Bushel to Kg/Tones Converter

Bushel to kg & Tonnes Converter — Soil, Compost & Potting Mix

You’re following a gardening recipe and it calls for one bushel of compost. Or your supplier quotes in bushels but you need kilograms for your order. Or you’ve measured your raised bed in cubic feet and need to figure out the weight in metric.

This converter handles all of that. Put in your volume in bushels, pick your material, and get back the weight in kg or tones. Simple.

How Many kg Is a Bushel of Soil?

This depends on the material — and that’s the part most people don’t realize.

A bushel is a unit of volume, not weight. One US bushel equals 35.24 liters or about 1.244 cubic feet. To convert bushels to kg, you need the density of whatever you’re measuring.

Here’s how the most common garden materials work out:

Peat moss and potting mix are much lighter per bushel than topsoil because they’re full of air and organic material. Clay-heavy soil is the heaviest. The converter above adjusts for all of this automatically.

Bushels to Tons — When Does It Matter?

For small garden projects, kg is usually enough. But if you’re working with larger volumes — filling raised beds, ordering bulk compost, or amending a whole lawn — tons become more useful.

One tonne equals 1,000 kg. So at average moist topsoil density, you’re looking at roughly 45 to 55 bushels per metric tone. For peat moss, which is much lighter, one tone could represent 125 bushels or more.

If your supplier quotes by the tone and your recipe calls for bushels, this converter bridges that gap in seconds.

Why Bushels Come Up in Gardening

Older gardening guides, American nursery recipes, and soil mix formulas — especially those based on Cornell University’s classic mix — regularly use bushels as a unit. A standard Cornell potting mix calls for 1 bushel of peat moss and 1 bushel of perlite. Home gardeners following those recipes need to know how much that weighs to plan transport, delivery, or purchase.

One bushel of peat moss weighs roughly 5–8 kg. The same volume of garden topsoil weighs 3 to 4 times more. Same size container, very different weights. Worth knowing before you try lifting it.

FAQs

How many kg is 1 bushel of soil?

For moist topsoil, one bushel weighs approximately 18–22 kg. For compost or peat moss, expect 5–14 kg depending on moisture and material.

How do I convert bushels to kg?

Multiply your bushel volume by 35.24 to get liters, then multiply by the soil’s density in kg per liter. Or just use the converter above — it does it instantly.

Is a bushel the same in the US and UK?

Not quite. A US bushel is 35.24 liters. A UK imperial bushel is slightly larger at 36.37 liters. For garden use the difference is small, but worth knowing if you’re following an international recipe.

How many bushels are in a cubic yard of topsoil?

One cubic yard equals about 21.7 US bushels. At average topsoil density, that’s roughly 400–480 kg or 0.4–0.5 metric tons.

What’s the difference between a ton and a ton?

A metric ton (used in the UK, Europe, Canada, and Australia) equals 1,000 kg. A US short ton equals 2,000 lbs or about 907 kg. Always check which one your supplier means.

When to Use Other Calculators

This tool converts bushels to weight. If you need to figure out how many bags of topsoil to buy for a project, use the bags of topsoil calculator. For total volume based on length, width, and depth, start with the topsoil calculator. For liters to kg conversion, the soil volume to weight calculator covers that.