Miracle Gro Potting Mix?

Cheap Basterd

Cheap Basterd

Active Member
I know there are a billion threads on this already, so sorry for bringing it up again.

It's the only stuff I could find in all the garden centers in my area. I know that it's going to be too much to handle for my germinated seeds.

Would it be possible to take some soil from my garden, bake it to kill any pests, and mix it with the MG to make it a little easier on the germinated seeds?

Thanks

EDIT: I should really have given more information. First time grower, on a very strict budget (hence the username) I've done a shit load of reading, and all the different methods are blowing my mind, so I thought I'd jump in at the deep-end and learn by doing. I've been to several stores and I can't even find perlite. FUCK!
 
mr.notsogreenthumb

mr.notsogreenthumb

Active Member
If I was you I would definitely mix in some less potent soil with the MG otherwise you are going to end up with allot of burnt or dead plants. There should be no problem with some normal soil from your garden, the whole baking thing seems like overkill. If the plants in your garden don't have visible disease then the soil will be fine without any form of treatment. Something you might want to do is go 50/50 on garden soil and MG, cause that shit is harsh.
 
Oldgrowerdude

Oldgrowerdude

Member
You can make your own mix i do from supplies form Homedepo or a garden center...here it is

Use 2 parts of Canadan peat
use 1 part of perlite
use 1 part of vermiculite
use 1 cup of black cow manure:leaf::leaf::leaf::-P

Miracle grow is death to plants...
 
D

Doomah

Well-Known Member
I'd just like to add my experiences to what these guys have already stated. I like to keep things simple and straightforward, so here's what I would do in your position...

Try using a soil texture chart to determine the components of your garden soil. Such as http://www.watersheded.org/public/projects/NOAA+Project/texture+chart.gif


If there's loads and loads of clay in your soil, then I would avoid using too much of it. If there's loads of sand in it, again I'd avoid it. A nice aerated, humus-rich silty loam* will probably be best for both water retention and drainage (although your MG will help somewhat there), as well as viscocity.

You should really check the pH as well. You can pick up a cheap disposable pH tester at your garden centre. Once all is well, personally I would leave the soil on top of a heater until it's all dried out. You can bake it if you want, but try not to destroy all that lovely, organic detritus. The reason you must do this is because you will quite likely bring pests in otherwise. Fungus Gnats are particularly prevalent in soil around my garden, and every time I've brought compost indoors they've started hatching out of the soil. We also have Spider Mites. All quite controllable with the insecticides I've got, but wouldn't you rather just avoid the problem completely?

As to how much MG to use to garden soil, you'll have to use your initiative there. You can use a nitrate or phosphate testing kit for this if you want, it might help and they're just as cheap as the pH testing kits. If I were you I'd probably opt for woodland soil over garden soil, mainly because the vast majority of woodland topsoil is completely full of humus. Garden soil isn't, unless you've got a dog, in which case it has excesses of nutrients and that's why your grass is that colour and it goes mad only in certain patches :p. Bird crap is the same.

Good luck.





*a loam is a mixture of all other soil components.
 
Cheap Basterd

Cheap Basterd

Active Member
mr.notsogreenthumb said:
If I was you I would definitely mix in some less potent soil with the MG otherwise you are going to end up with allot of burnt or dead plants. There should be no problem with some normal soil from your garden, the whole baking thing seems like overkill. If the plants in your garden don't have visible disease then the soil will be fine without any form of treatment. Something you might want to do is go 50/50 on garden soil and MG, cause that shit is harsh.
Click to expand...
Thanks, Man. I appreciate you taking the time to reply. Yeah, the whole baking idea is overkill, just something I read on a gardening Forum. Plus it's freezing here in the UK right now so any pests would be dead anyway? I was thinking of doing maybe 30% MG and 70 garden soil.

Oldgrowerdude said:
You can make your own mix i do from supplies form Homedepo or a garden center...here it is

Use 2 parts of Canadan peat
use 1 part of perlite
use 1 part of vermiculite
use 1 cup of black cow manure:leaf::leaf::leaf::-P

Miracle grow is death to plants...
Click to expand...
Thanks for the input. I'm a complete Noob, and this will be my first grow. Your soil mix is something to bear in mind for the future. Thanks

Doomah said:
I'd just like to add my experiences to what these guys have already stated. I like to keep things simple and straightforward, so here's what I would do in your position...

Try using a soil texture chart to determine the components of your garden soil. Such as http://www.watersheded.org/public/projects/NOAA+Project/texture+chart.gif


If there's loads and loads of clay in your soil, then I would avoid using too much of it. If there's loads of sand in it, again I'd avoid it. A nice aerated, humus-rich silty loam* will probably be best for both water retention and drainage (although your MG will help somewhat there), as well as viscocity.

You should really check the pH as well. You can pick up a cheap disposable pH tester at your garden centre. Once all is well, personally I would leave the soil on top of a heater until it's all dried out. You can bake it if you want, but try not to destroy all that lovely, organic detritus. The reason you must do this is because you will quite likely bring pests in otherwise. Fungus Gnats are particularly prevalent in soil around my garden, and every time I've brought compost indoors they've started hatching out of the soil. We also have Spider Mites. All quite controllable with the insecticides I've got, but wouldn't you rather just avoid the problem completely?

As to how much MG to use to garden soil, you'll have to use your initiative there. You can use a nitrate or phosphate testing kit for this if you want, it might help and they're just as cheap as the pH testing kits. If I were you I'd probably opt for woodland soil over garden soil, mainly because the vast majority of woodland topsoil is completely full of humus. Garden soil isn't, unless you've got a dog, in which case it has excesses of nutrients and that's why your grass is that colour and it goes mad only in certain patches :p. Bird crap is the same.

Good luck.





*a loam is a mixture of all other soil components.
Click to expand...
Thanks for all the information, very helpful. I clearly still have a lot of reading to do.
 
mr.notsogreenthumb

mr.notsogreenthumb

Active Member
All the reading in the world won't help you when it comes to growing. Just pop some seeds in the ground and watch them grow (not the pure MG of course...)
several months ago (about three), I germed some seeds but during the first week of veg I had to leave on my house (work related) so I took some plain ass soil from the garden and put it into some pots and planted the 3 plants in them. I left and was away for three months so in theory these plants in pots with nobody taking care of them outside in the rain, sun, and cold should all have died within a week. So this past Friday I returned home to an lawn with grass as high as my knee and everything in a state of chaos. I went directly to my pots only to find that 1 of the plants had survived and had recently started to flower (and doctor its a girl). Though its only about a foot high it somehow broke through all the bounds of theory.
So stop reading and start growing if you really want to learn.
 
Pullin' weeds

Pullin' weeds

Well-Known Member
I've been using mostly straight Miracle grow Potting mix (some perlite and gypsum added) for 6 months now (on my perpetual grow, that would be about 18 harvests...) without any problems whatsoever. My plants do great in it, it's cheap, very easy to find and doesn't raise any red flags.
Yes, I'm sure there are better mixes out there, but I can't understand why everyone thinks it's garbage...
 
mcgravity

mcgravity

Active Member
i have potted all ten of my plants useing mirical grow 2 weeks ago , i was panicking when i got told it was a bad idea and plants will die and stuff but they are looking fine to me , i just dont give them and nutes , and dont plan on giving them any up untill another 4 weeks
 
caseycase

caseycase

Active Member
i used mg soil and nutes for my whole first grow and nothing bad happen at all, grew really nice and dence buds, i dont no why everyone says it will kill your plants and shit, good luck
 
SinSimian

SinSimian

Active Member
I use half Miracle-Gro potting soil, half store bought seedling mix (peat,vermeculite, perlite, etc), and just a little sand. I use it during all stages of growth and I have very happy plants. Check the grow in my sig.
 
GeeTee

GeeTee

Well-Known Member
i would not germinate your seeds in the mg potting soil. grab some seedling starter mix at HD or Lowes, then transplant to mg but i wouldnt germinate in the mg.
 
Cheap Basterd

Cheap Basterd

Active Member
@ mr.notsogreenthumb. Haha, yeah, after reading so much I almost gave up on the idea altogether. I really need some meds though (sick of not knowing what I'm getting) and I'm always up for learning something new. The knowledge I learn along the way will last me a lifetime, so it's worth the effort.

@ Pullin' weeds. Thanks for the reassuring words.

@ mcgravity. I was very disheartened after reading all the negative stuff online about MG. Thankfully we all have the knowledge of RIU to help us Noobs figure things out.

@ caseycase. Do you have a Journal of your grow using MG?

@ SinSimian. I'll try and replicate your mix (if my budget allows, and I can obtain the stuff) I'll drop by your grow and have a read.

@ GeeTee. I'm not going to plant my germinated seeds in the Potting Mix. I was thinking of mixing it with some nice airy soil from a veg patch I turned over mid Autumn.

Thank you to everybody for taking the time to contribute to my thread. It's most appreciated.

Happy 4:20 (well, in the UK anyway)
 
Cheap Basterd

Cheap Basterd

Active Member
As I'm trying to do this as a trial run, I obviously want to do it as cheaply as possible.

I can't seem to find Perlite anywhere local to me. What are the downsides of not using Perlite? Is there something I can substitutes it with?
 
D

Doomah

Well-Known Member
Cheap Basterd said:
Plus it's freezing here in the UK right now so any pests would be dead anyway?
Click to expand...
:P I'm in the UK.

Re-potted one of my plants with compost from outdoors, covered in snow, less than a week ago. I didn't dry out the soil and got an invasion of fungus gnats. I re-potted my clones with the same compost yesterday, which I dried out, and have no problems with them.

I learnt my lesson. Hopefully you can benefit from my experience haha.
 
T

towely561

Member
I would just use soil from your garden. I did a side-by-side comparison pf mg soil and some compost I had in the back yard. The compost outperformed the mg soil hands down. mg sucks.
 
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