Miracle Grow Plant Food
Written: May 05 '09 (Updated May 06 '09)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Feeds plants, helps when transplanting, easy to use
Cons: None
The Bottom Line: When I spend over $200 on my annuals each year, I want them to flourish, and Miracle-Gro helps them to do that
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| elzora's Full Review: Miracle-Gro All-Purpose Plant Food |
When it comes to plant foods and fertilizers, there is one name that stands apart from the crowd, and that is Miracle Grow. My husband and I have using Miracle-Grow for years, and wouldn't be without it.
There are different forms of Miracle-Grow, but I am reviewing their Liquid All Purpose Plant Food. It comes in a yellow jug, containing 1 quart, and is concentrated.
The front label shows vegetables and flowers, as well as a watering can, and reads "for use with watering cans". It says that Miracle- Grow is good for all flowers, vegetables, trees, shrubs, and houseplants.
I do not have a green thumb, and don't have a single houseplant in our home, but I do use Miracle-Grow outdoors on my shrubs and flowers. Our trees are very large and I don't even attempt to fertilize them!
From the back label: Miracle-Gro's All Purpose formula in a convenient, easy to use liquid form is simply mixed with water to promote spectacular blooms and a plentiful harvest.
Miracle-Gro is easy to use. After shaking the bottle well, the green cap acts as a measuring cup (similar to laundry detergents), to allow you to easily measure the proper amount when you are outdoors and have no measuring cups at your disposal. (Even if I did I would not use Miracle-Gro on my measuring cups used for food!).
For The Garden
Anyway, you mix 1/3 of a capful (there are no lines inside the cup, you have to guess at when it's 1/3 cull), into 2 gallons of water. Pouring is easy, the spout is again similar to a liquid laundry detergent, with the spill proof spout. These 2 gallons of treated water will be enough to feed 20 square feet of garden. It's good to know that exact measurements are not critical - I am always concerned about burning my plants with too much fertilizer, especially when they are in the young transplant stage. Miracle-Gro can be used on plants every one to two weeks.
For Houseplants
When feeding houseplants, you only need one teaspoon of the liquid to one gallon of water, and you can treat the plants every two weeks.
When Transplanting
If you are transplanting your plants, the Miracle-Gro label actually suggests that you use another of their products, called Miracle-Gro Quick Start. This promotes vigorous root growth and helps with the shock that often comes when transplanting flowers or other plants.
My Experience
We have always had good luck with Miracle-Gro, and use this when I transplant all of the flowers I have purchased from the greenhouses to my garden beds. It works quite well to help prevent transplant shock, and in all the years we've been using it, I have only lost a few of my plants in the transplanting process.
When I dig my hole to which the flower is going to be placed, I pour a little bit of Miracle-Gro into the hole first, then place the plant, fill the hole back in with dirt, and then water the plant from the top with warm tap water. Living in Alaska, the temperature of our well water is almost ice cold, so I always use warm tap water from inside the house, in a large garden watering can.
A few years ago we purchased some Potentilla plants, these are more like a shrub or bush, and we used Miracle-Gro regularly on these with good success. The office where my husband works introduced us to the Potentilla, and when they decided to get rid of their 15 year old Potentilla plants that were over growing the area, we were allowed to dig up as many as we wanted and bring them home. These plants had large, deep roots, and they had all grown together, so in the process of digging them up, roots were severed, and we weren't sure they would survive the transplant.
I am glad to say that the Potentilla bushes are doing wonderfully, and I feel it is probably due in large part to the Miracle-Gro fertilizer that we fed to them. They definitely had a shock, since their roots were so damaged, and it took about a week for them to fully recover. I wasn't sure they were going to make it, but they did and I believe that this fertilizer had a hand in that recovery.
We also have raspberry plants as a border in our back yard, and I admit we let them go a couple of years without fertilizing, and last fall I didn't get very many raspberries from them, and many that I did get had black spots on them. This summer I am going to be sure to fertilize these raspberry plants with our Miracle-Gro, and I bet I see a much different and abundant crop of berries come September!
My perennial Trolius, Ferns, and Hostas are already up, and we just put our annual plants in the ground and into planters. Because of the boost Miracle-Gro gives our flowers, we can expect them to do well until the first frost, which is usually some time in October. The product really does help a garden flourish! We have tried other fertilizers over the years, but we always seem to come back to Miracle-Gro. It's a very reliable plant food.
Miracle-Gro is so confident that you will love their product, they actually offer a satisfaction back guarantee. All you do is mail the empty container back to them, and they will refund your money. (There is a limit of one refund per family). You have nothing to lose, and only lush abundant plants to gain!
Good To Know!
Epinions member WulfsDen has informed me that Miracle-Gro can have unwanted consequences in our environment, and he has given me permission to copy what he knows about this problem:
"Simply put, water soluble fertilizers wash into the rivers and end up in high concentrations in lakes, and oceans near the shore. There they boost plant/algae/plankton growth. The growth messes up the ecological balance and almost everything dies. Red Tide is a reference to algal bloom that often has a bright red color and literally turns the ocean red. It blocks out light killing plants and animals at lower depths, and it adsorbs suns heat, warming the waters and killing even more stuff. Sometimes when it dies it gives off toxins. Very bad!
Your using MG is not a problem. With your month long Alaskan summer it's probably essential. But when you and 100,000 of your closest friends use it, it is not so good. MG is by no means the worst source. Lawn products are used in larger volumes and more often.
For more on Red Tide see, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_tide"
A big thank you to WulfsDen for providing this information, and I certainly appreciate his efforts to help the planet by the organic gardening he does!
Recommended:
Yes
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