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soil Is MG soil worth it?

DatilDaddy

DatilDaddy

Banned
It seems to me that the Miracle Gro garden and potting mixes are just a cheap mixture of soil with some granules and slow release pellets mixed in. It gets compacted very easily and doesnt seem to promote any growth over other normal soil mixes I have used, even just plain top soil.

With that observation am I better off just buying some cheap potting soil (I use containers) and perlite then mixing some of the granules in or possibly some other types of ferts to get better results?

Or am I wrong and other people maybe have seen results better than expected from MG soil?
 
I'd avoid Miracle Gro. I had a horrible experience earlier this year. The batch I got had so many fly eggs in the soil, that before I knew it, I had hundreds of flies, so much so, I ended up having to destroy 30 plants because no amount of neem oil or insecticide helped clear out the flies, and only harvested 4 de Arbol peppers for my efforts.

I'd recommend a combo of calmag, Scott's and Vigoro. I'm using Scott's and Vigoro right now for my reboot, and so far, I've been bug-free. And as for fertilizer pellets, go with organic tomato food pellets. It's got everything peppers need to grow and be happy. Use that and the occasional teaspoon of bonemeal, and you should be gravy.
 
to tell you the truth some bags are "old". You have to find a fresh bag and it will work great. I get the 1-1/4 cu ft bag from inside home depot for like 9 bucks.... I just replanted some plants that where not doing good and they are thriving in the mg potting mix. I do add a little perlite. There is beeter soil out there but if mg potting mix is the only thing you can find it works great.
 
Patio Plus is not sold down here.

MG is.

I use some MG in my potting mix, but I add other elements.
 
[sup]started all my seeds in MG potting mix, and still have a few plants in pots with it. below is a fatalii in a 3 gal pot that is doing quite well and has had nothing but water since birth.[/sup]
[sup]
IMG-20120707-00023.jpg
[/sup]

[sup]i am new to container peppers, but so far no complaints. doesn't seem to compact very fast IMO, much better than the native soil we have here.[/sup]
[sup]its cheap ($10/2cuft at wally world) and available[/sup]
 
It works great for me..especially when trying to germinate seeds...I get like a 90-95% germination rate on everything I've planted so far. I think the nutrients wear off faster than advertised, though. Thing is, when I use it to transplany my seedlings, they start growing better as well so I don't have any problem with it. If you just want to throw it in a pot and leave a plant in it there forever, chances are it won't work so good.

When my plants (not all of them) get big enough, I mix up some MGMC with a little bit of sand and that works OK, have a plant in some of that mix that's 3yrs old already and it doesn't need to be watered as often as my other plants.

Heck, I remember when I used to ive in Cali....drop any seed in the ground and it would grow...and grow...and grow, no matter what it was. Then again, the San Joaquin Valley has some of the richest soil in the world.

~Mike
 
elcap1999 said:
I'd avoid Miracle Gro. I had a horrible experience earlier this year. The batch I got had so many fly eggs in the soil, that before I knew it, I had hundreds of flies, so much so, I ended up having to destroy 30 plants because no amount of neem oil or insecticide helped clear out the flies, and only harvested 4 de Arbol peppers for my efforts.

I'd recommend a combo of calmag, Scott's and Vigoro. I'm using Scott's and Vigoro right now for my reboot, and so far, I've been bug-free. And as for fertilizer pellets, go with organic tomato food pellets. It's got everything peppers need to grow and be happy. Use that and the occasional teaspoon of bonemeal, and you should be gravy.
Click to expand...

Fly eggs as in Fungal Gnats??? You do realize that Scott's makes Miracle Grow right? lol....a lot of times if you just let the ground dry up they won't be a problem. The adults fungal gnats might fly around but they don't harm anything. You can put slices of potatoes down to pull up the larva. That sucks though. I would never, ever use any Scott's product.

Here is a good reason why http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/03/24/1077430/-Scotts-Miracle-Gro-Bird-Killing-Company
 
I just got what was on sale this year.. waste of money When its done I will have bought a bale of Pro-Mix for the same price. So next year its Pro-Mix for me..
 
We need a bumper sticker Rich......"Just say no to Monsanto-Gro" :lol:

What bothers me most is that people could, with a little effort, produce a far superior product for far less money.
But alas, many are not as passionate about what they grow and feeding a plant what is not natural to it seems good enough for them as long as the ends justify the means. :rolleyes:
 
CarvinGuitarist said:
We need a bumper sticker Rich......"Just say no to Monsanto-Gro" :lol:

What bothers me most is that people could, with a little effort, produce a far superior product for far less money.
But alas, many are not as passionate about what they grow and feeding a plant what is not natural to it seems good enough for them as long as the ends justify the means. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

That goes for everythin in life. If you have no real passion for a subject, like chess for instance, you may play, but you do not look for every advantage. Gardening is the same. Looking down on folks who just garden for fun and may use MG is very petty.
 
armac said:
That goes for everythin in life. If you have no real passion for a subject, like chess for instance, you may play, but you do not look for every advantage. Gardening is the same. Looking down on folks who just garden for fun and may use MG is very petty.
Click to expand...

I think you are reading more into a post then was intended sir. ;)
When did anyone allude to the fact that they "look down" on those who do not think the same way?
Telling someone a superior way to do something in gardening is called, "educating" not looking down on them.
 
When something "bothers me" sir, it more than a passing feeling, you may be different. You may be bothered by trivial things that matter not. I do no sweat the small stuff, sir.
 
There is a huge difference in disagreeing with someone's thinking and "looking down" on them armac, that was my point.
Small stuff? To you maybe, to those of us who have looked into the subject at greater depths it is far from, "small stuff."
If you trust the company who introduced the crap into this world that Monsanto has created then I don't know what to tell you.
 
Armac, you seem to come into every conversation and try to call someone out on something (which 90% of the time is not the way you portray it) I really feel you need to look within' yourself and figure out what it is you despise about yourself. That way, you won't always be looking to pick a fight with random people because it so suits you.

When the price on vegetables is so high that the middle class can't afford it (which the middle class is becoming the lower class, fast) and the vegetables they do have on the shelves are as nutritional as cardboard, you might feel differently.

If a person is educated on the facts and the facts show products to be destroying the biological ecosystems underground. They are being irresponsible towards our environment. I was one of these people until I started educating myself and being educated by others. I try to be as environmentally safe as I knowingly can. Anyone who doesn't and chooses ignorance over enlightenment, I feel sorry for.

As much as you might try and rip this apart, facts are facts Armac. Don't turn your nose down at someone who feels passionate about feeding the earth instead of suffocating and mutating it. Systems are meant to be followed. You for one should know this. Well the earth has a system too and that system needs to be followed above and beyond anything else in this world. Otherwise there won't be a world left for you to start nonsensical fights with random people.

Good day to you Sir.
 
I am only saying that not everyone reAlly cares about gardening. 80 percent of the US population grow nothing.

Being upset if they grow something with MG, is really irrelevant,

And no 3/5 I cannot match you on your word content in a post nor do I try to.

Sir.
 
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