Miracle Grow

Why do a lot of people on this site not like miracle grow? It's a top selling soil, surely it can't be all bad?

My thoughts run like this: The soil has been developed by people that spend their whole day thinking about soil, not just thinking about it but developing and testing it.

Maybe the soil is so good you don't need to add your own fert's.

Has anyone had any success with miracle grow soil? I grew 2 healthy plants in miracle grow a number of years ago. I grew them from seed without a fan and without any lights. They never flowered because they didn't get enough light, but they grew. They were well over 2ft when I threw them out.

did you use your own ferts at all or just let it do its thing because i think it really cant be bad i figured i would try it out... ohh yea is there any way you can tell if your plant need fertilizer

No, I just let them grow naturally. One in the kitchen because after a while i suspected it was a male due to it's taller, skinnier frame. The short, squat one I kept in the living room. It took them months to grow and they never suffered from yellowing leaves. I didn't have any real clue as to what I was doing.

The plant that I suspected as a male could have been the opposite.

On this grow that I'm doing now the first plant we picked out during veg as a potential male, the tallest, skinniest plant of all has turned out to be a fem'. She's 3" taller than her nearest rivals. She towered over the males too. A true matriarch. She's our tallest plant but i don't think she'll provide the bigger yield. There's another, much shorter fem' that is just covered in bud, and they are rising to meet each other all the way up the stem. My mouth is watering just thinking about her. She's the background on my P.C. at the moment, a proper little darlin'.

Hummmm i think Garden Knowm needs to step in this...there are a few reasons why MGrow doesnt "perform" so well with some ppl i think thats due to soil nutrient instability altho i´ve seen a Papaya grow (if i remeber correctly) done by GK with only MGrow and Cfl´s and let me tell u the thing was a huge, i remeber the trick of getting the Miracle Grow running smoothly was keeping water Ph at around 8 (MG soil is to acidic) i´ve never used and prolly never will cause where i live i cant get my hands on some (ordering via nte is just to expensive), but i sure would give it a try...

well thats what im going to try so i shouldnt add any fertilizer correct if i use miracle grow + some perlite

If you're going to use it try not to use any fert's till flower. At worst your plants will indicate when they need some before this. Check Rollitup's thread on plant problems and remedies. It's simple to understand.

I have been using it and I have over fertilized a few times. I think the two drawback were time release nutes and ph is too low. My mg soil is about 6.8. I guess I got the right one.

Ok Miracle Grow is fine if you do not mind not growing to your fullest potential. If you’re running HID lamps in your space you know how expensive it can be. Do you really want to waste all your hard earned money and time on a substantially low yield crop? If you answered no keep reading I will tell you why Miracle Grow is not the best choice for growing marijuana. However if you insist on feeding your plants with Miracle Grow or planting them in Miracle Grow Soil I have advice for you too.

Miracle grow is not designed to meet the needs of marijuana the results can only be second rate at best when using an inferior fertilizer. The cannabis plant requires high concentrations of (N) Nitrogen during the vegetative stage and high doses of (K) potassium during bud production. These are two of the most essential of nutrients a strong cannabis plant needs to thrive. Not only does cannabis need these compounds to grow, it also needs them at the correct time to be used efficiently.

When growing in soil ("Big mess YUK") as opposed to hydroponics many growers will take shortcuts in the beginning that will have greater long term effects on the end result. One of the most well known mistakes by armature growers is to use ready mixed soils. These are soils with trace minerals and vitamins already in the soil. Many of these products come pre-mixed with a time release system to release the fertilizers into the plants root system over time. This will lead to burning your plants later on when you fertilize them and then the soil does the same. As for the stand alone fertilizers by Miracle Grow they do not contain enough (N) Nitrogen or (K) Potassium and are usually not the best choice for more serious growers. Check your fertilizers for the fertilizer concentrations listing. A fertilizer marked 10-15-20 would contain 10% Nitrogen 15% Phosphorus and 20% Potassium. During vegetative growth look for a fertilizer that contains higher doses of (N) Nitrogen and one with a higher (K) Potassium dosage for flowering mature plants. Also you may want to consider the trace elements a cannabis plant needs for a healthy life cycle such as (Zn) zinc, (Cu) copper, (Mn) Manganese and (Fe) iron. Most of these will be included in a good fertilizer. Try using a "soiless mix" which is simply soil with no nutritional content. This is like starting with a clean slate. Soiless mixes can be bought or mixed by hand. They usually consist of sphagnum peat moss, vermiculite and perlite. In addition you can add fertilizers to the soil during mixing time or later on. I recomend bat bat guano and or worm castings if using soil.As a personal preference I choose Advanced Nutrients line of nutrients for my hydroponic system and I am impressed at the results. The reason being they are designed to grow cannabis like no other. Treat your plants with respect and dignity and they will return the favor come harvest time.

One more thing yellowing leaves does not always indicate nitrogen deficiency. If growing indoors always make sure your container is large enough to support the developing root mass. Large plants in small containers can yeild effects similar to that of Nitrogen Deficiency (i.e curled leaf tips, yellowing of lower fan leaves). Many growers will assume the plant needs nitrogen and in turn burn the plant.

Happy Harvest

You've managed to mystify me. Before this post, I never had any intention of using mg, I just wanted to know why so many people do not like it.

If mg is a little low in nitrogen for veg' stage, why not just add a little?

Anyway, you seem like you could help me. Is voodoo juice and carboload ok to use together during flowering, oh almost forgot we are also using green dream bloomer as well. So is it fine to be using all 3 at half dosage every feed? We feed every 5 to, uhm, I think the longest we've gone without watering is 8 days.

Ok correction...

I have been using my soil ph meter wrong. When I checked the ph when my soil was moist to dry it read 6.8. But when I water and the soil is damp then it reads about 5. Now I am tripping. I went and watered at 8 and I was about 5.7. So I watered the next time at 9.5. This brought the ph to about 6.5 while the soil is wet. The plants started looking weak and kinda looked like they were out of water but still moist. I waited all day till they needed water and gave them a 7.8 watering and they are looking a lot better now. Tested the soil and it is at 6 now. Im getting confused, wtf?.

Am I going to have to continue to water at 8ish or once it adjust can I go back to 6.5 water?

I will never buy this soil again.

Widow Maker said:

Am I going to have to continue to water at 8ish or once it adjust can I go back to 6.5 water?

Click to expand...

I´m affraid so man...MG soil is to accidic the only way u can fight this is to keep watering around 8ph and use some dolomite lime to stabelise it...Peace and Pot

Sounds like far too much hard work. Thanks Widow you've saved me ever needing to bother.

Im using MG moisture control potting mix with slow release ferts..its very acidic, but my tap water is "slightly alkaline" just like most ppls tap water on the pH scale. I ran some warm tap water, left it out for 24 hrs and added it to the soil about a week ago, and its neutral... tested with a soil meter and its very weak in Npk, but hopefully when i transplant my seedlings to it the ferts will release..I dont plan on transplanting from my jiffy pellets for another 2 weeks or until i see a good root structure bursting out..bott0mline...Miracle Gro Moisture Control does work for growing weed!!!!..or at least it should...in theory it will work!

So since it feeds plants for up to 90 days I plan on doing an experiment..Im gonna leave one plant alone and let MG do all the feeding, i just control the watering and lighting..another im gonna add a lil tiger bloom and big bloom ferts..a dab'll do ya...and see which one gives me better results..Im growing under cfl's and its from bagseeds....the odds looks like they're against me but...a true player rises to the occasion!!

how much wattage, how many plants? GL, with the MG.

is this stuff any good? i hope cuz im already using it, said 0, .01, 0
so thats hardly any phosphate, im pretty much working w/ a "clean slate" correct?
Product Guide: Scotts® Potting Soil

MIRACLE GROW's down falls:

it has high radioactivity, not exactly sure the damage this will cause, but it does'nt sound too healthy for humans.

it is synthetically(chemically)made,wich takes away if from your plants full potential flavor&aroma(as you would get from organics)

its also probably not good to eat or smoke anything grown by it!just imagine drinking a couple glasses of miracle grow a few times a week, like kool-aid!

its only a one part ferttilizer, so you cant treat deficiencies individually as they come up with out over doseing another(N,P or K,) level.

you should have atleast a three part nute system,one bottle mainly for N veg,one mainly for P bloom,and one as a supplement for your(micro,macro nutes) organic or chemical.if you cant come up with 40-60 bucks to get em right now, then pick up a cheap one part bloom feed for now.MG has one BLOOM BOOSTER its called, its water soluable,and about 6 bucks

all ferts are radioactive if ya wanna go there...doesnt matter if its organic or in organic its gonna have radioactivity..MG isnt the worse out there..actually its pretty comprable to some of the best organic soils..only difference is u'd be better off not starting seedlings in MG.


I havent heard/saw/experienced any loss of flavor bcuz of MG...whether its bud, vegetables or fruits I have never had an experience of loss of smell/flavor from MG and come to think of it...i used to work at a small restaurnt where the owner grew his own veggies and fruits using "MG for fruits and veggies" and they actually tasted better and looked a lot better than when we had to buy it..and this was back in 01 before all this research was done

no one is gonna "drink" MG like koolaid...its not logical ..if thats the case try drinking some of that blood meal "organic ferts" every day like tea!

buying seprate ferts is something i will consider tho...i mean its kinda pricey tho..and most ppl will say you dont need that...just remember plants mostly needs Nitrogen during vegetative growth and potassium and phosphorus during flowering..
I definately will look into that MG's BB u mentioned..never considered that
thanx

I used the MG organic choice potting mix and with a 50/50 mix of perlite it was pretty good..the pH was around 6.5, the thing I didnt like ws that it didnt seem to hold water for as longs as other soils I've tried but that just means you gotta water more often...I guess since its organic you dont have that chemical flavor or aroma..which I dont think should be a problem with any soil really because your supposed to flush all that out at the end anyway

I am currently using the MG organic choice with perlite mixed it. At first I didn't have any perlite, and the soil had bad drainage. But I recently transplanted and now there is a good amount of perlite in the soil and they seem to be doing better.

I dsagree with you spittin4cash. The n-p-k levels are all wrong for mj, however when used in yr restaurant to grow veggies, the n-p-k levals are ok.
Obviously you have better nutes, you make a previous reference to using some of foxfarms products.
Theres an old saying, "you are what you eat"