black gold organic soil?

Discussion in 'Growing Organic Marijuana' started by ndub420, Jan 26, 2012.

  1. how is it? the local nursery in my town has some kind with extra bat guano and stuff for 29 a bag. is it worth it? or should i try and order fox farms and some other stuff? what else would i need to throw in the mix?
     
  2. $29.00 per bag? Is that a typo?
     
  3. Black Gold soil actually has a nice consistency for growing, despite being very commercial. Thirty bucks a bag is pretty damn steep, though. It would have to be a bigass bag. I like to use Edna's Best soil, which is sold for $9/20qt at the local garden center. Black Gold Organic sells there for roughly the same price.

    Personally, I like to mix a 20qt bag with 6-7qts Worm Castings, 2c high-P organic fertilizer like Guano and/or Bone Meal and a few cups extra Perlite.

    If the place you're going seems overpriced, the best way to find other garden centers is to search Google. Separately type "Garden Center" "Nursery" and "Hydroponics", each with your zip code in the search field. Click on the lil map and call the closest & best rated stores.
     
  4. its a typo hahaha my bad. and im trying to find a place with fox farms around me but no luck so far. if i got worm casting and bone meal and organic fertalizer and black gold. would that be good for start to finish? what else would i have to do? im a beginner grower and trying to have a good all organic summer outdoor.
     
  5. Black Gold is Sun Gro Horticulture's commitment to mediocrity..........
     
  6. so no? should i use foxfarms?
     
  7. If it came down to FFOF vs. Black Gold - I would go with the Black Gold.

    Not by much...........
     
  8. ight so what else should i get? i want a good organic mix from start to finish.
     
  9. Kelp meal would be at the top of my list. That will cover elements, minerals and plant compounds. Kelp meal can almost fix any potting soil's deficiencies for cheap money.

    If you're going to use FFOF or BF the you'd want to add something like 3/4 cup of Kelp.

    Others will be along to promote bat or bird guanos, Dolomite Lime or something equally inane so you'll have a lot of options to choose from!!!!

    HTH

    LD
     
  10. Any of the soils mentioned in this thread can grow excellent plants when you fine-tune the mix yourself. If you add nutrients to the mix, the base soil is only to hold water & support the plants. The Black Gold, Fox Farms and Edna's Best can all grow equally wonderful plants. Give whichever soil you like a try.
     
  11. #11 Jellyman, Jan 26, 2012
    Last edited by a moderator: Jan 26, 2012
    The general mix I mentioned is an all-purpose starting point. For flowering plants, a high-K fertilizer should be added, either to the mix or through manual feedings. The Kelp Meal that Lump mentioned is a decent source of Potassium. With vegging plants, some high-N fertilizer may be added. Imho every grower should have some garden lime on hand for increasing the pH value. Whether your soil will actually need it depends on the mix. Any untried soil mix should be wet and allowed to sit for at least few hours before testing its pH. Once you get the pH to a stable 6.5, then go ahead and pot the plants.
     
  12. #12 WeeDroid, Jan 27, 2012
    Last edited by a moderator: Jan 27, 2012
    Or you can build a good organic soil and never need to fertilize or ph. We have a few good soil building tecniques threads here.

    Personally I say beware of any advice that includes a need to ph an organic soil.
     
  13. #13 LumperDawgz2, Jan 27, 2012
    Last edited by a moderator: Jan 27, 2012
    WeeDroid

    Here's the sad tale of woe that is Black Gold potting soils.

    In the beginning (1979 or so) the pot growers in the Pacific Northwest were blessed with some crap called 'Super Soil' and it was found to be lacking. Oh my!

    A father & son team started a potting soil company called Black Gold over in Molalla, Oregon. The heavens heralded this accomplishment - peat moss, perlite and something, something. The kids were all aglow that finally there was a real dope-growing potting soil.

    This carried them through much of the 1990's and it came to pass that Sun Gro Horticulture (Sunshine Mixes) needed to produce a retail product line. Since they harvest and process over 50% of the entire Canadian production, having a retail product line would increase revenues.

    Sun Gro bought this little potting soil company because it had brand recognition because this potting soil was now in mainstream nurseries, garden centers, etc. The taint of being a soil for pot growers had subsided.

    Sun Gro made a killing and continues to do so. After 30 years the myths around Black Gold have grown to the point where farm stores in Northwest Oregon carry this in 1 c.y. totes.

    The father & son team kept their soil mixing equipment and started a company called 4-Corners and they do private-labeling packing for piss-ant potting soils that you find promoted on grow boards - I'll leave it at that.

    But they weren't done - no sir! They hooked up with the pack of assholes at American Ag (one of the oldest grow store in the USA) and they came out with a bag of crap called 'Blackjack Potting Soil' which was so bad that they enlisted the help from the owner of a worthless MMJ 'clinic' called 'Oregon Green Free' (basically free from cogent or lucid thought). This soil was pushed off on new card holders by the 'Garden Geeks' associated with this group.

    Sun Gro figured out pretty quickly that selling potting soils at the retail level was a money loser so they did what everybody else does and they came out with their own boxed fertilizers where the real money is.

    Each spring Sun Gro Horticulture sends out RFP (Request For Proposal) to farmers, nurseries, etc. for 'compost' and 'worm castings' - you can figure out how that works - price, price, price, price. Their worm castings haven't seen a worm in months if not years.

    And then there's the factoid that cow manure stacked out behind Uncle Ben's barn isn't compost but legally you can sell it as such.

    LD
     
    • Agree Agree x 1
  14. Anyone got a tissue? :(
     
  15. would this soil be good for outdoor growing? cause my local nursery has some dr. earths soil that they say is jus like black gold. do you think this would be ok?
     
  16. I believe the Dr Earths is a superior brand, but I would wait for others to chime in here. I make my own soils so I'm not so up on the bagged stuff.
     
  17. #17 will3117, Mar 14, 2012
    Last edited by a moderator: Mar 14, 2012
  18. #18 MGB, Mar 15, 2012
    Last edited by a moderator: Mar 15, 2012



    Take this for what its worth but if your trying to grow organic I would stay away from anything that says this:

    Enriched with Sta-Green slow release plant food

    I am by no means a botanist but in my experience anything stated as slow release is 99.9% of the time synthetic nutrients.

    I hope this answers your question.

    Have a great day!

    MGB

    BTW the link you provided was for a faucet, but I spent some time and found the product you were speaking of.;)
     

  19. And what's wrong with my seagull shite??? Birds in nature shit all over the place, I'm recreating nature, so I spread some seagull doo around!
     
  20. #20 WeeDroid, Mar 15, 2012
    Last edited by a moderator: Mar 15, 2012
    I don't think there is anything wrong with seagull shit or any of the other guanos. But cheaper inputs can be had that do the same things.

    Same with the dl.
     

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