Miracle Gro does well at plant food/fertiliser ... not so well at soil/media.

A lot of people here will give you formulae for custom potting mix blends. Personally, I like Coast of Maine potting mix and lack motivation to do custom mixes for anything other than orchids (and they get a basic mix of soaked bark and sphagnum.) (Somehow despite being a math and science person who literally has spreadsheets to decide which tomatoes/peppers to grow and how they did, I have no interest in mixing my own dirts.)

"OK" is about the best one can call them......they can make-do if there is nothing better available but MG products would never be my first choice.

Without getting into a long technical harangue, the soil mix or potting media is the most important consideration when growing a plant in a container long term. Key components are good drainage while maintaining adequate - but not excessive - soil moisture, aeration (or pore space - empty areas between individual soil mix particles) and durability of the material. MG soils fail at pretty much all of these components.

There are much better prepared bagged container soil mixes out there - Fox Farms, Pro Mix, Fafards. (Not familiar with Coast of Maine so can't comment on that.) I am one that prefers a handmade mix (the 5-1-1 formula) except for any succulents and I go with Bonsai Jack's for that. Handmade or custom mixes tend to be less expensive than packaged mixes but I only have a few succulents and cacti :-))

MG ferts are also only just okay. Since I garden almost exclusively in containers now, both the soil media as well as fertilizers are pretty critical to my gardening success, both indoors and out. I prefer Dyna Gro liquid fertilizer for all my plant nutrient needs.

If you are interested in pursuing this discussion, I'd suggest some reading of the excellent discussions available on the Container Gardening forum. In particular this one: Container Soils - Water Movement and Retention

Thanks. If my friend wants to stick with the MG soil, then I'll make sure that she at least adds plenty of perlite for aeration. And yes....FF soil (I'd forgotten the brand) is also one of my own faves. And...good to know on Bonsai Jack's for succulents, as my friends does have a few of those/cacti.

Tku.

It depends on which Miracle grow product you use. The one you mentioned is complete junk and incredibly expensive for what you get, in fact the biggest rip off I've ever seen. It has the 3 basic nutrients and none of the other 13 nutrients required to grow plants. Miracle grow water soluble general purpose fertilizer is a much better product with all but 2 of the required nutrients for plants requires and It's about the same price as MG Pour & Feed Plant Food.

If your friend can mix a 1/2 teaspoon of the MG water soluble general purpose fertilizer in a gallon of water she will get about 300 to 400 bottles of the Pour & feed bottles and she will save about $6000 dollars. No lie, this is how bad people get ripped off with premixed ready to go fertilizer in a bottle. It's like buying a jug of sink water with a few drops of dawn dish soap in it for the same price you can by the whole bottle of dawn.

The MG general purpose fertilizer is deficient of a few nutrients but the Dyna Gro liquid fertilizer Garden gal uses has all the nutrients needed, and in the right ratios of each nutrient. it cost more than the MG general purpose but still a HUGE steal compared to the MG pour & feed plant food. More more time. MG Pour & feed is garbage and insanely expensive for what you get, MG general purpose is better, and Dyna gro is the best of all I've seen, and they really can't get any better but only more expensive.

For clarity: MG makes fertilizers in at least 3 different formulations, labeling each as an "all purpose" product. They package granular soluble products with NPK %s of 24-8-16 and 20-20-20, as well as a liquid soluble with NPK %s of 12-4-8. None of these fertilizers contain Ca (calcium) or Mg (magnesium), which might not be an issue if you are using a commercially prepared medium that is pH adjusted with dolomitic lime, which raises pH and supplies Ca and Mg. It IS an issue if your medium contains more than a very small fraction of coir or CHCs, or you made your own medium and didn't or couldn't (due to pH issues) add dolomite to the batch. Of the 3 NPK % MG makes, pick either 24-8-16 or 12-4-8, as a 3:1:2 ratio fertilizer is probably the best choice (of MG products - not o/a best choice) as your 'go to' fertilizer for houseplants.

A major downside of using the MG fertilizers is in the fact that these products derive all their nitrogen from urea, which leaves plants highly susceptible to ammonium toxicity if used in combination with a water-retentive grow medium or when soil compaction is at issue. Perhaps a lesser issue lies in the fact that urea is known to cause coarse growth (large leaves and long internodes), which is an issue when light levels are less than ideal.

Dyna-Gro no longer makes fertilizers. Superthrive acquired Dyna-Gro and now makes/ packages products formerly made by Dyna-Gro. They make a number of different NPK formulations so choose wisely. Their Foliage-Pro 9-3-6 is the best choice for most containerized plants. It too is a 3:1:2 ratio fertilizer which has ALL nutrients essential to normal growth and derives more than 2/3 of its nitrogen from nitrate sources - easier on plants, easier to keep plants full and compact, and significantly reduces the likelihood of ammonium toxicity issues.

Al

Cannot critique the fertilizers, but their SOILS are GARBAGE!!!

“Dyna-Gro no longer makes fertilizers. Superthrive acquired Dyna-Gro and now makes/ packages products formerly made by Dyna-Gro.“

Actually, the Dyna-Gro and Superthrive companies were both aquired by a large conglomerate, and a number of products were re-branded. The same company makes the same fertizer in the same plant in Richmond, CA. Only the label has changed.

“Their Foliage-Pro 9-3-6 is the best choice for most containerized plants.”

Totally agree.

My feelings too, Pam.

Al

Always amused to note how the presence of a cannabis leaf on the packaging denotes a 1000% cost increase.

Speaking as a devoted weed grower, I have used Maxicrop for the past 20 years without a marijuana leaf anywhere to be seen (and an austere, 2 colour packaging instead of the usual rainbow mix).

Marketing, hey!

I reviewed Maxicrop so called fertilizers and it's a mystery why It's called a fertilizer. When I see they claim it's fully chelated (ready to use) micro nutrients which can be readily available to the plants without further chemical composition, but yet no mention on the label analysis indicating any micro nutrients. I would never recommend that product to anyone.

I may be a little premature but it looks like a scam to me. I would never buy it at a fraction of the outrageous price they want for the stuff, and don't need to source seaweed 1200 miles away in the middle of the ocean. Cannabis isn't something hard to grow, and grows like a weed without much effort. Next to garlic it's the easiest thing to grow and not some mysterious plant with special requirements.

Earlier today, I looked at the Maxicrop product mentioned as well, and was left with the glaring question, "What do you use as fertilizer?" I didn't have time to put together a comment then, but I do now, and I agree with Kevin. The only nutrient it contains, according to packaging, is potassium, and precious little of that. I have also mentioned that I am immediately distrustful of products that do not conspicuously reveal what nutrients are included and their percentages by weight.

There are 2 reasons I wouldn't use it. First, it provides nothing in the way of essential nutrients that couldn't be improved upon by using something like Foliage-Pro 9-3-6. Second, a full compliment of essential nutrients is required for normal growth. If the grower is using a product like FP 9-3-6, nothing else is required. Liebig's Law of the minimum states that a plant's rate of growth, the size to which it grows, and its overall health depend on the amount of the scarcest of its essential cultural requirements available, meaning it's the most deficient of cultural factors which limits plant performance. It further states that increasing the supply of non-limiting factors will not increase plant growth rate, size, of vitality levels, and only by increasing most deficient factor will the plant performance improve. There is also an optimum combination of the factors and increasing them, individually or in various combinations, can lead to toxicity for the plant. This (in bold) means that using a product that supplies only 1 nutrient (in this case - potassium) in combination with a fertilizer that supplies an appropriate amount potassium renders the excess amount of potassium useless at best, but more likely a limiting factor. Used as a stand-alone product, it can only be effective if 2 conditions are met. 1) There must be a potassium deficiency, AND, 2) potassium must be the most deficient of all nutrients essential to normal growth.

Al

it really doesnt matter what you use.... as long as you learn how to use it..

repot all your plants into one product.. so all you plants dry at the same time.. and then figure out when that time is for what sized pot... the closer the pots are to the same size.. the closer they all get to drying at the same time.. for ease of watering. ..

if you have disparate pot sizes.. sort by size.. and water according to size.. say one gallon might need water every other week.. small coffee cup pots.. once a week... since they dry faster..

also using the same type of pots.. e.g plastic.. makes it more predictable... dont mix in glazed and adobe.. etc.. use pot in pot for show time..

ken

it really doesnt matter what you use.... as long as you learn how to use it. Yes, it does matter. Most commercially prepared media have inherent issues with excessive water retention, and growers should realize that learning to do the best you can using any particular grow medium does not mean that because one is able to deal with grow media limitations to the degree plants aren't dying, it can still be a long way from being able to depend upon your grow medium to provide the most hospitable home for roots. IOW, adaptive changes to an excessive volume of water in the grow medium might, and usually do, provide only partial relief from the issue. For the most part, plants are going to be happiest in pot/media combinations that require frequent watering; this, because highly aerated media dry down faster meaning intervals associated with any excess water retention will be shorter, so the length of time growing conditions are in the 'most opportune' range will be a higher % of real time.

Using the same medium and even the same type of pots does not change the fact that plants are not going to dry down to the going where they need watering on the same day. The more water-retentive a medium is, the more important determining appropriate watering intervals becomes, and the more difficult it will be to establish a schedule. Weather factors, light levels, root volume, foliage surface area, nutrition, soil gas exchange, all come into play in that they are collectively what determines the rate at which free water is used from the grow medium. With such a high number of variables it's almost certain that assorted species of plants will each reach a point in time when water is needed at different times of the day and on different days of the week. Yes, there will be the occasional rarity when at the same time more than one plant is at the point where watering is ideal, due more to the overlap of acceptable (to the plant) INTERVALS.

Since it's the water held between the particles that make up a grow medium is the water that limits oxygen supply and provides anaerobic conditions favored by fungi under the umbrella of 'damping-off diseases', if one wants to water on a schedule it would be best to use a medium that holds little or no water between soil particles. I use media like that, and I do water on a schedule, but that's only because the media I use allows me to get away with it w/o issue, which adds additional support to the idea that what you grow in (grow media AND pot) does make a difference, and a BIG one at that.

Al

Miracle Grow is decent for houseplants and budget-friendly. It works fine, but if she can afford better, organic options are great.

Are you referring to the MG soil products or to their fertilizers? If to the ferts, it is well established that organically sourced fertilizers for potted or containerized plants are incredibly inefficient due to the lack of consistently high populations of soil organisms required to convert organic ferts into a plant usable form.

Omar's comments are too ambiguous - painted with a brush so wide it obscures the author's intent, which Pam has already shown.

Al