Miracle-Gro Shake & Feed: A great way to continuously feed most types of plants.
Written: Jul 16 '08
Product Rating:
Pros: Works great to produce great looking plants. Lasts up to 3 months.
Cons: None really.
The Bottom Line: Shake & Feed could not be easier. The results are amazing. I recommend this product for anyone that loves great looking outdoor plants.
Steelfan's Full Review: Miracle - Gro, 4.5 Lb, Shake & Feed, All Purpose P...
The last several years my vegetable garden has seen quite a decrease in production. This year I decided to take a more active role in trying to produce nicer, healthier plants. Things such as dry weather, lack of feeding and even last years flooding of my garden made growing nice healthy plants impossible and with a 35 by 60 garden, watering and feeding can be a problem. We live in a rural area and our water comes from a well, so watering with a hose from the house was not advised due to the possibility of running our well dry. Several years ago I bought a Homelite Waterbug water pump to pump water from a nearby creek, so that problem was not much of an issue. The main thing was keeping my plants feed with the right consistency. We were mixing Miracle-Gro into sprinkling cans and watering each plant individually, but this was a trying and time consuming task since we have 45-50 tomato plants, 24 pepper plants, several hundred onion plants and several other assorted vegetables. This year we found just the product for feeding evenly and consistently. With Miracle-Gros Shake & Feed, growing beautiful plants is as easy as shaking a jug.
It couldnt be easier.
The idea behind this All Purpose plant food is ease of application and continuous feeding for up to three months. This Miracle-Gro product comes in a 4.5 lb jug with a top that allows you to shake this plant food on evenly. The jug has a flip top the folds back into the top when not in use. This applicator flares out at the end to spread the food evenly for large areas when feeding dense areas or the control to feed just around the plant. My experiences have so far been a single application around my plants. This plant food comes in a granule about the size or a little smaller then a BB. The addition of water to this food makes these granules dissolve slowly into the ground feeding for up to 3 months possible. The direction say to add one tablespoon to 1 sq, ft. of area or 4.8 ozs per 100 sq ft for surface applications. Then to mix the product into the ground 1-3 inches deep, after that water the area immediately. My first application was a bit easier then that since I applied Miracle-Gro right before a good rain and my garden ground is very loose. I simply spread the food all around the plant as evenly as possible and let the rain do the rest. The jug is refillable and the refill comes in a 8 lb. bag.
Technical Information.
The mix is a 10-10-10 fertilizer with the following ingredients:
How does it work and on what plants?
The example I will use is the comparison between the last several year's gardens and this years garden. So far my plants at this point are just about as large as last years plant grew all year. The combination of this plant food and a good steady dose of watering have made my garden into a thing of beauty. My tomato plants are full of tomatoes and flowers and are about 4 tall. The onions are growing beautifully and we have already harvested several for thinning and eating purposes. Their size was close to the size of a tennis ball. Our pepper plants are at least 2 high and quite bushy. These 6 plants have already produced 10 peppers large enough for stuffing. We also have two other types of pepper plants and broccoli and both are looking great. For my whole garden I used about ¼ of the bottle even with a very generous application. The fact is that in my opinion, this application will most likely be my one and only for this year because my vegetable garden growing season only lasts from late May to sometime in September. I can really see no reason to feed these plants again since I can still visibly see many of the granules around the plant. My wife has not tried this feeding method yet, because she waters her flower almost everyday and we still have Miracle-Gro in a powder form from last year. With the results that I got this year, I have a feeling that she will be doing away with her old way of feeding and my jug of Miracle-Gro Shake and Feed will be emptying a lot faster. The directions do state not to use this plant food indoors or on outside container plants. This product is made for any in-ground plants.
One bad thing.
The only thing that I can think of is that the weeds will also grow well in the treated areas. This is a inconvenience that I am willing to overlook for the wonderful results that I got.
All in all: I cant say enough about this product. Results are the main thing that I look for in all products that I use. The idea of feeding your garden with every watering or rain storm up to 3 months is a very welcome one to me. This Miracle-Gro product takes the guesswork out of feeding your plant since there is no way to overfeed or burn your plants. The whole feeding process for 3 months took me less than 15 minutes and couldnt have been easier. If you want your vegetable or flower garden to look great give this product a shake.
Caution:
While I was researching this product, I ran across an interesting recall on the Miracle-Gro website. The following products have been recalled:
Miracle-Gro Shake 'n Feed Plus Weed Preventer
Scotts Bonus S MAX
Scotts LawnService Fertilizer
Or visit http://thescottsmiraclegrocompany.com/mediacenter/recall.html
all purpose plant food. 10-10-10. provides 3 month slow release feeding for all nutrients in a refillable container. ergonomic- easy to use applicator...More at UnbeatableSale, Inc.
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