I have been using Kellogg's GroMulch. The very first thing I noticed was the color - a flat black that looks like no organic material I have ever seen. It looks like ground-up automobile tires. I have used it as an amendment and a mulch, as instructed on the bag. It seems to work as an amendment in that it will mix well with my old garden soil, and I also add Gardeners "Composted Chicken Manure." I have not had a problem with smell, but when used as a mulch, a hard crust forms soon after watering. The crust cannot be easily penetrated with fingers, even though my soil was very loose and crumbly before i applied the mulch. My tomatoes and other veggies are doing well, but I used pine chips from Tractor Supply as mulch on them. The flowers with the GroMulch on top of the bed seem to be growing very slowly. I also have trouble with seedlings in the GroMulch-amended potting soil. I live just North of Joshua Tree National Park, so I have to water almost daily. The black color really heats up the beds, and dries out quickly. I am going to use pine chip mulch over the GroMulch to try and keep the bed surface from getting so hot. I would not use GroMulch if any alternatives were available that I could afford.

Spot on & thanks, Rodney! I stumbled onto that somewhere while searching here this morning. The $200 is what I spent previously trying in vain to fix this. I took all soil out, nothing left but the larger root-balls. I've got the beds and soil solarizing even as I type this. I had a roll of contractor grade clear plastic, like thick drop cloth stuff... so I spread it all out to about 2-3" thick out in the sun. Lo and behold... a cloudy day darnit (not the norm for here). If the sun doesn't poke back out, I'll wrap my rootballs and wait until tomorrow.

Regardless of whether or not it was the Kelloggs soil that caused the supposed verticillium wilt issue, I'm surprised the "horticulturalist" didn't suggest you try to solarize the soil to remedy the problem rather than allow you go on a $200 spending spree on "chemicals" and the expense of soil removal and replacement. A 30 dollar roll of clear plastic sheeting and some time would have solved the problem.

Irrigation actually does include watering with a hose, dripline, watering can, sprinkler, olla, flooding between rows of plants, etc. The definition of irrigation is "the artificial application of water to land to assist in the production of crops." Any time you add water to your soil you are irrigating it.

Rodney

I believe, it is possible to purchase “bad” mix.

He IS the county Agricultural Extension Agent, thanks - and he took bagloads and did some form of testing here (do not know what that was...).

Also, just FYI - Verticillium Wilt is a prevalent in temperate climates and where crops are irrigated.

Thanks so much, all of you, for supporting a documented case of a bad product or bad product lot being informed to the public so as to prevent further wasted money and heartache in dead gardens.

The only way to tell is to bring your plant material to your counties agricultural commissioners office for testing. Any word of mouth from Tom Dick or Harry just doesn't cut it.

One thing to keep in mind is that multiple issues can resemble V. Wilt. Gardens with older plants begin exhibiting similar problems or sometimes it's just over feeding or

some other unknown but minor issue.

Blaming the bagged soil is always the easiest but usually WRONG answer.

I am also a degreed hortilcuturist and your consultant is just plain wrong!! First, Verticillium wilt is impossible to detect in soils without laboratory equipment (did he bring any with him??) and is often very difficult to determine when examining infected plants. You need a plant pathologist for this, not just a horticulturist with no specialized training. It is a soil fungi, consists of several different species and is omnipresent in all soils in temperate climates.. And it is most certainly present in Arizona!!

btw, all the Kellogg's soil products go through extensive testing procedures to ensure they meet the OMRI and OMI certification. If there were any serious disease pathogens present in their soils, they would have been discovered long before the product got to market. And if not, it would be all over the internet and on social media.

Hope you didn't have to pay this guy anything cuz he just doesn't know what he is talking about!!

I would not immediately attribute your problems to the soil!! Fungal issues are omnipresent just about everywhere and few have any relationship to soils or soil products. btw, there are 168 genera of rust with approximately 7000 different species so it would require a plant pathology expert to determine exactly what rust was what and where it might have originated from!

I have used Kellogg's soil products for more than 25 years - there are 5 new bags of various Kellogg's offerings waiting to be used right now - and have NEVER had an issue with any of them.

One user having an isolated issue that may or may not be associated with bagged soil is not a reason to dismiss ALL Kellogg's products out of hand!!

I've been using this stuff for years and have never had any problems. Once in a while I might find a tiny piece of plastic or something that doesn't belong that's life! Nothing is ever perfect and the rate people just throw plastic trash everywhere, I'm not surprised that some might find its way into a bag of soil.

The price is $10 for 3cf. Where can you find a bag of soil with worm castings, bat guano, chicken manure, etc... for that price? I also use Fox Farm ocean soil which is $16 for half as much and STILL find unwanted items in the bag. Do I complain? NO! Because I know that its not the end of the world. Its annoying how ppl seem to love to complain about the smallest things.

Also, this stuff is meant toto be mixed with native soil or other types of soil. If you read the bag it states that it needs to be mixed when adding to a planter. Although I've had good results using this %100 by itself, some other times the results haven't been so good.

Over all I give it 4.5 stars out of 5.

That makes sense. The compost outgasses ammonia while in the package, and when the package is opened, what you smell is the gas that has accumulated. When it's gone, it's gone. But if it does not dissipate rapidly, you know you have a problem, with urea still being hydrolyzed. Those getting a strong whiff of manure when they open the package just aren't waiting long enough.

Well, after about 25 years of using these products I have never encountered issues with ammonia or excess N in the potting mix damaging plants. And some of the plants I grow in containers are very sensitive to excessive fertilization. I can smell the guano when I first open the bags but the aroma dissipates rapidly.

OK, but I've smelled bat guano (we have lots of bats around here), and it smells like ammonia. It's the ammonia that we're trying to avoid for plants. I have no gripe against Kellogg soil, but I do have a gripe against using container soil for planting that reeks of ammonia. It's possible that some people just have extraordinarily sensitive noses.

Most of those date back a good number of years and the formulation has changed. And they would not receive the OMRI rating/certification if the products contained either boisolids or uncomposted manures.

Many of the products DO contain bat guano......and bat guano can have a very strong aroma, even when very well aged!

I've never used the stuff. But some people here are complaining about the smell. If it smells like manure, it isn't composted. Now, I should say that ammonia is usually the strong smell associated with urine in fresh manure. Hydrogen sulfide is a strong smell too, that comes from manure, but it smells like rotten eggs, not manure.

None of the Kellogg products contain uncomposted manures!! And I have never detected any unpleasant or strong ammonia odor from any of them after using them almost exclusively for container gardening purposes for 25 years or so!!

What smells like manure in an amendment is ammonia. Absorption of that ammonia by the soil will lead to nitrification of it, but the ammonia itself will kill plants. That's why using uncomposted manure is a mistake. To the extent this stuff uses a lot of uncomposted manure, I'd have to be pretty skeptical of it as a planting mix, at least until it's been sitting around for a while.

I used Amend in my first vegetable garden and got good results. I knew very little about growing vegetables and mixed Amend with my existing dirt. I use Patio Plus in containers and their Palm and Cactus mix is good for succulents. They stopped using biosolids a while back. Their Gardener and Bloom mixes are sold at independent nurseries, not big box stores, and they are a little fancier. One of their garden educators advised mixing chicken manure into the mix for raised beds.

I've never run in to unwanted debris in my mixes, but they are bagged at different locations close to where they are sold, so that may explain the difference in quality.

Kellogg soil not only smells like manure, it also has some real quality control issues. I have found rusty nails which has scratched me, along with rusty wires, which have stuck me, and glass. I contacted the company and they really don't care at all.

Kellogg Soil is the greatest I've had in years, you can see the difference in about a day, flowers look healthier, n my Vegetables grow sooo big.

I am also located in SF bay area, and use kellogg's potting/raised bed soil. It is fairly decent for the price you pay. I'd rate it 4/5 stars for something that is OMRI cert and the price point considered. I do add my own organic compost, organic fertilizer granules, and chicken manure to amend it. It seems that the "add-on" products are to add nutrients and amend the soil that you purchased. Its like buying the most basic potting soil and if you want it to perform better you can buy the gromulch, compost, etc. Its nice and fluffy, retains water but at the same time doesn't stay waterlogged. If you have your own amendments available at hand or for cheap, go for it. If you have to buy all the "add-on" products and are completely new at gardening, go ahead and pick up the high quality stuff that doesn't need amending. The $$ will equivalent the same if you consider how much stuff you have to add to it if you have to pay for amendments.

The Mother Jones info is dated. Perhaps it is why Kellogg changed the product. Amend is now OMRI listed and OMRI listed products do not contain biosolids/sludge composted or otherwise.. I have some of the old product and the new. The label is different and so is the smell.

http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2011/04/your-organic-compost-really-sewage-sludge-rosario-dawson-kellogg-amend

Story on Kellogg using sewage

Here is a link that might be useful: Sewage in Kellogg soil

This product is listed on the OMRI product list. So does that mean it's OMRI certified? I couldn't tell.

Either the above posts are out and out lies or Kathy Johnson of Kellogg is not telling the truth. I emailed her about this concern and she sent me back the following: "Hi Mike,

Patio plus is an OMRI certified organic product which does not contain any biosoilds. It's organic meaning it's ingredients contain worm castings, chicken manure and kelp meal. Patio plus is one of my favorite soils."

If it is not OMRI-certified, AVOID.

Kellogg adds human waste from the City of Los Angeles. This is not clear from the ingredients. They also add other waste products that I wouldn't use it the garden.

I recently asked them about their "organic" chicken fertilizer and they said it is not 100% chicken manure, but has some wood products. The ingredients are not listed on the package. They said it is organic because they do not use chemicals/synthetics. Duh. All pure manures are organic, regardless of how the animal was fed. Wood products that are not treated with paint etc, like what is coming from lumberyards are also organic.

The only difference between their chicken manure and the competition is that they add the word organic and dilute it with wood products. It is like selling "organic" gasoline mixed with water.

After a couple of weeks of research on their different products I simply do not trust Kellogg unless it is certified by OMRI.

Here is a link that might be useful: OMRI product list (free, click complete_company.pdf)

I found that patio plus is a way better value than any other "organic natural" potting mix. All my veggies and flowers are in containers and Are growing like crazy! People are learning how good this stuff is. "bat guano, worm poop, composted chicken manure, kelp meal, rice hulls, perlite, canadian peat moss, horticulture sand. I recommend if you want success .

The smell seems to dissipate after a few days.

I don't know that soil in particular but anything that still smells of poop is too fresh to go into your garden. I would want to compost it for a while until it mellows.

Oops, forgot to add, I'm also curious as to your opinions on the Gromulch and Amend. The Gromulch says it's a premium potting mix, which makes me wonder if that's what I should be growing in instead, and the Amend also says it's "ideal garden soil", although I happen to know that it basically looks like a bunch of dark brown redwood needles and is loose and dry as can be (and it really does seem like it'd be something you'd add to "amend" the soil, rather than to plant directly in it).