Food-Gardening Lessons From A Wartime Victory Garden

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Author: Jan Perez

The Best Seedling Mix for Germination and Cuttings

BG Seeding Mix frontBlack Gold® Seedling Mix is the best seedling mix 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 ensures rapid water penetration, and the fine texture encourages high germination and rooting. Transplanting your seedlings and cuttings will be a breeze when plants develop strong root systems as they are grown in Black Gold® Seedling Mix.

When it comes to germinating seeds, it’s simple – all you need is water, light and Black Gold® Seedling Mix. Making sure the growing media stays moist and seeds or cuttings have plenty of water in the early stages of germination or rooting is critical. Our seedling mix is designed with both peat moss and vermiculite, critical ingredients when you want to retain just the right amounts of moisture in your soil. Whether you are starting your seeds in a pot or a tray, they should be kept at temperatures between 60 and 70 degrees and placed in bright but not direct light – a southern exposure is ideal. Some seeds need darkness to germinate, so be sure to check your seed packet for details.

Black Gold® Seedling Mix is made with the same ingredients we use to make our seedling/propagation mixes for commercial greenhouse growers. Seeds typically need to be covered with Black Gold® Seedling Mix at a depth three times the diameter of the seed you are germinating. Larger seeds and seeds planted during warmer times of the year typically need to be planted deeper. Germinating your own seeds or rooting your own cuttings is a rewarding experience and one of the great delights of gardening. So when you are faced with the question, “Why buy a premium seedling mix potting soil?” the answer is clear. When you use Black Gold® Seedling Mix your seedlings and cuttings will have a great place to grow up.

The Best House Plant Potting Soil

BG African Violet front-2Do your houseplants need to be re-potted? 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. They are the perfect house plant potting soils.

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 foliage and flowers. African Violets must be pot-bound to bloom, so it is important to choose the correct size of pot. You should choose a pot that is 1/3 larger in diameter then the plant, and keep in mind African Violets need to be repotted every six months. The new potting soil will give the plant new organic matter and nutrients, and will reduce the build-up of salts.

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All About Black Gold® Garden Compost

Black Gold Garden Compost Blend is a wonderful amendment and mulch for strawberry beds.
Black Gold Garden Compost Blend is a wonderful amendment and mulch for strawberry beds.

One of the secret ingredients used by successful gardeners is Black Gold® Garden Compost Blend. 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 Gold® we use garden compost in several of our products, which makes our slogan “All the Riches of the Earth™” so true.

Black Gold’s® ready-to-use garden compost is OMRI Listed. This means that our garden compost is so naturally rich and pure that it can be used to produce certified organic garden products. If you purchase compost that is not OMRI Listed, you may get a product that contains ingredients you may not want in your garden. Using Black Gold® Garden Compost Blend in your garden soil encourages earthworms and other beneficial organisms to multiply and improve soil structure, break down organic matter for plants and increase soil fertility. Healthy soil will help your garden grow plants that are strong, healthy, productive and more naturally resistant to pests and diseases. Garden compost provides organic matter and natural nutrients for your garden soil and also improves soil texture and structure. In sandy soils, garden compost helps the soil hold more moisture, while in wet, heavy clay soils, compost improves soil drainage.

Black Gold® Garden Compost can either be mixed into the soil before planting as a garden amendment, or applied to the surface of the soil as mulch. It is true that you can never have enough garden compost. That’s why we also encourage you to make your own compost, even while you are experiencing a bountiful garden using Black Gold® Garden Compost Blend. Information on composting can be found on the Internet by doing a simple search for “composting”. Plus, in addition to having a flourishing garden, when you compost you keep the material from filling up overburdened landfills.

All About Black Gold® All Purpose with Controlled Release Fertilizer

BG All Purpose Potting Soil With the advent of Black Gold® All Purpose with controlled release fertilizer, you are now able to enjoy the benefits of a premium-quality potting soil with a fertilizer that will feed your plants for up to six months. Sun Gro sells this same fertilizer product to professional growers. By incorporating controlled release fertilizer into your potting soil, your plants will have a consistent supply of nutrients throughout the entire season. Our controlled release fertilizer has been coated with a polymer that slowly breaks down to release the nutrients over time. Unlike other controlled release fertilizers in the marketplace, it will not release excessive nutrients in higher temperatures, thus ensuring your plant will thrive no matter what the weather. This baseline of fertilizer allows your plants to grow all season long, not just when you remember to fertilize. Additional fertilization with a liquid fertilizer, starting a couple weeks after planting, will ensure your plants get all the nutrients they need, particularly if your plants are heavy feeders. Ideal for all types of plants, Black Gold® All Purpose with controlled release fertilizer is a great choice for house plants, patio containers and hanging baskets. Canadian Sphagnum Peat Moss with earthworm castings, forest humus, compost and pumice combine to provide your plants with both moisture retention and good drainage. Since this potting soil has a higher amount of peat moss, it is ideal for gardeners looking to reduce their fertilizer and water usage. Think of all the benefits – you start with a premium potting soil; add a controlled release fertilizer that will lessen the frequency of fertilizing; and you get improved plant performance by using Black Gold® All Purpose Potting Soil.

Sun Gro, the Leader in Sustainable Peat Moss

Sun Gro, the makers of Black Gold®, is North America’s largest producer of horticultural-grade peat and the largest distributor of peat moss and peat and bark-based growing mixes. We are also the leader in ensuring the sustainability of this important natural resource. We help ensure sustainable peat moss products reach consumers.

We endorse the Canadian Sphagnum Peat Moss Association’s definition of sustainable peatland management as the “balanced stewardship of the environmental, social and economic values of Canada’s renewable peatland resource.”

Just like other sustainable natural resources, peatlands are resources subject to governmental management practices and regulations. There are more than 270 million acres of peatlands in Canada.

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Potting Soil or Topsoil?

BG-WATERHOLD_1cu-FRONTWhich should you choose, potting soil or topsoil? I’d like to start this post with a story: A couple of weekends ago, we had a truckload (12 yards) of topsoil 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 asked me what the difference is between potting soil and topsoil. My goal in this blog entry is to answer this common gardening question.

Topsoil is typically manufactured using a combination of local ingredients. The soil is blended by combining two or more of the following: a local loam (a local soil typically from a construction site), compost, sand (typically from a sand pit), peat moss (often local), sawdust and garden mulch (less composted garden waste).

In contrast, Black Gold potting soils are manufactured using a combination of Canadian Sphagnum Peat Moss, coconut fibers (coir), earthworm castings, forest humus (composted bark and other wood products), compost, perlite, pumice and added fertilizer. It’s richer, more consistent, and higher quality.

Topsoil is manufactured using mineral soil (natural loam), while potting soils are manufactured without loam soils, and are often referred to as soilless growing mediums. Topsoil is manufactured without the use of an aggregate, whereas Black Gold potting soils use both perlite and pumice. Aggregates are added to potting soils to increase soil air capacity, which helps the roots breath. Most topsoils also do not come with a fertilizer incorporated in them, while all Black Gold potting soils contain fertilizer. Also it is important to consider the bulk density (the weight) of the two products. Topsoil is typically very heavy while potting soil is significantly lighter.

What does this mean? It means that topsoils are designed to be garden fillers or extenders but are not designed for use in a container or hanging baskets. Topsoil often needs additional amendments as well. For example, I added Black Gold Earthworm Castings and tomato and vegetable fertilizer to my raised bed before I planted my garden.

Black Gold potting soils are designed to be used in indoor or outdoor containers or hanging baskets. High-quality potting soils are designed to create the complete ideal growing environment for your plants. Then all they need are sunshine, water, fertilization, and loving care (deadheading, grooming, etc).

Topsoil also allows you to get well acquainted with your wheelbarrow and the joy of finishing the day with a sore back. Unlike potting soil, you need to find a home for all the product you purchased, because your spouse and the neighbors probably would not like to see a permanent dirt pile in your front yard.

Vegetable Garden Soil Preparation with Black Gold Amendments

BG_EARTHWORM_8QT-FRONTAccording to a recent survey 44 percent of Americans plan to grow a vegetable garden this year. That is a 12 percent increase compared with last year. Many of the new vegetable gardeners will be located in urban and suburban settings where garden soils need to be created or highly amended for top productivity. Here is an overview of how to prepare your vegetable garden soils with Black Gold products.

Starting Your Vegetable Garden

The most important part of gardening is perfectly preparing your soil for bountiful crops. It is often said that 90 percent of what happens to a plant happens below the soil surface, and this is not far from the truth. Well-prepared garden soil will quickly pay itself in produce with just a little time, labor and materials. Before preparing garden soil, be sure the soil is at the right consistency; it must be moist enough to dig with a shovel but not too wet or dry. If you are digging a new bed, begin by defining the bed line. This can be done with stakes and string-lines, or bed lines can be sprayed out with specialty landscape chalk marking spray. Once you have defined your garden bed line, remove all the surface weeds (purposefully pulling the whole weed, including the roots), rocks and debris.

Soil Preparation

Now it is time to add rich organic matter to your vegetable garden. Lots of our products will do the trick nicely. The most popular product for most gardeners is Black Gold Garden Compost Blend, which contains Canadian sphagnum peat moss and aged compost, aged or composted bark. Black Gold Garden Soil is another great product that will naturally boost your soil’s organic content. We also recommend adding our secret ingredient: Black Gold Earthworm Castings; a 16 qt bag will cover 15-20 square feet of garden soil. Each of these garden amendments have slightly different benefits and can be used in combination for superior results. The amount of amendment you need can be determined using our amendment calculator. When incorporating organic matter into your garden, it is not the time to be frugal. The more the better. All Black Gold garden amendments can be spread out on the surface of the garden soil and then dug into the native soil to a shovel depth of 6″

Fertilize!

Vegetables also require quality fertilizer for best results. We suggest gardeners wait to fertilize until planting time. This is because different types of vegetables may require different fertilizer types, and some fertilizers contain both quick- and slow-release nutrients. If you fertilize and wait for a week or so to plant your garden, you will loose the complete benefits of the quick-release nutrients. Always try to choose a  tomato and vegetable fertilizer that’s approved for organic gardening.

We wish you bountiful harvests in your new vegetable garden, and encourage readers to send us posts of their Black Gold garden successes!

Great garden soil yields great crops!
Great garden soil yields great crops!

Black Gold’s Superior Coconut Coir

BG_JSTCOIR-2cu-FRONTAt Sun Gro®, the makers of Black Gold®, we are very focused on producing a quality product. This is evident in the choice of coconut coir used in our potting soils. What exactly is coconut coir? It is the coarse fiber taken from the fibrous outer shell of a coconut. It used to be considered a waste products but more recently it has become processed for horticultural use. Coconut coir comes in many forms, depending on the degree in which it has been processed. For our Black Gold® Just Coir and Waterhold Cocoblend products, we use only the best horticultural coir.

In all of our coir mixes, we add a form of coconut coir that has been expanded from compressed coir bricks. The final product of this expansion process is a finer organic substrate similar to peat moss. And like all of the raw materials added to Black Gold products, our coir has undergone stringent assessments for quality control. All raw materials, including coconut coir, are pre-qualified before they are used in any of our products. Our team of research horticulturalists are responsible for developing our high-quality standards and then securing products that pass those standards.

Coconut coir is produced all over the world. India and Sri Lanka account for the majority of the coconut coir produced. Just like many other products, the quality of coconut coir varies depending on where it is produced and how it is processed. The most important concern Sun Gro has when it comes to sourcing coconut coir is the level of salts it contains. A large portion of coconut coir is grown near the ocean. Between the natural salts in the soil and the salt from ocean spray, coconut coir sourced from coconut farms near the ocean have high salts. When high salt coconut coir is used, then the potting soil and the plants grown in it are negatively impacted. The affected plants can have stunted root and shoot growth, tip die back of new growth, and dead or brown sections on the edges of older leaves. These undesirable traits are completely avoidable if low salt coir is chosen.

BG-WATERHOLD_1cu-FRONTSun Gro sources its coconut coir from inland coconut farms that have rigid production processes, which include washing the salts out of the coconut coir at the source. The manufacturer is required to test and ship only the coconut coir that passes Sun Gro’s quality specifications. When the coconut coir arrives and we begin the expansion process, we wash it one more time and test it to ensure it meets or exceeds our quality standards. The goal is to provide coconut coir that provides the wonderful horticultural traits we desire without the high salts.

Why do we go through all of these additional steps? Because Sun Gro is a horticultural company not a marketing company. Our desire is to have lifelong customers, and we believe the easiest way to make that a reality is to produce a consistently high-quality product, so that you have gardening success every time you use our products.

 

Black Gold® Soil Conditioner Yields Garden Gold

Black Gold Soil Conditioner 2 2 cu Bale frontWhen 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. Take the popular Black Gold® Soil Conditioner; it is manufactured using only the highest quality raw ingredients. The product may include a combination of these raw materials: aged/composted bark, Canadian sphagnum peat moss, compost, bat guano, earthworm castings and a proprietary blend of mycorrhizae.

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Black Gold® Hy-porosity Natural and Organic Potting Soil

Black Gold Potting SoilAs you may or may not know, Sun Gro Horticulture is the largest supplier of growing mixes to professional greenhouse and nursery growers across 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 air capacity and fast drainage.

Traditionally Black Gold® is chosen by home gardeners for being organically rich, fortified with earth worm castings and overall quality, which all translate into gardening success in the home garden.

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