Great to know about Lamberts.  I did check with Jolly Gardener/Old Castle and received an email that said they do not use any kind of nut products in their soils either!

btw here is the email they used to send my reply:
stevestonestreet@gmail.com

Lambert told me that their potting mixes and Fertilome ultimate, which is made by them, are all peanut and tree nut free.

I've also read that Jolly Gardener is safe but I never heard back from them.

So just double checking if Lamberts is ok to use?  I am trying to send an email but their site seems to be having problems.

It was via email so I'm not sure which office. At any rate I found lambert-made "fertilome ultimate potting mix" locally and they said no pn or tn. The local fruit market/garden center was willing to order it for me and it should be there today. Hopefully when I get there it'll be the correct stuff.

Do you by any chance get the Seattle area office? I'm guessing no because they operate by region. From what I remember last year in talking to the lab technician any of the organic mixes are almost assuredly not made with peanut for business purposes. Organic peanut is hard to find/buy, therefore any organic mix is highly unlikely to contain peanut.

For cross-contamination purposes even with a low threshold kid I don't worry too much about cross-contam with composted shells because of the level of decomposition. On the other hand with older child I also don't sweat tree nuts as he's actually supposed to be challenging all.

One possible answer may be to find some soil locally. At least you can talk to the person selling it. But, yes, I think with almost ANY brand of potting soil you're not going to find one that is known to processed in a facility that is absolutely free of tree nut hull or peanut hull.

Well Sungro has been completely UNhelpful. All they will tell me is that any loose mix (any of their brands) may be made in a facility with peanut hulls. And only hard baled products *might* be made in canada. I wish I could find Lambert here.

Quote from: twinturbo on September 18, 2013, 02:48:46 PM
Doesn't this just suck?!?

Yes. It does suck. I don't know what I ever did in the 4 yrs of dd's FA life before I had internet.

Then be super careful ordering. What lead me to this path was ordering Fafard through Amazon thinking hey, I don't have to dig for a safe brand delivered to my house. It's Canadian! It was actually DH that found the catalog noting the product change up. You buy online you take the chance you buy out of region. Doesn't this just suck?!?

Yes. I touch those things like they're infested with the plague. My problem is that I can't go to the store and read labels. I have to special order so I can't see the bags until I have them. I'd prefer to find a more safe company and not have to worry about it. My dd has touched peanut shells accidentally and nothing happened so it's probably all for nothing but my peace of mind.

eta: you're right about the cross contamination. So maybe that wouldn't even be an issue if I make sure to order only the varieties that don't list peanut.

The tech I talked to said yes, there will be cross-contamination hence the new labels on the bag for regional mixes. I'm not terribly concerned about it for myself because it's a non-food item that may have been cross-contaminated with hulls, the reason for me making this statement is you have to word your query carefully (and I totally know you do all the time) to ask about production cross-contam because they bend towards saying composted peanut hull has no intact proteins so they may try to answer that cross-contam "isn't a concern" rather than it happens/doesn't happen.

I got the sense the change is happening right now so old bags should be fine. I used one of the organic mixes for DS1's class because bag and catalog both read no peanut hull. From here on I will stick to Black Gold from the plant codes they gave me. My biggest cross-contam concern is actually at the store. I'm sure you've also had the fun experience of wading through a pallet of peanutty soils just to try to get to one that isn't.

Thanks TT. I have until next spring to find something so I won't count out Fafard just yet. Still, makes me sad that everything is adding peanuts instead of taking them out, like we are always hoping for.

also, cross contamination may be an issue, right? I will email them to see what they say.

Anyone know if Lambert is still okay? I can order that from Home Depot. Next year we will be using a lot of containers outside (dh doesn't want to plant anything directly around our house for whatever reason) so I'll need lots of potting soil. I hate using regular dirt because of the weeds being so bad in it.

Well, I was gonna eat but I guess I can do this first.

Part I

http://fafard.com/catalog/2014%20Retail%20Catalog%2008.14.13_web_SinglePages.pdf

Note if cross-referenced this with the individual HTML write up you'll see one has "regional" formulations with peanut hulls. The catalog trumps the outdated HTML. Sun Gro has moved the production of the Fafard brand to southeastern USA and most, if not all, of the distribution will come from there.


Part II

There are two Fafard(s). Sun Gro the American company owns the American Conrad Fafard brand. The Canadian one remains a peat moss producer. Guess which one we get in USA.

Part III

Most mixes that are organic are, generally speaking, not made with peanut hulls because most peanuts are conventionally grown and not organic therefore can't be used. This is true of the Sun Gro Fafard.

What to do?

Look at the catalog provided in the link. It will have the most up to date information. The production is changing therefore the labels on the bags will be updated. Black Gold brand (owned by Sun Gro) tends to have the least amount of peanut hull use. I'll have to double check again but I don't remember seeing any and the tech I talked to verified this. Black Gold will also have a manufacture stamp at the top seal. You can call in to Sun Gro to see if there is a "safe" facility that does not use peanut hulls in production. I was given two codes for my area. So if you're thinking it's somewhat like Hostess, yeah that's about right.

So not all bad but do NOT under any circumstances look at a bag with "Fafard" and assume no peanut. It may be formulated with peanut hulls.

found the catalog link and it doesn't show the cactus mix having peanut hulls. Same with the African violet mix.  Not sure who to trust for regular potting soil now though. I still have quite a bit of the Fafard regular potting mix I bought several years ago (hopefully it was okay-I'm pretty sure I checked at the time but now I'm doubting myself).