I loathe Miracle Grow Potting Mix

[Worth1]

I have used MG products from the old organic potting soil to the new stuff the tomato food and the plant food.
I have used the plant food full strength on seedlings as soon as they have sprouted from the ground and I have had zero problems with it.

I have grown them in glass jars, plastic Ziploc bags, peat pots, coffee cans, tin cans, liver containers and sardine cans
My plants look as good as anything you can come across.
Blanket blaming an entire line of products on bad experience with one of them in my opinion is non-conducive to gaining any kind of worthwhile knowledge.
But this is a Miracle Grow haters thread and I feel that I am not welcome here.
Sorry for the intrusion.

Worth

[Ricky Shaw]

The Miracle Grow Potting Mix does a nice job on petunias, they take off for me when potted up, like a jolt. My neighbors compliment them every year at this house. They were my gardening Renaissance, the wellspring of my renewed tomato vigor. You could say I owe it all to Miracle Grow Potting Mix.

[Sun City Linda]

Originally Posted by Worth1

I have used MG products from the old organic potting soil to the new stuff the tomato food and the plant food.
I have used the plant food full strength on seedlings as soon as they have sprouted from the ground and I have had zero problems with it.

I have grown them in glass jars, plastic Ziploc bags, peat pots, coffee cans, tin cans, liver containers and sardine cans
My plants look as good as anything you can come across.
Blanket blaming an entire line of products on bad experience with one of them in my opinion is non-conducive to gaining any kind of worthwhile knowledge.
But this is a Miracle Grow haters thread and I feel that I am not welcome here.
Sorry for the intrusion.

Worth

haha I'm not a MG hater. I use MGMC in my Earthboxes often.

[Johnniemar]

We pot up with miracle grow potting mix and the plants grow very well. We just pick out the sticks and use it. Never had a problem in 10 years or so of using it. Much cheaper than the other fancy stuff.

[Cole_Robbie]

Does anyone who lives where it is cold in the spring use MG mix for seedling starts?

I am theorizing that it is weather and conditions which lead to such a wide range of experiences with MG products. In my unheated greenhouse, young plants often have to suffer through wet, cloudy days and near-freezing nights. If I used MG mix, weather like that would give me damping-off and kill everything I had. But then again, that's just as much my fault for trying to grow plants in such extreme conditions.

[Starlight]

I used to get MG and found some of the same problems other folks had. For seed starting I use Fafard's Superfine Germinating Mix. Super fine soil lets the seeds easily sprout.

For regular soil, I started using from Kmart of all places, there K-Gro Premium mix. Lots cheaper than MG. Finer texture than MG. No sticks or clumps. Soil is lighter in weight too and my plants love the stuff.

With the K-Gro I no longer have to buy bags of vermiculite and perlite to add to to MG.

I read somewhere that Jungle Soil Professional Growers Mix is available again. I used it for many..many years until production and sales had stopped.

[Hellmanns]

I have used MG plant food for decades with no issues at all, though I much prefer the older 15-30-15 formulation. It is still available, but labeled as Bloom Booster or something like that.

[wildcat62]

I've had good luck with MG products.

[disneynut1977]

Originally Posted by Labradors2

I hate MG potting soil too. It always seems to have fungus gnat eggs in it - grrrr!

Same here. 2 years ago, I lost all my fig cuttings and sweet peppers when I potted up with MG potting soil. Mosqito dunks does the trick for stopping the cycle, but that year it was too late and I ended up having to buy pepper plants.

This year, I bought MG potting mix for my winter sowing as it stays outside and I have never had a problem using it like that. When I potted up my bulbing onions 2 weeks ago, all I had on hand that was heavier than the seed starting mix was the MG. You would think I had learned my lesson already, but I used the MG 50/50 with seed starting mix and about 1 weeks after potting those onions up they started to look bad. I ran my hand across them and a few fungus gnats flew up. My jugs of mosquito dunks granules are still packed away somewhere from the move, so I ran out to Countrymax and picked up a small pack of the dunks. I think I caught them early enough and I HOPE i learned my lesson to not use that stuff again for indoors.

[AlittleSalt]

"Quote

Lisa,

This year, I'm trying Pennington Pro Potting Mix.

Like MG - it has sticks. Pennington is the darkest mix I've used. When it is wet - it is black. If you squeeze the water out of it - it is black. When you feel it in your hand - it feels very organic - it looks the same way. I wouldn't even think about potting up with this on a surface that I couldn't wash with a water hose afterwards.

... unquote"

Pennington Pro Potting Mix is difficult to see when it is dry because the top dries out fast while it is wet further down in the cups.

Next year, I will be making my own potting mix.

[Worth1]

My MG Natures Care didn't have sticks, maybe one or two in every gallon or so but nothing like the old stuff that I felt like I was digging in a brush pile.


Worth

[greenthumbomaha]

I just wanted to clarify I used a traditional seed starting mix and potted up into Miracle Grow Potting Soil when the seedlings were just getting their true leaves. I have since gone back to a potting mix without fertilizer (Fertilome) for the remaining seedlings and prefer the finer texture and a less "fertile" soil at this early stage. I have two fertilizers for fun - fox farm stinky fish stuff and jobes soluble.

I will follow Craigs recommendation and return to the MG mix at about 8 weeks (as a cost measure as I got it on sale for fifty cents a bag) , which for me will be the potting up just before plant out if the weather stays cold this spring.

- Lisa

[Worth1]

I have found looking at bags that what a person buys in one area is not the same as another area.
More that likely all of these brands may be made by contracted out processors just like some of our food products.
I dread the day they all start coming from China.

Worth

[PaulF]

Cole_Robbie: I do use MG potting mix containing slow release fertilizer as a seed starter (or it's equivalent in other brands). We do have cold springtime temps here but all the seed starting takes place in a temperature controlled basement.

Potting up takes place in the basement as well using the same potting mix as seed starter. Hardening off outdoors in widely changing and fluctuating weather conditions can be a challenge. End of April to the beginning of May weather can range from eighties to forties in the blink of an eye.

[gregory]

I have been using miracle grow for the last 4 years with no problems.
I guess I was fortunate that I have very few sticks. For my larger pots the sticks are a good thing, since I will mix in perhaps a third or more with mini bark nuggets to
Allow for drainage. Plus they take up some volume which makes it more cost effective.