Miracle Gro...what's the deal?

Well here's my issue...I've gotten all kinds of contradicting information on Miracle Gro Organic Potting Mix. I'm using it and experienced a slight burn right when I started the seedlings. It turned out to be a pH problem, but my pH was too HIGH! Quite different from what everyone says about MG. This could have to do with my mixture though...

I used the MG potting mix along with some MG blood meal, a pureed bag of baby carrots, and perlite. I corrected the pH issue with a sulfur mix.

So, for those that knock MG well ya must not use it right or something (not to sound prude, I'm a beginner. but it does only take one contradicting case to disprove a theory after all) because my babies are looking pretty healthy ever since the pH got corrected. Now...what's next? They are about 20-25 days old between all of them. Just introduced a little MG bone meal today. Any other suggestions? Minerals, worm castings, etc? Any bit of intelligent advice will get +rep! Thanks

got any pics? my girls are in mg organic potting mix with some dolomite lime and perlite. they love it

here they are...the first picture shows all my plants with two spot plant lights...i just introduced those two lights yesterday. previously i only had a hanging plant and aquarium lighting set up (two four foot flourescents found at wal-mart labeled plant and aquarium). i've been keeping these lights within a half inch to an inch of my tallest plants. they dont seem to produce any heat at all. so far this has been ample (i've definitely taken the beginner bargain route). i'm going to add a couple more spot lights once i start flowering. i plan on keeping three, maybe four plants if i decide to buy another hanging fixture.

the second picture shows one of the more mature ones up close. its my understanding that they may be a little underdeveloped for their age but they DO look damn healthy. i'll blame the lighting and not the soil. not as much worried about quantity as i am the quality of my yield. i just wanna smoke some tastiness that i've slaved over...for cheap haha

I had a little bit of nutrient burn when I used Miracle Gro. Most likely because I was also using pellet-type fertiliser as well. I've only fed the plant with MG once, and after 2 days of slow growth the plant started growing like no tomorrow. Now I'm feeding every week or two and it's loving it.

I think experiences with it have a lot to do with the soil you use. I'm using a mixture of naturally nitrogen-rich and slightly sandy soil from my garden, along with some compost with a few minerals in it.

i used MG organic soil and it ruined my plants but i think it had a bit more to do with my lack of experience. I think the problem is that miracle grow is an everyday soil producer and people dont trust that thy will use the best nutes. I also think people need to understand that no matter what soil you use youre going to have to do some adjustments. I personally will never use it again though im just going to use light warrior perlite and some coco rocks on the bottom with FF nutes and some kind of carbo during the flushing stage.

yeah there are a lot of variables to play with no matter what soil you choose. those of you that have had success though...if you have any suggestions specifically for my grow it would be appreciated. Doomah, what type of MG plant feed was it that you used? and was it MG soil? thanks dude

I used miracle grow organic on my first grow and now am using Fox Farm ocean forest. It is a HUGE difference. first let me say that my temps, humidity, ph.... are all spot on. I have my room set up perfect. I would only need to water once a week using the MG and with the FF I'm watering every three days = better drainage. The lack of drainage and poor quality of the MG gave me fungus gnats up the wazoo, the FF there is not a gnat in site. The MG has nutes that last longer than the FF, but they will not last the whole grow and here lies the problem. Trying to figure out when the MG nutes wear off and when to add your own. I started adding nutes to the FF after 4 weeks and the plants are loving it, no burn, no problems. Using the MG my plants only grew 150% during 8 weeks of flowering. Using the FF my plants have grown 200% during the first week!! Miracle grow sucks balls man. Finish out your grow, but next grow use some "better" dirt and you will LOVE IT.

White Ryno said:

Doomah, what type of MG plant feed was it that you used? and was it MG soil? thanks dude

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I used the soluble plant food, 24-8-16. Blue powdery stuff that you mix with water and feed with. I didn't use MG soil or potting mix - the store-bought soil I did use I'm not sure what it is , apart from that it has trace minerals in it, and it's definitely not MG.

Although I'm a bit of a newbie, MG has caused me no real problems thus far. Prob'ly 'cause I don't feed it as much as the box tells me to.

yes i have gone light on the feeding as well....hopefully that method pays off for me too. i may try that plant food (if i can find it) in my flowering and see how that works. did you spray feed or just incorporate into your watering? thanks a lot....+rep

Brian, did you mix in perlite with your MG soil? I have and it seems to be draining just fine. I was watering every 2 days but I've pulled back to every 3 days because I also ran into some gnats. A few fly ribbons and some non toxic spray have kept the problem under control though. I'm not sure that any sort of soil could have done differently in my situation. Growing in the attic of an ancient college town house...bound to be a few bugs. I bombed the attic before I started and that surely helped. Too bad I can't do that while the plants are in there

haha yea man fungus nats are pretty nasty but if you keep your plants draining you can nip em in the but. i think a circulation fan inside helps to when i think of stagnant anything i get a little sick to my stomach maybe because i think of stagnant water.... but ive never had a problem with nats indoors or out. and my first grow i used mg.... i started it out doors late in the season like late mid july. turned out fine but it was difficult to get a good flush with mg. my bud tasted a little funny but idk if it would with organic.

yeah i think when i transplant i am going to use a lot more perlite than i did for the seedlings to help me with the eventual flushing...i also used a big bud formula on two of my seedlings. this formula was just recently patented (not on market) by someone i have connections with locally in my home town. i will let you guys see the difference once i do! kinda excited for the outcome of the experiment

i always tell the mg haters to check my threads and see what mg can do if you know what your doing .. most the haters just cant grow

agreed on that homie

I've been having really good results with the MG soil too. I've been using their regular potting mix, mixed with about 15% perlite, a little pelletized lime, and some worm castings. The main reason that I've been using it, is that I don't drive right at the moment, and the closet place to get Fox Farms, etc....is over a 2 hour drive. I plan to buy some good stuff when i get down to the hydro shop next time, so i can compare the results. I don't think the MG stuff is sterylized, because I had trouble with fungus gnats too. Sound like a common problem with MG soil. I also read that fungus gnats love pine bark, so I'm wondering if MG soil has some in it. Hmm.....

Anyway, it's convenient and it works, if you add a few things to it. So, it's an option if you don't have easy access to the good stuff(or the money to spend). Same thing with MG fert. If you use less than recommended, you can have excellent results. But, I definitely agree that you should buy fert engineered specifically for cannabis, because MG fert is made to cover a wide range of plants, and doesn't contain enough of some of the nutrients that cannabis requires. It will work, but isn't optimum.

hey White Rhyno, another MG Organic user here
thing about MG organic is there are 2 types, the potting and garden soil
back to your original question on ph, the garden soil has a real low ph from all the wood product compost
i do see many have mentioned the potting is on the high ph side
i like the garden soil, hit it with the dolomite and it sets that ph just fine
as others have mentioned, fungus gnats are pretty much always in there
fungus gnats can be dealt with fairly easily. in the list of plant headaches, it's a prett small one IMHO
so far, i'm liking my results with it, toss in the right amendments and it's not a bad soil at all

Here are my MG nugs, first grow (bagseed). I put the seed in Supersoil (lol) then transplanted to MG I had on hand. Smoke came out good.





Like said before its tough with nutes as far as when to add. I burnt the shit out of this girl during early flower adding too much Flora Nova. MG compacts really bad too so perlite is a must.

Fox Farm is the best choice by far and I highly recommend it but, MG can grow good pot.

Good luck

White Ryno said:

did you spray feed or just incorporate into your watering? thanks a lot....+rep

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I definitely just incorporate it into the watering. The box says 15ml of MG per 1 gallon (4.5ltrs) of water, and feed it that every two weeks, same amount as you would when watering.

I put about 10-11ml of MG per gallon water, and at I'm waiting a bit before doing another feed. I wanna see the growth start to stunt or something (bit apprehensive about using this stuff due to hype). I'll probably stick more or less to the two week thing on the box.

Oh, and I just gave a small dosage to two of my seedlings which are growing in that generic soil I have. One looked really stressed, and now 24hrs after MG they've both opened right up and the leaves are getting bigger.

Happy growing