“It‘s a great opportunity to transfer knowledge and open dialogues with producers”

Premier Tech Horticulture is one of the oldest and biggest peat-moss based growing media producers and distributors in North America. They are a Business Unit of Premier Tech and their history reaches back to 1923. Their first break-through was the PRO-MIX®, the first line of “ soil free” growing media in 1968. Since then, this product has been an industry standard in regards to professional growing media.

The company has continuously developed and grown through the past 90 years; nowadays they produce more than 20 million bags of growing media, and send over 33 thousand shipments to North America every year. Their main business partners are North America (90% of the exports), South America, Japan and they have a sister company in France as well. They also own and run a Research Center since 1983.

Its size and high level of professionalism make the company unique. As Ed Bloodnick, the Grower Services and Product Development Director said “Our company is special among the growing media companies, because we produce most of our ingredients and we have three different product lines, including our Total, Performance and Excellence, depending on the grower’s needs. We produce Mycorrhizae (a biostimulant) and biofungicides for incorporation into all our products .” Bloodnick added that they also offer customized products upon request. “We produce complete growing media products with special components and characteristics such as wetting agent, nutrient charge, possibility for pH adjustment and so on”- he said.

Premier Tech works with premium coir as well. “Nowadays the market needs higher quality of this material. The result of our research is a coconut aggregate product, the PRO-MIX HP-CC , which enjoys great popularity especially among growers using hanging baskets, as this media ensures good drainage and has an optimal water holding capacity at the same time.”

Bloodnick underlines the high importance of quality and environment in Premier Tech’s production. As he said “We pay special attention to the regeneration of harvested peat bogs, responsible peatland management and energy reduction programs.” Their results also show the efforts invested in quality- the company is VeriFlora® Certified for Peatland Products and twelve of their products are listed by OMRI. Uniquely among similar products, the Premier Tech growing media are registered by EPA as biofungicides.

Premier Tech Horticulture has also started a Training Center recently. “Our main goal is to help growers to be more informed and confident about using different growing media. The Center is virtual and completely free of charge,” said Bloodnick, highlighting that growing media is just one part of the successful production. “We provide information to educate growers also about water quality and management, fertilizers and so on. We have a good co-operation with universities too. Furthermore, we share articles, give personal advice and help finding growing solutions.” He mentioned that they also help growers change their production lines. “Nowadays there is a shift from ornamental production to vegetable growing in North America and Mexico.”- he said. “We mainly focus on the start of the culture, organic production, microgreens and herbs.”

Bloodnick furthermore added, that Premier Tech Horticulture also regularly organizes on-site trainings and seminars with distributors. “In the past we organized seminars for growers too. It is a great opportunity to transfer knowledge and open dialogues with producers. This is becoming even more important now, when the market is generally shifting to larger scale operations and we have more customers from all over the world.”

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