Never tried it but looked it up on the Scotts web site. The FAQ section had the following:

How is Organic Choice Garden Soil different from regular Miracle-Gro® Garden Soil?
Organic Choice contains all-natural, organic ingredients, including sphagnum peat moss, composted manure, and an organic wetting agent to help the product retain moisture. Regular Miracle-Gro Garden Soil contains the same materials, but uses a conventional wetting agent and plant food found in the Miracle-Gro and Osmocote® plant food products.

Well bogey123, the OP was asking about Organic Choice Fertilizer rather their Organic Coice Garden Soil.

The suspense is killing me. Does it or does it not contain potentially harmful grains?

Potentially harmful grains????? What does that mean?

"Potentially harmful grains????? What does that mean?"

Both aflatoxin and pesticide residue are carcinogenic and found on decomposing grains.

-Deerslayer

I suggest rich6910 do some research and let everyone know.

well, thats it, i think i better give up on the grains and start spreading chemicals...and don my chemical resistant gloves, long pants(being sure to tuck them in my socks) and be certain no one goes on my lawn for 24 hours after application, and be sure to wash my hands thouroughly and launder my clothes so as to not ingest any chemicals thru my skin or inhale any dust(oh yeah forgot the dust mask).
who cares about all the critters and birds and pets and other wildlife.
and while i'm at it i'm never going to touch dirt again, and build my self a plastic bubble to walk around in so i dont get any alfatoxins or pesticide residues in my body.

the plastic bubble also protects me from car exhaust, paint fumes, cleaning chemicals, and global warming.

i also am going to remove beef from my diet(ya know to keep the pesticide residues that the cows ingested eating that grain)and stop eating corn on the cob for sure(dont want those pesticide residues entering my body)..and better stop eating bread, and fruits and vegetables(pesticide residues are rampant on fruits and vegetable).....................

sheesh. talk about splitting hairs...

so what about that scotts organic choice fertilizer anyway??

No offense meant Bogey, and I hope none taken. DCHALL, I still have my corn muffins in the morning and no matter what, nobody's taking away my corn on the cob this summer.

When I googled "organic choice fertilizer" I found this ...

Here is a link that might be useful: Miracle Gro Organic Choice Info

"well, thats it, i think i better give up on the grains and start spreading chemicals"

I'm beginning to consider it. Based on its MSDS, using coated urea as fertilizer is safer than using grains. Next in line are the biosolids. Yes, I know that biosolids contain heavy metals but in extremely low amounts. At least biosolids are not carcinogenic.

-Deerslayer

rich - no offense taken.

I just found this site while looking for info on the Scotts Organic Choice I just bought at Lowes.
1)Why would Scotts on the bag refer one to www.scotts.com to get info when they have none on the product? Who at Scotts dropped the ball on this one?
2)I was searching for Milorganite and haven't found any at Westlake, Wal-Mart, Menards and Lowes. They can't sell any if they can't get it into the stores!!!

Hence I bought the Scotts product and all I can learn about it is from the Bag.

I just bought some Milorganite at our local farmer's co-op store.

I have gone back to using Milorganite too this year.

You can always make your own milorganite. It's not that difficult.

"You can always make your own milorganite. It's not that difficult."

True, but your wife may not like the step where you put the microbe skeletons in the oven and bake them. 8^)

I also purchased some Milorganite. Meijer's currently has it for $7.49 for 40lbs. Lowes and HD are selling it for $9.95 in my area.

-Deerslayer

Anyone else have any info on this? Looking for a list of ingredients ideally.

Thanks in advance

I had trouble finding Milorganite a couple weeks ago. It's in stock in all the stores now.

Here is the label from the Scotts Organic Choice fertilizer:
{{gwi:80522}}

I think I may try this to see if it smells better than Milorganite. Higher in N than Milorganite too, mostly insoluble. IIRC it's about $15 per bag at the orange guys.

Thanks for posting the analysis. How many pounds are in a bag?

Sulfate of potash is a mined chemical (K2O) but that doesn't concern me much. However, it may trouble organic purists.

It's interesting that Organic Choice doesn't contain grains. Personally, I like the idea of using ingredients that are safe but don't have high value alternative uses (food, energy, etc.) Organic Choice appears to be made from low value ingredients.

-Deerslayer

I saw a bag of this fertilizer a couple of days ago at Home Depot and was looking for more information, which is how I found this forum. The bag is 40 lb, as I remember, and meant to cover 4,000 square feet. It was for $14.59, I think. It looks smaller than the 40lb bag of Milorganite, but these things are measured by weight, not volume.
If anyone has used this for a year or so, I'd like to know of their experience. Also, would love to hear from someone who has used corn gluten meal as an herbicide.
The Scotts organic fertilizer doesn't seem to have iron (which is not good), or chlorine (which is good). But I like the the fact that it is not loaded with synthetics. If I use this, I'd probably add some Epsom salts and follow it up with a chelated iron spray.
I have been using Milorganite the past couple of years, with some add-ons, and we like the results but not the odor that lasts a few days.
Since Milorganite is a 6-2-0, I add a 4lb bag of sulfate of potash (0-0-50), and also a 4lb bag of Epsom salts which contains 12% magnesium. The Milorganite is a 40lb bag meant for 2,500 square feet, but I use it on 4,000 square feet. The results are excellent, the odor is not.

Thanks for the info. I'm fairly sure that this is the first year that Organic Choice is being sold. On a $ per lb of N basis, it costs about the same as Milorganite. Please keep us posted on your experience with it.

-Deerslayer

Just curious and I lost all my links from a hard drive going bad. What is the N value of soybean meal??
Thanks
John

"What is the N value of soybean meal?

Long answer:
Soybean meal can have a range of protein values. 44% protein is the most common. To determine the N equivalent of an organic material, divide the protein value by 6.

Short answer:
Normally, about 7.

-Deerslayer

Thanks deerslayer,I had a link I think texas weed posted that gave the values of different grains. I just wanted to compare it to the above fertilizer. I used soybean most of last season but want something a bit more stout in the N for bermuda.
John

I tried to get more information from the Web address on the Scotts bag, http://www.regulatory-info-sc.com/
It offers 2 links, one to Washington and the other to Oregon Dept. of Agriculture. The info was more easily available on the Oregon site, and is mostly about heavy metals, not about iron and chlorine. (And I thought iron was a heavy metal!)
Scotts gets bonus points in my book: it has a fraction of the arsenic, mercury and lead Milorganite has, though I don't know at what level the heavy metal becomes harmful to the environment.
Much, much more information available on:
http://oda.state.or.us/dbs/heavy_metal/search.lasso
and
http://agr.wa.gov/PestFert/Fertilizers/FertDB/Product1.asp

I bought 3 bags today and spread it. The bags are 29.1 pounds and was 14.95 at Lowes. I figured on 1 lb. per thousand for bermuda. The bag gave a setting of 7.5 for the Scotts speedy green and that is the spreader I use. It seemed to much right off so I knocked it back to the fifth setting. It worked out just about right. I was able to go east to west,then north to south. Its the middle of April, so Im thinking about Memorial Day Ill put Urea out and continue with that for the remainder of the growing season.
John

I recently asked a sales guy at a store about the safety of non-organic lawn fertilizers, and his response was along the lines of "this stuff [meaning the toxic, non-organic fertilizers] goes into the ground quickly, so you don't have to worry about your 3 year old playing out on the lawn". What is the response to this?

Who said chemical fertilizers are toxic? Herbicides and pesticides are one thing, but chemical fertilizers are mostly salts and are fairly benign. With organic fertilizers, you have to worry about contaminants, pesticide residues, etc.; they are not benign by any means.

BTW, I saw Scott's organic fertilizer at Walmart in different packaging. It was a very unadorned looking bag and was $10 for 18lbs (if memory serves).

I bought a bag of this hoping it is safer for my 2 dogs. I have not out it down yet because I cannot get any real information as to whether or not it is truly safer for pets versus shemical fertilizers. I contacted a lawn service looking for a quote on a pet-safe treatment, and they merely gave me a pamphlet saying chemicals are not proven to be harmful to pets. Not the answer I was looking for. Can anyone tell me if it really is safer for pets or is the happy dog on the label just a marketing ploy.

I am going to get that organic stuff in a little while and put it down to see how it works. I've never used organic fertilizer before.

Not sure if any of you have heard but Scotts is suing a small company called Terracycle, claiming that there packaging resembles Scotts. If you get a chance check out Terracycle's website and decide for yourself. David versus Goliath kind of thing.

Does anybody have any results to share from using this stuff? I thought I would give it a try instead of just using milorganite this year but I am curious what other people's results are.

I test drove it. My grass came out of dormacy early this year so it was already green. But a couple weeks later after applying the fert,my grass really greened up. However,I think its to expensive and Soybean meal works just as good. The Scotts also has a strong odor for a day or so. It may be a good option for someone having a hard time finding an organic fert.
I am trying to get Bermuda established and its nitrogen hog. I will make another ap of fertilizer on Memorial Day but I cant make up my mind to use Soybean or coated Urea. Ive never used the coated Urea but it should be cheaper for the Bermudas nitrogen fix.
John

How much did you pay for the Scott's? At the Home Depot near my house it was 7.99 for a 2500sqft bag. That's about what I pay for cracked corn or alfalfa if I apply it at 20lbs/sqft.

At my Lowes,it was 14.95 a bag and a bag was 29 pounds. I can buy Soy Bean meal for 8 bucks a bag. The Scotts is 11 per cent N and the Soy Bean is 7 per cent N. So....
There is a guy on this forum, think his user name is OKcdan. He has a beautiful Bermuda lawn and he uses Soy Bean. But Im gonna probably go with Urea because I have spots of Centepede still hanging on and I believe the heavier N will help to get rid of it and the Bermuda will out compete it.
John

I saw this at Lowe's recently also and was curious. So, I searched on their web site (scotts.com) for 'Organic Fertilizer' and found this:

http://www.gardenadvice.com/index.cfm/event/Article.Detail/documentId/2adf31285e52651a08f7062830308eb6

It states 'recycled poultry litter'. I guess they mean chicken sh%@.

I don't know what to believe about fertilizers. No one seams to know what is really in Scotts Organic. But Milorganite is made from sewage http://cwmi.css.cornell.edu/milorganite.pdf Ironite is sued, and pulled from shelves in California for having Lead and Arsonic http://www.dirtdoctor.com/view_question.php?id=120

My lawn has been feed organics (alfalfa pellets and corn meal) for 2 years now. About a month and half ago I put down the Scotts organic choice and it returned excellent results.

Look at the label, there is nothing hidden, no other ingredients, fillers etc. etc. I think its great that a big primarily chemical company is offering this as an alternative.

Am I going to use this exclusively? No, but I feel its great to be able to incorporate a wide variety of food in one bag.

So I say put it down.

I put it down a month ago on my TTTF and it was a deep green within a week or two. Very happy with the results and the product.

We prefer Perfect Blend 4-4-4, but it's not available anymore.

Well, my two labs accidentally ingested about a tablespoon each of this. One vomited for 24 hours and seems to be fine. The other one couldn't stand or walk, wouldnt eat ice chips and basically looked almost dead. I thought he was going to die. He did recover. But, there is something in it that is certainly toxic. Poison control couldnt say what because scotts didnt provide a detailed list of items. And the emergency vet said there was nothing that could be done except wait and see, other than providing IV fluids. They both said that chemical fertilizer may be less toxic because of the contaminant issue.

Has anyone used Scott's 100% Organic Choice Fertilizer Lawn Service?
Safe for kids?
Will it turn the lawn yellow? We are going from chemical to organic now.
Weeds?