Some situations do not warrant the use of real stone, which has it's issues. check with your fabricator to see what they recommend and call or EM the impregnator people to see what the say. I vote against putting more sealer on it. Hopefully you'll come across an old fashioned solution on this site. Good luck!

I put black galaxy in my last house and thought it was beautiful. They weathered through two baby and toddler boys fine. I just needed to do a thorough wipe-down at night and if someone was coming over, I'd do another wipe-down. Water spots and other kid-mess was very visible so keeping a relatively clutter-free counter was kind of necessary for the quick-clean-ups. My favorite thing about the black galaxy was that it reflected our ceilings. We had incredible plaster work on the ceilings (original to the 1886 brownstone), and the reflective nature of the granite gave the room a total wow-factor. That said, consider this when you choose your ceiling fixtures and the ceiling area in general. Good luck!

I would go with the black or what ever they call it. Have one sitting under my kitchen table waiting to be installed and they are soooo pretty. I'm not sure how the other colors look in person, bought mine sight unseen actually, but have see the black installed with dark granite and it's sweet looking. HTH

"Where then are they getting the nutrients needed for growth? One can't dispute the need for nutrients in some form." Yes, in my comments above, I really hope I didn't make the impression that no nutrients were needed for plant growth. I don't always express myself well. I was trying (I may have failed lol) to make the point that - as you mentioned Dave - while organic nutrients in such mixes are not immediately available to plants, a percentage (usually a small percentage) of the nutrients are in available forms. Enough of the nutrients may be available to sustain the life, and modest growth, of the plant. Thus the claim of "no additional fertilizer is needed for two months" might technically be true. However, it's also true, as you point out, that purposeful applications of additional fertilizers might indeed help to promote growth, and make for healthier plants. I have found that experience is the best determining factor for fertilization. There are times when I cut back on adding fertilizers on purpose. If I do not want too much growth, too quickly, I won't fertilize... or I'll use less. I also usually wait until plants recover from transplant shock and become settled in new containers (sometimes more of an issue than other times... each case is different) before I fertilize. And, as we are discussing, the type of medium, and it's content of available nutrients, are a big determination of the need for additional fertilizers. I've become incredibly disappointed and have had problems with, the locally available products for transplanting seedlings, and my finances have me limited from investing in the better products which I would need to order. This year I have chosen to formulate my own from what I have produced right at home. So far it's working out better than I had hoped. It's simple, effective, organic, and has a basic level of available nutrients. I hope I can continue to produce it myself. It's free... with just a little effort.