living mulch layer, and it is Certified Organic. That matters, because straw that is not organic has often been sprayed, and those chemicals can carry right into your living soil and harm the biology you are building. Spread over the surface, it holds moisture, feeds the soil life, and protects the surface roots. It is also what makes the cover crop upgrade possible.
Add a Cover Crop
Sow our 12-Seed Clover and Cover Crop Blend across the surface and let it grow up through the straw as a living mulch. It puts more living roots into the soil, moves moisture through the root zone, and feeds the soil with root exudates. As it grows you chop the fresh greens and drop them right onto the straw, and your pot turns into a self-feeding ecosystem that gets richer every round. Optional, but it is where this setup really shines.
Why living soil, and why 15 gallons is the sweet spot
Living soil works the way the ground does in nature. A web of microbes and fungi holds the nutrients and hands them to your plant on demand, so your job gets a lot simpler. At 15 gallons, that whole system really comes alive.
•Nothing to mix or measure
The food is already in the soil. No bottles, no feeding charts, no pH pen on the counter.
•Hard to overdo
Living soil buffers itself, so it is very hard to overfeed or burn your plant, even on your first grow. The big soil volume gives you even more room for error.
•Gets better with age
Fifteen gallons is a great size for no-till. Keep planting back into the same living soil year after year. It is cheaper and far more sustainable than starting over.
•A living mulch on top
Cap it with straw, and grow a cover crop through it if you like. That living surface feeds the soil and holds moisture where the roots want it.
Setting it up in six steps
This is the BuildASoil way to run a 15-gallon pot with living soil. The full walkthrough, including the watering and feeding details, lives in our Classic Setup Guide.
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Fill the pot with living soil
Add all the BuildASoil 3.0 in your kit, about 15 gallons, filling the pot right up.
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Transplant your plant
Settle your plant or seedling into the soil first, before you top dress.
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Add Craft Blend on top
Sprinkle a quarter cup of Craft Blend per plant across the surface around your plant, right on top. No mixing in.
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Add the compost layer
Lay about a gallon of BuildAFlower Compost on top of the Craft Blend. This is the living layer your plant feeds from.
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Add your organic straw mulch layer
Cover the surface with 1 to 2 inches of Organic Straw Mulch. It holds moisture, feeds the soil life, and protects the surface roots. Keep it lighter, around an inch, if you plan to grow a cover crop through it.
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Water it in
Give everything a good watering to settle it and wake up the biology. Then keep that top layer moist. That is it, you are set up.
How to water (the important part)
The 5 to 10 percent rule: water no more than 5 to 10 percent of your soil volume at a time. For a 15-gallon pot that is roughly 0.75 to 1.5 gallons. Keep the soil evenly moist, never soaked and never bone dry.
Match the water to the plant. A small seedling in a big pot drinks very little and not very often. As the plant fills the container it drinks more, more often, until a big plant may want water daily. Read the plant and the soil rather than a rigid schedule.
Want to automate it? BluMat and AutoPot systems handle the watering for you, holding the perfect moisture level with no timers to fuss over.
What to add on your end
The kit handles the pot, soil, and food. Here is the short list of what to have on hand so you are ready on day one.
- A seed, clone, or starter plant
- Light, whether that is a sunny spot or a grow light
- Clean water and a way to pour it
- Optional: red wigglers to speed up the soil life
Made by people who grow this stuff too
Every batch is mixed in small runs in Montrose, Colorado, with the same ingredient and batch transparency we have stood behind for over a decade. Start here, learn the rhythm of feeding the soil instead of the plant, and you will have the foundation for everything you grow next.
A look inside your 15-gallon pot
The whole setup in one picture: deep living soil full of roots, a rich top dress layer, and a living straw mulch with a cover crop growing up through it.
Questions?
We are here to help and our entire staff knows how to grow. Just reach out via chat, email or even phone. We are passionate about growing and want you to succeed.
Payment & Security
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