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MiracleGrow is like a box of chocolates...

RedtailForester

RedtailForester

I had a couple "Well, I've never seen that before moments" this season already. The latest was on a plant that I thought I had grown from seed. I got some Ultra Pube seeds from JungleRain and started a single seed in some leftover MiracleGrow potting soil that I had leftover from last season. Now let me start by saying, I don't grow my own tomatoes. I normally end up getting the wife a couple plants and then tear them up at the end of the season. I knew something was up after the first set of true leaves fully developed that something was wrong. Out of morbid curiosity, I continued to grow it. Sure enough, I've got a damn tomato plant instead of my Ultra. I even had to PM Grant to see if he was playing an evil joke on me.

I think that just sealed it that I won't be buying any MiracleGrow products again... :banghead:
 
A bird could have come down to peck around the soil, and crapped out the seed. I had Cherry tomatoes all over the yard last year from birds planting them for me.
At least it wasn't a bunch of nails, a chunk of half burned pallet board, or a pencil like I've found in their "Organic" line...of crap. I hate MiracleBurn.
 
Scotts is what gave me some of the weird random objects in the soil. Had a candy wrapper and a package from some off-brand fruit snacks in one of my bags of soil. Pretty certain it wasn't compost material...

But yea, seeds do have a tendency to wind up in the weirdest spots. Had sunflowers growing all over my yard last year. And this year I'm finding tomatoes growing in random locations.

Hey at least you got free seeds with your soil! lol.
 
I've already found tomato seedlings and what I think are cucumber seedlings in my garden this year, but they most likely came from my compost pile.

Last year I bought 2 bags of MG, and the mixes looked completely different from each other. I realize that different batches will be slightly different, but they weren't even close. One was fluffy and black and actually looked decent, while the other was light tan colored and like a crusty brick. I thought maybe it was just dried out, so I mixed them together. The result was total crap. It didn't drain and roots struggled to grow through it. I HATE Miracle Grow.
 
Prices vary all over. I have a place close to me that sells it for $36 a 3.8 cu.ft. bale. Further away, another place sells it for $29.99. Some people have gotten lucky at $20 etc. so it really depends on the price you can find it at. It is supposed to break up into 7 cu.ft. of mix I believe. Home Depot sells 2.5 cu.ft. bags of Miracle Gro potting mix for $9.98. So if you bought 3 bags that would be 7.5 cu.ft. for $29.94. All prices before taxes. Pro-mix BX comes with only a starter charge and needs fertilizer. Miracle Gro comes with fertilizer but isn't quite as nice. As you have pointed out it is also inconsistent.

If you can find a cheap source for perlite and vermiculite you could make your own mix. Home Depot sells 3 cu.ft. bales of Premier Peat Moss for $8.97. Premier makes pro-mix. Their website says BX is made of 80-85% Canadian Sphagnum Peat Moss. You could play with the ingredients to make up the difference. Here is a link that shows the ingredients. Select Mycorise Pro then Pro-Mix BX.
 
RedtailForester said:
I've never jumped on the ProMix bandwagon. Can anyone give me a price comparison?
Click to expand...

Prices for a bale generally run from $25-40 for the 3.8 cu ft. bale. I pay $28 for the 3.8 cu ft. bale which expands to 7 cubic ft. 2 cu ft. bags of MG here are about $10. 3.5 x $12= $35, so Pro-Mix is cheaper for me. My plants do way better in Pro-Mix.
 
Josh said:
Prices vary all over. I have a place close to me that sells it for $36 a 3.8 cu.ft. bale. Further away, another place sells it for $29.99. Some people have gotten lucky at $20 etc. so it really depends on the price you can find it at. It is supposed to break up into 7 cu.ft. of mix I believe. Home Depot sells 2.5 cu.ft. bags of Miracle Gro potting mix for $9.98. So if you bought 3 bags that would be 7.5 cu.ft. for $29.94. All prices before taxes. Pro-mix BX comes with only a starter charge and needs fertilizer. Miracle Gro comes with fertilizer but isn't quite as nice. As you have pointed out it is also inconsistent.

If you can find a cheap source for perlite and vermiculite you could make your own mix. Home Depot sells 3 cu.ft. bales of Premier Peat Moss for $8.97. Premier makes pro-mix. Their website says BX is made of 80-85% Canadian Sphagnum Peat Moss. You could play with the ingredients to make up the difference. Here is a link that shows the ingredients. Select Mycorise Pro then Pro-Mix BX.
Click to expand...

The Premier peat moss from Lowe's is very good quality too, the same quality as what they put in Pro-Mix BX. It's very fine and has very few twigs or other stuff. It's a lot better than the other peat moss I bought this year, which was full of all kinds of stuff.

The place where I buy Pro-Mix BX has 4 cubic ft. bags of perlite for $16. Peat moss + perlite + pH adjuster + mycorrhizae would basically be the same as Pro-Mix BX for pretty cheap. I was at Lowe's today and saw they had bags of something about the same size as Holly Tone tomato fertilizers (probalby 4-5 lbs) that said mycorrhizae fungi on it. Not sure exactly what it was, I didn't look at it that closely.

Then again, a mycorrhizae innoculant might not even be needed if you're mixing compost in. Compost should already have a lot of those fungi, or you could just dig up a little dirt form a nearby tree and mix that in, since mycorrhizae should already by present there too.
 
The partially composted cow manure available from some farmers in northern NJ spawns tons and tons of cherry tomatoes. I'm surprised that it passes through their gut intact.
 
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