I found some info on here about people using Miracle Grow (apparently it gets thumbs up, although recently I was told not to use it because it will ruin my soil). Comments welcome about that. Does anyone have any experience with Daniel's Plant Food? About a year ago a magazine (can't remember which) highly recommended this brand. I did buy a little jug of the liquid, used it for a while and didn't seem to get much of a reaction from my plants so I continued on with Miracle Grow. Label says 10-4-3, the web site is currently under renovation. BTW I'm a web designer/developer and I can't think of one good reason to take a web site off line due to renovation. moderator's note: removed website link due to lack of content
It's not on my radar either. I use a different liquid concentrate. As for a plant food ruining soil. I believe the reference was to the type of amendments added to soil when growing tomatoes. The article recommended organic planting mix or planting compost and cautioned about using chemically enhanced planting mix and potting soil as they would be too strong for tomatoes. Jerry
The friend that told me about Miracle Grow was told that it will eventually build up some sort of imbalance in soil so that in a few years it will ruin a garden. I'll try to get more specific information from her and will update this post.
Okay, here's the scoop on Miracle Gro: It is too high in the salts that are chelated to the nutrients. After years of use, the soil becomes harsh in the salts, and plants don't do well, because in our clay soil, the salts don't degrade, or flush out. Do you ever have house plants that develop a chalky white residue on the surface? Those are the salts and minerals from our hard water. So it's an issue of the combination of our hard water and clay soils. I already have some residue on my grow light seedling seedstarter mix. I've started watering them with filtered water so I hope that helps. I also found an few links on Google about the Daniel's Plant Food. Apparently it's a soy-based nutrient and when tested did well. However, with all the stuff I've been hearing lately about the majority of US soy being GMO I should probably not use it.
Miracle-Gro feeds plants, not your soil, which is its major drawback. If your soil is healthy and fertile, your plants will be, too. Just boosting the plants does nothing for the soil, and as Deb pointed out, can lead to imbalances and built-up residues. Short term--Miracle Gro will make a big plant. Long term, so will compost, and will do so for a long time.
