The Best Soil for Avocado Trees

In recent years, avocados have skyrocketed in price and value because they’re somewhat of a superfood. Avocados are high in vitamins and minerals, and they’re surprisingly high in carbs, proteins, and healthy fats. Because avocados have become so expensive, people are starting to grow avocado trees to save a bit of money.

Growing an avocado tree outside or in a container is very possible, but only if your plant gets the nutrients and care it needs to flourish. While a lot goes into avocado tree care, it all starts with finding the best soil for avocado trees. If your avocado trees are planted in the right soil, it lays the groundwork for them to be fruitful for years to come.

So now let’s get right to it — our picks for the best soil for avocado trees!

Our Top Picks

Best Overall:
Fox Farm Ocean Forest Potting Soil

Runner Up:
Miracle-Gro Moisture Control Potting Soil

Best Specialty Soil
Rio Hamza Avocado Tree Soil

The 5 Best Soils for Avocado Trees You Can Buy

Overall Best

Fox Farm Ocean Forest Potting Soil

For the best soil for avocado trees, look no further than Ocean Forest Potting Soil from Fox Farms. This potting soil has everything you need for your avocado trees to develop from a young seedling into a 30-foot tree. It’s packed with nutrients and minerals that avocado trees need to flourish, including all-natural ingredients such as earthworm castings, fish meal, crab meal, and bat guano.

One of the most important components of the best soil for avocado trees is that it must be well-draining. Few things will kill your trees faster than when the roots hold onto moisture and start to rot. As such, soils mostly composed of sand, loam, limestone, and granite bits are usually the best soil for avocado trees.

Ocean Forest fits the bill, as it’s mostly sandy loam soil that drains well. The remaining parts of the soil contain peat moss and forest humus, which provides a strong foundation for the roots of your tree so that it can grow to its maximum height. The combination of a solid root structure and excellent drainage makes Ocean Forest potting soil the best soil for avocado trees.

Runner Up

Miracle-Gro Moisture Control Potting Soil

There are few brands as readily recognizable as Miracle-Gro when it comes to potting soils and fertilizers. They’ve been in the plant growing business for a long time and have perfected many soils, mixes, and fertilizers for various plants. It only seems fitting that a name with as much history and success takes the runner-up spot on our list of the best soil for avocado trees.

Moisture Control potting soil from Miracle-Gro is great for avocado trees because of its composition. Rather than the traditional sandy loam soil most avocado tree soils use, Moisture Control consists of peat moss, coconut coir, perlite, and other forest products. It has that much sought-after combination of top-notch drainage and moisture retention when it’s needed.

Because soils of this type often don’t have enough natural nutrients inside of them, Miracle-Gro adds their signature blend of fertilizer. This also happens to be the most budget-friendly potting soil on our list, so it’s great for beginners who are getting their feet wet before diving into the deep end. The only downside of Miracle-Gro products is that they use synthetic materials and are chemically formulated.

Best Organic

Black Gold Organic Potting Soil

As the scary truth about synthetic soil and GMOs continues to emerge, it’s becoming increasingly popular to use organic soils when planting avocado trees. Organic soil contains all-natural products, and it’s usually safe for humans and animals if you accidentally get some in your mouth or have a curious pet. Using organic soil is also considered the purest way to grow avocado trees.

If you want to join the organic brigade, Black Gold Organic Potting Soil is at the top of the list for best soil for avocado trees. Black Gold is a rich mix of loamy soil packed with natural nutrients and products derived from mother earth. The main ingredients are earthworm castings for fertilization, pumice, and perlite for root stability, and peat moss, forest humus, bark, and compost for drainage and moisture retention.

If GMOs, synthetics, chemicals, and other nasties are your concern, Black Gold Organic Potting Soil is the way to go! You can use this soil for growing avocado trees in the ground, pots, or containers, as well as to grow any other sort of fruit or vegetable.

Best Soil for Dry Areas

Fertilome Cactus Potting Soil

If you live in dry, arid areas of the world where your avocado tree isn’t going to get as much water as it should, you’ll have to use a different kind of soil. Rather than one that drains excessively quickly, the best soil for avocado trees in dry areas should be soil that retains moisture. For this reason, using cactus soil, such as Fertilome Cactus Potting Soil, is an excellent option.

Fertilome cactus soil is coarse to the touch and consists mainly of perlite, crushed-up granite, and sand. Because of these ingredients, Fertilome drains quickly enough that root rot and other moisture-related diseases won’t set in, but not so soon that your avocado tree won’t get the water it needs to survive.

The downside of using cactus soil for avocado trees is that it typically doesn’t contain a ton of nutrients or fertilizers. As such, it will be up to you to supplement this lack of fertilizer with other products such as Fox Farm Happy Frog Citrus and Avocado Dry Fertilizer. As long as you add this fertilizer as recommended to your Fertilome Cactus Potting Soil, your avocado tree will grow tall and fruitful.

Other Contenders for Best Soil for Avocado Trees

Proven Winners All-Purpose Premium Soil

If none of the options on this list are doing it for you, you should also consider Proven Winners All-Purpose Premium Potting Soil if you’re growing avocado trees. As the name implies, this product is proven to have success with various plants and vegetables, avocados included.

Like all options for the best soil for avocado trees, this product drains quickly but retains moisture when necessary. It contains a blend of peat moss, perlite, and bark and an all-purpose fertilizer to provide the required nutrients. Because this blend of ingredients is overly dry, Proven Winners adds a wetting agent to ensure that the peat moss, the main ingredient, can absorb moisture during the first few waterings.

As with Miracle-Gro, this potting soil isn’t organic, which means it contains synthetic materials and chemicals formulated in a lab. However, if you can look past this fact, Proven Winners is a top-notch avocado soil. It’s also reasonably affordable and is especially good if you’re moving your avocado tree from a pot or container into the ground.