Black Gold 1311002 16-Quart Seedling Mix

I start hundreds of seeds every year and have a much higher success rate with Black Gold. It's well worth the higher initial cost.

As an avid gardener, each year I start my annuals and a different perennial from seed under lights. This is the first year I have used Black Gold. I discovered it through Amazon and it shipped to me free as a Prime customer. Black Gold is a bit pricey but I had the best germination and seedling quality I have ever had. What I particularly like about Black Gold is that with other seedling mix you usually have to wet the soil before placing it in the seedling trays. Not with Black Gold. Simply fill your seedling flats with the mix, plant your seeds and water from the bottom. Black Gold will thoroughly absorb the water and keep seeds moist for germination. This feature is particularly nice when working with tiny seeds. I use a magnifying glass and tweezers to move tiny seeds to the proper depth in the Black Gold mix and go from there. With other soils, because of needing to be wet/moist prior to placing the mix in the trays, planting these small seeds, even with tweezers, is more difficult. Bottom line: Black Gold will be the seedling starter soil mix I use from now on. It is worth the added price given the quality of the result. I highly recommend it.

The seedling mix was uniform, relatively fine, with good drainage. It arrived somewhat moist, but even after it dried out, it didn't resist rehydrating. I was grateful that there were no chips, chunks, sticks, or long strings of coir like other seedling mixes. So far, my seeds have germinated as expected. Ingredients are peat, perlite, calcium silicate, and a wetting agent. See attached photo of label for ingredient list.

Good quality soil. Just a little pricey.

I previously made my own seedling mix with peat, coco coir, perlite, vermiculite, earth worm castings, compost, Epsom salt and ground eggshell, however, after going through all of my materials earlier in the summer filling raised beds, I still had the itch to plant more. I can honestly say that that, in comparison to any seedling mixes, potting soils or garden soil, this is the best stuff out there. Seedling germination rate is excellent and if you cover your pot with plastic wrap or put your pots in bags, I GUARANTEE your seeds will sprout (as long as they are viable seeds). I'm really happy with this product that I will not use another product for starting seeds.I had purchased some strawberry seeds that received terrible reviews because of a poor germination rate. Using Solo Cups with holes in the bottom for drainage, I put an inch of gravel in the bottom of the cup, then filled them 2/3 full with Black Gold seedling mix, then sowed the tiny strawberry seeds and lightly covered with a dusting of seedling mix. Carefully, I watered the seeds and placed the cup in a bag. Germination time, according to the seller, is 14-21 days. Within just 7 days, I had sprouts coming from the soil -- I was amazed. This stuff is awesome and I would recommend it to anyone.

*Update* -Day 4 & 6/6 Seeds have sprouted! All look like they are thriving!Purchase this after all the reviews and articles written about it. Sowed some zinnia seeds on Sunday Evening and the first few seeds are starting to sprout. 2/6 are pending germination but so far so good. Will mix this with sand as well to sow some succulent seeds and see how it works. So far so good! No issues with mold. There are some random sticks and other items in the mix which I am not too pleased about but still a good substrate.

This product seems overpriced to me. Worked well and my seedlings were a success, but no better than another brand that cost 75% less than this.

Back in December (2020) I purchased three different seedling mediums to get a head start on the flowers and veggies I want for my garden. Of the three products Black Gold seedling mix has produced the best seedlings. Seeds started faster, the plants are thicker and taller and every cell holds at least two seedlings as we start February. I expect to transfer all of these seedlings into the garden by March 15. (I live on Russian Hill in San Francisco.) The other two dirt mediums have done from fair to poorly. Black Gold Seedling Mix is the best.