8 Best Soils for Tomatoes in 2024 – Reviews & Top Picks

When growing tomatoes, it’s essential to provide the plants with the proper light, water, and soil requirements to thrive. While it’s easy to give the plants enough water and plant them in a sunny location, choosing the best soil that will work for your tomatoes can be tricky.

As there are so many available soil options, everyone can stumble and be unsure which soil to buy. Luckily, we’ve written some helpful reviews of the 9 best options to hopefully help you find the most adequate soil for your tomatoes.

Check out some of our favorite options for tomato soil and determine if one of them works for your tomatoes.

A Quick Look at Our Favorites (2024)

Rating	Image	Product	Details
Best Overall		Miracle-Gro Expand 'N Gro Planting Mix	Lightweight Excellent expansion qualities Easy to use	CHECK PRICE
Best Value		Espoma Organic Potting Soil Mix	Great ingredient balance Affordable Usable for both indoor and outdoor plants and veggies	CHECK PRICE
Premium Choice		Espoma Organic Seed Starter Soil Mix	Organic, natural ingredients Formula to grow seedlings and cuttings Promotes root growth	CHECK PRICE
		SUNGRO HORTICULTURE Black Gold Soil	Wildly available Excellent for veggies, perennials, annuals, and other plants 100% organic	CHECK PRICE
		Mother Earth Terracraft Potting Soil	Good for all growing environments No need for fertilizer Contains essential nutrients for tomato growth	CHECK PRICE

The 8 Best Soils for Tomatoes

1. Miracle-Gro Expand ‘N Gro Planting Mix – Best Overall

The Miracle-Gro Expand ‘N Gro Concentrated Planting Mix is the best overall soil for tomatoes this year. It’s an excellent potting mix you can use both in the ground and in containers. It feeds the plants for up to 6 months and enhances growth, making your plants up to three times bigger. Another benefit of this soil is that it holds more water than basic potting soils, so by using this potting mix, your tomatoes will require less watering. The soil is lightweight and easy to use, providing excellent value for an affordable price. This soil also has exceptional expansion qualities, although it will take time for it to expand fully.

2. Espoma Organic Potting Soil Mix – Best Value

The Espoma Organic Potting Soil Mix is the best soil for tomatoes for the money. Besides being affordable, which is a big plus, you can use it for both indoor and outdoor plants.  Due to the organic matter in this soil, and a mix of peat moss, perlite, and hummus, this is an excellent choice for tomatoes, but you can also use it for other vegetables. This potting mix doesn’t contain chemicals and plant foods. Instead, it has a mix of fine natural ingredients to help your tomatoes thrive.

It’s excellent for planting new tomatoes, repotting, and adding new soil. The soil structure is excellent and has an outstanding balance of ingredients. However, some users noticed gnats in the mixture, although this issue is not common.

3. Espoma Organic Seed Starter Soil Mix – Premium Choice

The Espoma Organic Seed Starter Premium Potting Soil Mix is our premium choice soil for tomatoes. It’s a rich soil blend with natural, organic ingredients, and it’s formulated with the purpose of growing seedlings and cuttings. This soil mix contains perlite, peat humus, and peat moss, while it also has a blend of mycorrhizae which promotes root growth and increases nutrients. With this soil, even beginner gardeners will enjoy the benefits.

This soil mix is more expensive than most other soil mixes on the list, but it’s well worth the price. The only downside of this soil is that it sometimes has a coarse texture and can contain large wood chunks.

4. SUNGRO HORTICULTURE Black Gold Natural & Organic Soil

The Sungro Horticulture Black Gold Organic Potting Soil is an all-purpose soil you can use for vegetables, annuals, perennials, and other plants. This soil has a proven track of good performance and includes quality organic ingredients. The mix is rich and loamy, so you can use it for all gardening applications, both indoors and outdoors. Another quality of this soil is its lightweight, full of nutrients, and easy use.

As this soil is made in the USA, it’s widely available, but it doesn’t have an affordable price. By using this soil, you’ll provide an excellent planting base for your tomatoes which will be tasty and grow healthy and strong.

5. Mother Earth Terracraft Potting Soil

The Mother Earth Terracraft Potting Soil is great for flowers, vegetables, and particularly—tomatoes. This soil will provide all the essential nutrients for your tomatoes, as well as enough water retention and proper aeration. It’s good for all growing environments, including containers and indoor and outdoor planting. Because of the components in this soil, there’s no need to add fertilizer to your plants. The packaging is large and affordable, so you’ll get the most for your money.

Most people who use this soil state that their tomatoes have flourished and that their crops blew up. However, some people say it doesn’t retain water as much as it’s supposed to and that the soil can be pretty dry.

6. Dr. Earth Pot of Gold Premium Potting Soil

The Dr. Earth Pot of Gold Premium Potting Soil is an all-purpose soil potting mix, and although it’s lower on our list, it has excellent qualities. Its formula is suitable for indoor and outdoor usage and works for growing tomatoes in containers. It’s a great option for all plants as it contains high-quality organic ingredients, with the addition of beneficial soil microbes. This potting mix is safe for people and pets and has a certification from MycoApply.

It’s easy to work with and has a moist texture with decent water retention qualities. While this potting soil is typically lightweight and airy, some users noticed large chunks of bark inside.

7. Miracle-Gro Organic Choice Potting Mix

The Miracle-Gro Organic Choice Potting Mix is another decent soil option for tomatoes. It’s another organic mixture with a blend of fine ingredients like peat moss, natural fertilizer, and composted bark. It features nitrogen which will boost the growth of your tomatoes whether you grow them outdoors, indoors, or in containers. Due to the natural fertilizer inside this mixture, your tomatoes can go up to 2 months without the need for fertilization.

Still, we noticed that many people praise this soil for older plants, while they state it wasn’t suitable for fragile seedlings as it led to fungus gnats, which is why this soil is lower on our list.

8. Back to the Roots Natural & Organic All-Purpose Soil Mix

Last but not least, we have the Back to the Roots Natural & Organic All-Purpose Peat-Free Potting Mix. It’s a natural, organic potting mix that contains various nutrients needed for your tomatoes to grow. It contains ingredients such as coconut coir and mycorrhizae, which allow the roots of your tomatoes to soak up more water, leading to fewer maintenance requirements. You can use it for tomatoes and other vegetables, whether planted indoors, outdoors, or in containers.

Still, it’s not unusual to notice large chunks and non-uniform texture in this potting mix, which is undesirable for most plants. Also, some state there’s too much bark, which requires you to water your tomatoes and plants more frequently.

Buyer’s Guide: Choosing the Best Soil for Tomatoes

Tomatoes are easy to grow, and they can thrive in all kinds of environmental conditions. While they can grow in any type of soil, they prefer loamy soils with organic matter rich in nutrients. Although it may seem that the soil doesn’t affect the final tomato product, the proper soil will make tomato fruits much tastier and juicier.

The soil for tomatoes should typically be well-draining, and it doesn’t need a lot of fertilization. All the soil mixes in the list meet the needed criteria for tomato growth, so it’s all about which option works the best for you and your garden.

Final Thoughts

If you’re looking for the best overall soil for tomatoes this year, the Miracle-Gro Expand ‘N Gro Concentrated Planting Mix should be your top pick. However, if you’re looking for the best value soil for tomatoes, you should go for the Espoma Organic Potting Soil Mix.

Hopefully, after reading our reviews, you have a clearer picture of the best available soil options for tomatoes, making your soil search a bit easier.

Featured Image Credit: kie-ker, Pixabay