TropThought - one of the primary concerns with using soils made with small particulates is water retention. Fine sand's flow-through rate is adequate, but its water retention is excessive - especially in shallow containers. The same is true of compost/peat/coir/garden soil/topsoil/sand mixes - they just hold too much water to give plants their best chance at growing to their potential. MasterGardener shows a picture of a pepper now & then, and changes his stories as often as I change my socks. When he's able to eliminate some of the cognitive dissonance from his offerings, I'll take him seriously - until then ..... Perched water is the real issue/culprit. When a soil's particle size reaches about .1 inch, the PWT disappears entirely; so concentrating most of your soils particles in a size range of .1 inch and larger will leave you with little in the way of a saturated lower layer of soil to depress root function, hamper root health, or cause root rot issues. Uniformity in particle size can be used to the grower's considerable advantage in structuring his soils, but that uniformity can't make up for the excessive water retention that accompanies particulates that are simply too small. A quart jar full of marbles has some wonderfully large pores between the marbles, but you can probably pour close to an additional pint of BBs and then a pint of builder's sand into the same quart jar, destroying the aeration because the particles are inconsistent in size AND too small. You'd still have a good flow-through rate with the BBs and sand added to the marbles, but aeration would be poor and the ht of the PWT much too high for good results. Al

Well, Got my email back from the Miracle Gro people. I figured they'd say this: Thank you for your interest in Scotts and for the opportunity to help you with your lawn and garden endeavors. Miracle-Gro LiquaFeed cannot be used in any other feeder than the Miracle-Gro LiquaFeed sprayer. It is impossible to duplicate the concentration without special equipment. Again, the Miracle-Gro LiquaFeed plant food is not designed to be used with any other hose end or tank sprayer. Again, thank you for your interest in Scotts. Please feel free to contact our company anytime we may be of assistance. Sharon Newell Consumer Service Representative So, there you have it. I just hate having to buy their "proprietary" equipment. Thanks for the suggestion!

Ha ha. Pretty awful when a big event in your life gets to be a trip to Walmart to get your dead battery checked and charged. I need to get out more. Obviously. I thought I saw something about Walmart on the cheap seeds thread but never would have driven out there just to get seeds even 20-cent seeds. But it's kind of weird how things play out. Tiffy posted a photo of some gorgeous Sweet William she WS'ed. I thought no sense in paying shipping costs to order more after all I've already ordered. But I really wanted some. So I got 'em. They look pretty but doubt any will be as gorgeous as the one Tiffy got. I don't remember seeing any veggie seeds (or herbs) but was pretty distracted with all the things on my mind. Those might have been on another rack or more will come in. These are American Seed Company and say expiration date 12/10 so I assume they're fresh. When I get in one of those huge cavernous stores, my anxiety kicks in, and I just feel sensory overload. There was one other flower I thought of, oh I'm tired and can't think of it. I thought of it and was a little tempted. Oriental Poppy. The photo showed a red one and a peach one. I didn't get any peach ones out of all the poppies I ordered. There is a Dollar Tree store down on the other end but I was in no mood to run in here and there. I make it sound like it's a day trip. It's at most 4+ miles out by the interstate. I just hate it along that street, lots of the big name stores and condos, eating places, all kinds, looks totally unplanned and just not a pleasant drive. I always say I hate Walmart, but when I do have to go there, I always find something. The crazy thing is that I buy a car and keep it until it won't run any more, got this one in about 94. Well, not too long after, in the middle of winter of course, the battery goes dead. It's fuzzy, but I got one there because they were one of the few places open that late, and that was when they didn't have any tire and lube annex so some nice fellow just came out and put it in my car for me right by the front door of the store. I've been working on that same lifetime warranty for four batteries now lol, works as long as you have the same car. But if this one goes dead again, I'm not sure what I'll do. It's new this past fall, a replacement for a new one last year that did the exact same thing, a dud. So that's why I had to go to Walmart today. They didn't charge me anything for checking and charging the battery so that was nice. While I was finishing that up, I paid for my seeds there because I'd already paid for my other stuff at the regular checkout. The guy was looking through my seeds when I said 20 cents was a good deal. No way did I say anything about winter sowing. I'm going to sow those Sweet William tomorrow. And my T&M order came today so hope to get most of those sowed, too.

Because someone - in this case several people - disagrees with your position you have to resort to insults and name calling? Ever heard the phrase "That's the pot calling the kettle black". Miracle Grow Garden Soil How to Use For planting individual plants. Dig a hole twice as wide as the container/rootball. Blend garden soil with native soil in a 50:50 ratio. For amending beds, apply a 3 inch layer and work into the top 6 inches of the soil. Plant seeds or live plants following specific package or plant tag instructions. Water thoroughly after planting then daily until plants are well established. When to Apply Apply when planting flowers, vegetables and herbs outdoors (not in containers), or when preparing soil in outdoor gardens and landscape beds. How often to apply Amend in-ground gardens annually mixing 50/50 with existing soil. Where to Use Use for in-ground gardens. Where Not to Use Not for use in pots or containers. University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences - Gardening in Containers: Soil Univ, of Illinois Extension - Using Soil and Soil-less Mixes for Containers Dave Here is a link that might be useful: Miracle grow Garden Soil