New OMRI-listed Black Gold Products
Great news for organic growers! We are very proud to announce that six more of our great Black Gold® products are now OMRI-listed as well. Here’s the list and more on what it means to be OMRI-listed… Read More Read More
Donkey Tail
Photo by Rich Baer With the various growth characteristics, foliage colors and textures of sedums, it is always interesting to see how people use them. Sedum morganianum, often called ‘Donkey Tail’ is a sedum that has long trailing stems. In the Pacific Northwest, it would need to be brought indoors as a house plant in the winter but can easily be grown outdoors during the summer months. Donkey Tail needs fast-draining soil and with the addition... Read More
Black Gold Natural & Organic Fertilizers
View Black Gold’s Complete Selection of Natural & Organic Fertilizers Black Gold fertilizers are the organic gardener’s best friend. Each one offers specific nutrients that build your soil so it can better feed your plants a naturally balanced diet. With our easy-to-pour boxes, fertilizing your organic garden is quick and easy. There’s a formula for all your plants from food garden to palm tree, so each group receives the exact... Read More
When To Fertilize
Remember to use Black Gold® Fertilizer only as directed. For best results, mix fertilizers with your garden or potting soil and water after you are done planting. Avoid over-feeding your plants – a little extra might not be a good thing. ALL PURPOSE FERTILIZERPlant TypeApplication RateFrequencyVegetables, Annual Flowers and PerennialsNew Plantings: 4 cups per 50 sq. ft. 2 cups per 25 foot rowFertilize at time of planting... Read More
BLACK GOLD® Waterhold Cocoblend Potting Soil
Waterhold Cocoblend Potting Soil is the sustainable solution for container gardens in arid climates or wherever water is in short supply. Its unique moisture retention ability means you water less often, and conserve more of it throughout the season. If you’ve had difficulties keeping your vegetables hydrated during the hot summer months, don’t give up on growing your own food. Give it another try with this potting soil carefully... Read More
BLACK GOLD® Natural & Organic Potting Soil
~Written by Maureen Gilmer Black Gold Natural & Organic potting soil is so versatile it works for everything from hanging baskets to raised vegetable beds. This is not just any soil, it’s a precise blend of everything your plants need to look their best and produce abundantly. Because it’s listed by the Organic Materials Review Institute, you can be sure your organic food crops grown in this enriched soil remain blessedly chemical... Read More
Earthworm Castings (The Scoop on the Poop)
The term “worm castings” seems to confuse everyone but the plants. Earthworms have been hard at work for centuries rejuvenating soils and helping to convert various types of organic matter into one of nature’s best soil conditioners. Black Gold® has had worm castings as the cornerstone of its product line long before worm castings became the vogue in gardening. Our Earthworm Castings are OMRI Listed, making them a cut above the rest... Read More
Germinating Seeds or Propagating Cuttings?
Black Gold® Seedling Mix is the perfect medium for germinating seeds and propagating cuttings. The mix is designed to promote better root development in young plants. We start with a careful blend of Canadian Sphagnum Peat Moss (which has been double-screened to remove larger particles and sticks); fine perlite and vermiculite to give seedlings and cuttings the aeration and moisture retention they need to develop a good root system. A wetting agent... Read More
Black Gold® Natural & Organic Potting Soil
First things first: Black Gold® Natural & Organic is the exact same recipe as Black Gold® All Organic. Why the name change? State regulations prohibited us from continuing to use the “All Organic” name since the product contains both perlite and pumice. These two ingredients are not carbon based; therefore we could not use the words “All Organic”. But we can and are using the very same formula as before and calling it “Natural &... Read More
Enrich Your Garden Soil
When you garden, you are gardening with a desired end result in mind, whether it is a bountiful vegetable garden, a bloom-laden bed of roses, a floriferous flowering bed of spring or summer bulbs or a thick rich lawn. All of these results might not be possible unless you invest into your garden with quality garden soil amendments and fertilizers. Garden soil amendments are designed to improve the physical properties of your soil. Quality amendments... Read More
Freshness Counts!
Everything is better fresh, whether it is a doughnut at the store, cut flowers for your dinner table or the potting soil for your patio container. After potting soils or amendments are manufactured they become a living entity. The fertilizers and wetting agent start to react in their moist organic media environment. As part of our commitment to quality we put a date of manufacture on all Black Gold® potting soils, amendments and peat moss.... Read More
Why Buy A Premium Potting Soil?
As each of us begins a gardening project, we all have the end result in mind: a bountiful vegetable garden, an overflowing flower covered basket or perhaps a thick and rich new lawn! At Sun Gro, we believe that the key to these and many other gardening successes is directly related to the quality of product that we, as a manufacturer, put in a bag. We hope the following chart will illustrate the advantages of Black Gold® made by Sun Gro Horticulture,... Read More
Quality Works for Everyone
One of the main reasons why you will experience gardening success when you use Black Gold® products is that Sun Gro is dedicated to producing a quality product. As North America’s largest professional mix supplier, Sun Gro uses the same equipment and processes to produce to produce Black Gold®. So what is Sun Gro’s Quality Program? It is a program designed to produce and delivery to you a high quality uniform product every time you purchase... Read More
Overlooked Improvements in Black Gold®
An important component of Sun Gro Horticulture’s mission statement is the concept of continuous improvement. That concept has become a reality with the Black Gold® product line in recent years. Beginning in spring 2007 all of the Black Gold® packaging has been updated. We worked hard to maintain the familiar bag images, but at the same time making the colors more brilliant, the bag easier to read and the information on the bag... Read More
Fall Planting and Winterizing Your Garden
Fall is a wonderful time to garden. You can look over this year’s accomplishments and start developing your plans for next year, but it is also the perfect time for working in your garden. Planting garden beds, color bowls and hanging baskets with fall annuals is a wonderful way to extend the joy of gardening throughout the remainder of the year. Be sure to add some Black Gold® Garden Compost, Soil Conditioner and Garden Amendment or Planting Mix... Read More
Perlite and Pumice: Valuable Potting Soil Ingredients
Have you ever wondered what those little white things in your potting soil are? In most instances they are perlite and/or pumice. Perlite is a mined siliceous rock that is expanded, similar to microwave popcorn, into a white lightweight material, while pumice is a soft insert-mined stone that often comes from Oregon. What makes Black Gold® Perlite and Black Gold® Pumice particularly desirable is both are screened for uniformity, with the finer... Read More
Beauty in the Details
Gardening is one of the many ways people are able to express creativity. The use of decoratives in your gardening allows you to express yourself, but at the same time they can provide horticultural benefits to your plants. Black Gold® has a product line of decoratives to fill your creative needs. By adding Black Gold® Charcoal to a Black Gold® potting soil, you can increase the moisture retention in the mix. This would be desirable if you are... Read More
Perfect Potting Soil for House Plants
Do your houseplants need to be repotted? If so, Black Gold® offers a wide variety of product choices. We have four specialty mixes to choose from in addition to three standard all-purpose mixes. Black Gold® African Violet Mix – Finicky African violets thrive in this blend of Canadian Sphagnum Peat Moss, compost, pumice, earthworm castings and screened forest humus. The pH has been balanced to create the optimal rich and porous medium for growing... Read More
Black Gold® Garden Compost
One of the secret ingredients used by successful gardeners is Black Gold® Garden Compost. What exactly is garden compost? Compost happens when microbes break down or decompose organic or living matter. The next time you are on a walk in a forest, look down at the forest floor and you will find compost being made naturally. The final product is a dark, rich, earthy smelling material, which gardeners commonly call “black gold”. Today at Black... Read More
Black Gold® Citrus, Avocado & Vine
Featured Black Gold® Starter Fertilizers Black Gold® Citrus, Avocado & Vine is a natural and organic fertilizer derived from feather meal, blood meal, bone meal, sulfate of potash, alfalfa meal, dried poultry waste and kelp meal. The guaranteed analysis is a balanced 7-3-3, meaning it is 7% nitrogen, 3% phosphate and 3% potash. The nitrogen content is delivered in both readily available and slow release forms, while the phosphorous and... Read More
Potting Soil vs. Top Soil
I’d like to start this post with a story. A couple of weekends ago, we had a truckload (12 yards to be more specific) of top soil from a local supplier delivered to our house. I had brought it in to fill our new raised garden bed and to supplement our existing flower beds. Many people ask themselves what is the difference between potting soil and topsoil. My goal in this blog entry is to hopefully answer that age old gardening question. Topsoil... Read More
Pea Patch Gardening With Black Gold
According to a recent survey 44 percent of Americans plan to grow a vegetable garden this year. That is 12 percent increase compared with last year. Many of the new vegetable gardeners will be located in urban and suburban settings where the use of pea patch gardening is on the rise. The goal of my blog entry is to discuss how you can use Black Gold to transform your new patch into a successful vegetable garden. This information is also applicable... Read More
Why Compromise? Use Black Gold® Soil Conditioner
When it comes to buying a garden amendment, product quality is the name of the game. And the key to product quality is the choice of raw materials used to make the garden amendment. Black Gold® Soil Conditioner is manufactured using only high quality raw ingredients. The product may include a combination of these raw materials: aged/composted bark, digested diary fiber, Canadian Sphagnum peat moss, compost, forest products, rice hulls, earthworm... Read More
A Mix With A Heritage
As you may or may not know, Sun Gro Horticulture is the largest supplier of growing mixes to professional greenhouse and nursery growers in North America. One of the more popular professional growing mixes is Sunshine® Mix #4. It was developed by Sun Gro’s team of horticulturalists based on initial work done by Cornell University in Ithaca, NY. Mix #4 is a blend of peat moss and perlite, and its claim to fame has always been its high... Read More
Coir: A Perfect Panacea For Problem Soil Structure
My soil has never resembled that perfect loamy ground in Martha Stewart’s garden. The first plot I cultivated for 18 years was dense clay too filled with rocks to resemble the soft dirt used to demonstrate gimmicky tools on TV ads. My second garden here in the desert is just the opposite, it’s sand and decomposed granite so porous it won’t make a clod. My two yards, like yours, are a battleground where we all struggle to improve... Read More
Gardening for Northwest Weather
For those of you that have followed my monthly web articles, you are aware that I live and garden in a suburb of Portland, Oregon. While we are probably famous for our rainy weather, this year seems to be an exceptionally wet year. Not only wet, but some very cold days this past winter and the spring has continually been cool. We made a record (perhaps not something to brag about) these past few months by having the longest period without the temperature... Read More
Black Gold® Garden Compost
One of the secret ingredients used by successful gardeners is Black Gold® Garden Compost. What exactly is garden compost? Compost happens when microbes break down or decompose organic or living matter. The next time you are on a walk in a forest, look down at the forest floor and you will find compost being made naturally. The final product is a dark, rich, earthy smelling material, which gardeners commonly call “black gold”. Today at Black... Read More
