Is Earth Gro Potting Soil good for tomato plants?

[GrowerC86]

My grandma has been giving me planting supplies ever since I told her I'm starting to grow things (mostly tomatoes) and today she brought me over another bag of Earth Gro potting soil. This stuff doesn't really feel like soil or dirt. It sort of feels like chopped up wet hay is the best way I can describe it. She gave me a bag of this a few weeks ago to start my seeds as well as a bag of Miracle Gro potting soil. I used the Earth Gro soil in a flat to start some seeds and after about 7-8 days they finally sprouted up, however they aren't seeming to want to grow past the height they are in the picture below and about 1/3 of them have died so far. This actually may be due to my inexperience with growing tomatoes such as me watering them too much or using miracle gro in my water and watering them with them (which I found out today you're only supposed to do once every 7-14 days and not everyday... oops!) I'm a little hesitant to begin more seeds or use it to place my peat pellet seedlings into plastic cups especially after reading so many negative reviews online about this brand and product. My question is simply is this meant for tomatoes in any way? (Seeds, seedlings, bigger pots, etc.) I want to put all the supplies she gives me to use, but I think this kind of soil may be better used for other plants. Or is it safe to use this for tomato plants?

Location is southern Louisiana.

[feldon30]

EarthGro sells "potting soil", "compost", and "topsoil" for $2-2.50 a bag at Home Depot and Walmart. People have found broken glass shards, wire, and garbage in these bags. They score an average of 1.5 stars out of 5 in reviews on these websites:

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Earthgro-2-c ... /204642232
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Earthgro-1-Cu ... l/16904048
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Earthgro-Topsoil/16904044

Of course your mileage may vary. Personally, I'd ask her to give you a gift card next time.

[GrowerC86]

Yea I read a lot of the reviews for this product after I received it and didn't find too many good ones. It didn't do anything good for me. I planted about 100 tomato seeds using this and they all germinated and grew to about 3 inches high but after that they stopped growing and all died. You would think after all the reviews they would either improve the product or pull it off the market. I won't be using anymore which is a shame because it could've been a good product for budget growers.

[Gary350]

There are lots of minerals in real soil that plants need that are not in potting material. This is what works very well for me. Mix about 1 gallon of good soil with 4 gallons of water in a 5 gallon bucket and stir well. If you have some wood ash add about 3 tablespoon of wood ash to the water before you water. Water your plants with this water every day. You will see a difference in your plants in about 2 or 3 days.