Baffled rookie needs help!

[infiniti23]

Hi all. Just wanted to say this is a great forum. I am new, and I am in Huntsville, Alabama. I am thoroughly enjoying growing from seeds this year for the first time, but I am having some difficulties as of late.

I am growing carribean reds, bhut jolokias, paper laterns habs, datils, devil's tongues, and some pepperoncinis. I started all the seeds in a Jiffy Greenhouse with great success.

After the plants started developing their first set of leaves, I transfered them into Jiffy pots.

I transferred all of the carribean reds and bhut jolokias into Miracle Grow potting soil in the Jiffy pots. These plants are growing very well. They are deep green, and strong looking, and I can see noticable growth almost everyday.

The rest of the plants were planted in Miracle Grow Organic Choice soil. For about a week after transplant, these plants were growing pretty quickly. Then, the growth abruptly slowed down. The plants in the Organic Choice soil have barely grown in the past three weeks. They are a much paler green than the plants in the regular Miracle Grow.

Plants are receiving at least 16 hours of light a day from T8 bulbs, a combo if 3k and 6.7k lights. I feed occasionally with liquid seaweed and once with Epson salt. They were fertilized one time with a high phosphorous plant food.

All the plants have been subjected to the same conditions. The only variable is the soil. Could it be that the Miracle Grow Organic Choice soil just sucks? At this point, what can I do to try to recover the plants and promote further growth?

 

[mmcdermott1]

Ive posted a few times that the MG organic choice is HORRIBLE soil. I used this for the first time this year and quickly removed my plants. If you absolutely water log that soil and go check it out in a matter of a few hours, it is as dry as a popcorn fart. I would highly recommend getting them out of that soil and I will bet you will see a huge difference in them.

 

[Hot Pooper]

A popcorn fart? Is that why my farts smell like butter sometimes?
Ive never used that particular soil, but have heard that it sucks. IF you can find it, I would use either Pro Mix BX, or maybe Fafard's.

 

[robbyjoe01]

I use MGro and been using it most of my life. I will say I tried their Organic Choice and yes it does suck. They have many products that work well-Organic Choice is not one of them. Stick with their regular potting soil and you'll be alright. I believe some products come out to get the growers money not to help the plants. All large Corps. do it even the good companys have people around to either come up with something better or something catchy. I assume they thought lets put Organic on the label and cash in on the natural people. Sorry

 

[infiniti23]

Ive posted a few times that the MG organic choice is HORRIBLE soil. I used this for the first time this year and quickly removed my plants. If you absolutely water log that soil and go check it out in a matter of a few hours, it is as dry as a popcorn fart. I would highly recommend getting them out of that soil and I will bet you will see a huge difference in them.

Thank you for the replies all! I know that I can soak them and I can peel the peat pot away. Should I pull away as much of the soil away from the roots as possible, then transplant them into new pots with new soil? I am worried about damaging the roots.

This started as an experiment, because I noticed the NPK formulations were drastically different in these soils. At least the experiment gave valid results.

 

[woody3says]

Just out of curiosity, what are the NPKs of the two?

 

[infiniti23]

Just out of curiosity, what are the NPKs of the two?

IIRC, I believe the standard miracle grow potting soil is 21-3-7 ....

The Organic Choice is 10-5-5 I think ...

I just went out and looked, and I tried to stick my finger into the Organic Choice pots, which were watered yesterday, and it's almost impossible to get my finger more than a half inch deep in the soil without major effort. It's like a solid dry block!

I can easily manipulate the regular miracle soil.

 

[SuperHot]

I'm using this season for the first time Pro Mix BX. All I can say is that the plants really love it. I do see growth everyday now and will start juicing them this weekend. I like to wait until they get about 2"-3" before I introduce them to fertilizers.

It feels lighter than the MG products I used last year and hope this will help promote root growth. I had 100 (5 – gal) pots going last year and noticed that after about a month outside the weight seem to increase a lot – the mix became dense. I'm hoping this won't be the case with the Pro Mix BX.

 

[mega]

One of my 4 planting areas last year had the MG Organic. The plants were 1/2 normal size, and the pod counts were ridiculously low, like 8-10 pods each instead of the 30-40 I normally get. That stuff is bad news. I generally try to use only ProMix BX, which delivers far superior results.

 

[mmcdermott1]

Thank you for the replies all! I know that I can soak them and I can peel the peat pot away. Should I pull away as much of the soil away from the roots as possible, then transplant them into new pots with new soil? I am worried about damaging the roots.

This started as an experiment, because I noticed the NPK formulations were drastically different in these soils. At least the experiment gave valid results.

When I got mine out of that soil, they were very small seedlings. Since then, I have had a few leftovers that were bigger.
What I did was:
1. Wet that organic soil... A LOT...give it about 20 minutes. If you dont, it's going to crumble apart trying to get it out of the flat or whatever it is you said you had them in.
2. After you take it out..what I did was very gently started picking it off a little at a time (the dirt)...I left just a little bit. Some of mine I actually got all of it away and laid the seedlings out on the table. Since then, they have all survived and are growing like mad.