I myself prefer Dynamite, last longer, has the mircos etc.

I contacted customer service at Scotts and they told me that Osmocote Plus is back.

But does it have the Calcium that was in the old formula?

Josh

Chopper, can you take a pic of the nutrients on the label and post?

Josh,

here an image I got from internet.

It has 1.9% Calcium

Drew, Osmo Plus has everything that Dynamite has -- plus Zinc.

Can't wait for it to get to my area. I went to 6 places yesterday here in central cali (home depot, lowes, Ace, Orchard Hardware Supply, & Walmart. Nada.

Seysonn, is that a shot of the *new* product or the old?

Josh

I'm pretty sure that is my photo of the label on the old Osmocote Plus that I posted in another thread on this subject. I recognize my cropping. The formula with calcium was discontinued when Scott's Miracle Gro sold Osmocote to another company. That company sells a version using the same name that is similar, but it has no calcium and is only sold in large bags. Home Depot, Ace Hardware and Meijer have been selling left over stock of the old formula, and I'd snap it up if I found it. I have switched to Dynamite All Purpose Select 15-5-9 as shown in my photo. It is an excellent product with a good NPK ratio, micronutrients and a proper balance of calcium and magnesium. I think it will work well, but I've only been using it for six months on indoor plants.

I would love to be proved wrong about the availability of the original Osmocote plus. Please tell me where I can buy it online like any of the other Osmocote products.

Per e-mail from Scott's today.

Thank you for your interest in Scotts and for the opportunity to help you with your lawn and garden endeavors.

The Multipurpose product has been discontinued. For a product with micronutrients, I recommend Osmocote Plus Outdoor and Indoor.

Thank you for taking the time to contact us and for your interest in Scotts. Please feel free to contact our company anytime we may be of assistance.

Karen Rausch
Consumer Response Representative
The Scotts Company and Subsidiaries
14111 Scottslawn Road
Marysville, OH 43041
800-645-8166

Is this the correct product? It is on the Scotts website.

Here is a link that might be useful: Osmocote Plus Packaging

Seysonn, is that a shot of the *new* product or the old?

Josh
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Josh, Ohiofem, I got that image from internet (not from GW).
I checked back, that image came from GW. So I think you are right, Ohiofem. But there few other images showing the same analysis.
I just assumed that probably if they did put Osmocote Plus on the shelf , has to be the same.
Today I was in HD. NO trace of Osmocote Plus, so far.

MY NEW FINDING:

Apparantly the new Osmocote Plus does NOT contain CALCIUM>

Here is an analisis from Scotts website:

TOTAL NITROGEN (N)*....................15.0%
Ammoniacal Nitrogen............................7.0%
Nitrate Nitrogen....................................8.0%
AVAILABLE PHOSPHATE (P
2 O
5 )*.........9.0%
SOLUBLE POTASH (K
2 O)..................12.0%
MAGNESIUM (Mg)*.............................1.0%
SULFUR (S)*.....................................2.3%
BORON (B)*.....................................0.02%
COPPER (Cu)*.................................0.05%
IRON (Fe)*.......................................0.45%
Chelated Iron (Fe)*..............................0.23%
MANGANESE (Mn)*...........................0.06%
MOLYBDENUM (Mo)*.........................0.02%
ZINC (Zn)*.......................................0.05%

Brownmola: if you find Osmocote plus in that package, it is the correct product. It will have the label Seysonn posted above. They're not making it any more, but there are probably still some in a few warehouses out there. The fact that Scotts has not removed that page from their website after all this time (at least two years) suggests to me that the rest of the stuff on that site is not very reliable.

The new Osmocote Plus That I found on Scotts site, comes in an 8 lbs plastic bag. AND it does NOT have calcium.

Here is Another alternative :
=============
MG Shake n Feed(slow release, feeds up to 3 months) with calcium: 9-4-12.
=====================
It is available at HD and Lowes.

This post was edited by seysonn on Thu, Mar 27, 14 at 11:24

When I was at my local garden center the other day I noticed the Osmocote Plus as well and I was wondering if that was what I was looking for at the end of last season (and instead ended up ordering Dynamite 15-5-9 off a website when I couldn't locate any). Next time I'm there I'll check for the Calcium in the ingredient list.

This new MG has similar analysis to Dynamite,( 2 -1 3) it seems. Probably they(MG, Scotts) are trying to squeeze Dynamite ! !
I was looking for Dynamite at HD the other day. But they they don't sell it.
Now that I know Scotts and MG are the same company, it seems they have got a near monopoly in this business. Dangerous to the consumers. I will try to buy the competition's products from now on, as much as I can.

The MG Shake & Feed for Tomatoes has been around for several years. It was introduced before the Osmocote product was discontinued. I tried it on some of my container tomatoes in the summer of 2011, and did not think they did as well as the ones I used Osmocote Plus 15-9-12 on.

It isn't really correct to say the MG Shake & Feed 9-4-12 has a similar analysis to Dynamite All Purpose Select 15-5-9. The first is a high potash fertilizer while the second is a high nitrogen fertilizer. The MG product lasts three months while the Dynamite lasts nine months. Besides the different ratios of NPK, the nitrogen source is different for the two products. Here's a breakdown of the N sources:

Miracle Gro Shake & Feed for Tomatoes 9-4-12 (see label below):
2.4% Ammoniacal nitrogen
1.7% Nitrate nitrogen
4.9% Urea nitrogen

Dynamite All Purpose Select 15-5-9 (see label above):
8.2% Nitrate nitrogen
6.8% Ammoniacal nitrogen

Nitrogen fertilizer comes in three different forms: nitrate nitrogen (NO3), ammoniacal nitrogen (NH4) and urea nitrogen. The nitrogen form affects plant growth and media solution pH. Ammoniacal nitrogen contributes to lush plant growth, producing large leafy plants, whereas nitrate nitrogen produces a more compact plant with more fruit. High ammonium can be toxic to plants during cold, cloudy growing conditions. Urea needs to be converted to ammoniacal nitrogen by soil organisms to be most effective. My understanding is that ammonium and urea should make up less than half the nitrogen in container culture.

This post was edited by Ohiofem on Thu, Mar 27, 14 at 19:47

I should have added that the MG product is cheaper and much more widely available. Dynamite is made by Florikote, a company with less than 50 employees. Home Depot carries some of their products, but if you want more than a 2-pound bottle of the stuff, you have to buy Dynamite online. The best price I've seen is at seedranch.com, which also has free shipping. (I have no connection to the company.)

Here is a link that might be useful: Seed Ranch

Ohiofem...I am interested in finding out if you have been happy with the Dynamite All purpose select with your container veggies.
Thanks!

Dynamite CRF has been working very well for me, though I have no basis for comparison since this is my first year with 5-1-1. I already purchased Osmocote Plus for next year once I saw it on the shelves in late May.

I believe the "original" formulation of Osmocote Plus was discontinued in early 2013 when the Osmocote brand was purchased by Scotts/Miracle-Gro. The original version included all the major and minor nutrients, including Ca and Mg. I am attaching an image of that original formulation for reference.

There is a new formulation, also called Osmocote Plus, distributed by the Scotts/Miracle-Gro company, but I believe it's missing Ca and/or Mg.

If you are interested you can compare the current Osmocote Plus product label with the one I've attached (the original) to compare.

TYG

I have had a very busy summer due to family circumstances (mostly good) so I haven't been following my own advice about regular fertilizing with soluble fertilizers like Dynagro foliage pro 9-3-6 or MiracleGro 24-8-16. We've had an unusually wet and cooler summer than normal, which has helped my container garden do well in spite of the lack of attention. So most plants have had to depend largely on the Dynamite CRF I added to the 5-1-1. The vegetables seem to be doing very well. I have way too many cucumbers, peppers and tomatoes. Some of my flowering annuals are not as lush as in previous years, but that may be partly due to higher pressure from fungus. Still, they look pretty good. All things considered, I believe the Dynamite is a very good product.

Surprisingly, I found some Osmocote Plus with the original formula including calcium in a garden center I visited yesterday. It was $29.99 for 4.5 lbs., which is twice as much as I used to pay. It's also significantly more than I've been paying for 7 lbs of Dynamite (about $21, if I remember correctly). The package is exactly the same as the old stuff. I questioned the clerk, but all she knew was that they'd recently gotten a shipment in and the package looked new. This is a garden center that has always charged significantly more than its competitors, and I don't like to buy stuff there for that reason. I think I'll stick with the Dynamite.

Ohiofem: Glad you are doing well and staying busy. Interesting that you found the original Osmocote formulation, but that price is very high. I can still find it here for $20 for 4.5 lbs but its old inventory (dusty bottles) . When I found it this spring (2014) at Menards it was on clearance for $7.50. They only had a couple left.

I think I will try to find some of that Dynamite you are using and give it a try.

Thanks

TYG

thanks for the responses about Dynamite All Purpose. I plan to order some next spring.

Guys and gals... get away from those comprehensive shake n feeds, please. All the micronutrients you could possibly want are in 2-3 year lime applications, the compost you add every spring, and an all-purpose fertilizer (with no micronutrients, those are in the lime).

Look to the commercial growers. They're liming, spreading manure, and feeding with all-purpose fertilizer. You should be too.

I used to fret over which shake n feed to use. Knowing how to do it the right way is very liberating.

Lawn lime (don't use garden lime, "garden" is essentially an industry term for "twice as concentrated, 5 times the price) - all the minerals you could want.

All-purpose 10-10-10: 40 lb bag for $8
Lime: 25 lb bag for $4

And there's all the feed you'll need for years, for any typical garden. Take the $ you save and get a $10 soil test every few years.

And if you've got heavy feeders, like tomatoes, none of the shake n feeds come close (besides Palm and standard Osmocote, which are 8-8-8 and 14-14-14 and still far more expensive) Commercial tomato growers use an 18-18-21 or a 12-12-12.

Don't let them swindle you. You're a money-saving tiger. Show them your claws of consumer mindfulness.

IDK what you are talking about. Every major wholesale ornamental grower in California uses CRF and water soluble fertilizer to fertilize their stock. I get my hands on thousands of container plants every year and every single one has CRF.

I tend to not like using the terms garden lime or lawn lime because they are confusing and different, completely different chemicals. Garden lime is dolomite and lawn lime is typically hydrated lime. One will provide Ca and Mg, the other will burn you if you aren't careful. They aren't even remotely interchangeable. But of course it all depends on which product you actually mean.

IDK where you got you fertilizer numbers for tomatoes, but they are wrong. If you are talking about hothouse growers, they use three different formulations depending on which stage of growth the tomatoes are in and none of them are 12-12-12. If you are talking about field geowers they test the soil and add individual components to provide proper nutrition, so again no 12-12-12. Balanced ferts like 12-12-12 are totally unbalanced wrt plant nutrition and are a major cause of phosphorus overload in suburban gardens.

Thank you Nil13. I hope no one who is new to container growing will follow any of the advice offered by nardinipaulc. In addition to the points you made, the advice to add manure to a container is dead wrong.

I always add manure to containers, as so many studies have shown the benefits from preventing root rot to adding micros. Very few things are as studied as much as compost in containers. Studies are all over the net, it's a no brainer! Every single type of commercial organic potting mix has manure. I studied bacteria for a living. To think your pots are not teeming with bacteria is dead wrong, even if bone dry within hours of watering you will have billions. That is the point where my yields exploded. I usually never see much of a difference adding amendments, that changed adding manure, yes a major increase in productivity, amazing!