A test in progress.... Miracle Grow soil vs. Fox Farms soil. Is MG really that bad?

Finally, I've decided to find out just how terrible MG soil really is, and am testing it myself. I'm using MG Potting mix, the kind that "Feeds Up To 3 Months", against Fox Farms soil, which if a 50/50 mix of Ocean Forest and Happy Frog. The only thing added to either of them, is perlite,(approx 25%) so that their drainage qualities are near the same.


I plan to get the verdict, at week 4 of 5 or veg. That should show clearly, which soil is more fertile, or how similar they actually are. I also plan on giving them nothing but Calmag Plus and Dynagro Protekt(silica supplement), via root-feeding, which'll keep things pretty even. All other feeding will be foliar, til it's time for 12/12. Should be interesting.


Here's some pics. They are newly rooted clones of Ice, going strainght into their 4 gallon pots. That should keep things even, plus, prove/disprove the myths against MG burning plants with it's time-released nutes, and also focus on overwatering issues, which it's known for. The FF is in the closest two pots, and the MG is the two in the back.

Ooops, forgot pics.lol

sweet! this should be a good thread to follow.. there is so much controvercy over MG soil.. way to go for setting the record strait...

yea but ur clones are already strong survivors ready for some food, your test should be done with seedlings who cant handle the hot soil. anyways i love experiments and love to see how they come out, hopefuly not too many prblms with the mg plants

^LOL, Yeah man, I hear ya. I think everybody is sick of hearing all the myths/warnings, and being that I had a bag of MG here at the house, decided to put it to good use. Hope you all enjoy.

dam612 said:

yea but ur clones are already strong survivors ready for some food, your test should be done with seedlings who cant handle the hot soil. anyways i love experiments and love to see how they come out, hopefuly not too many prblms with the mg plants

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That'll have to be another test. But, being that these clones just got their first taste of soil, last night,(10 days from being cut) should tell us alot.

jawbrodt said:

That'll have to be another test. But, being that these clones just got their first taste of soil, last night,(10 days from being cut) should tell us alot.

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i look foward to the final results!

I agree, should be interesting. There is no Mag in Mg soil, but sounds like you got that covered. Will you use a different bloom fert on the MG? The NKP of the MG is 21/7/14, and thats fine for veg. But in flower you will need a high K fert w/ little N in it. Dyna grow has a good one.

Both of the soils are hot, and capable of burning those little seedling roots. Be interesting to see if any of them burn.

Sub'd fosho.

Crypnotic said:

I agree, should be interesting. There is no Mag in Mg soil, but sounds like you got that covered. Will you use a different bloom fert on the MG? The NKP of the MG is 21/7/14, and thats fine for veg. But in flower you will need a high K fert w/ little N in it. Dyna grow has a good one.

Both of the soils are hot, and capable of burning those little seedling roots. Be interesting to see if any of them burn.

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Actually, the test is for vegging, to see that flat-out performance of each soil. I figure that by the 5th week of veg, we'll have a clear winner, being that I won't be soil-feeding them. At any rate, they'll have grown enough to see any differences in performace, between the two soils. I didn't know if I'll be able to keep things as even in flowering, although I will keep the thread going, just to see how it turns out. I also use Dynagro nutes, and will be using them til they finish, once I start feeding. That'll be week one of 12/12.

The actual experiment is for veg. As we all know, that's where most guys have problems with MG soils.

sounds cool. let it rip brother.

Can't wait to see the results! My first grow was MG organic and nutes, this time I'm trying Kellogg's all-organic soil on most of my plants. I still have a couple in MG because I was fairly happy with my first grow. Subscribed. I'll let you know what I find out too!

I compared MG to cars when I was a kid.
I had a Cavalier when I was younger cause thats all i could afford and it worked great.

But now that I am older and wiser and am better at driving I have a Jeep so I can do more with it.
...
MG is fine for starting out with a small budget but sometime you are going to want to go with qualtiy, and thats Ocean Forest..or any FF

haha i hope the MG out does fox farm. im subbed

mcpurple said:

haha i hope the MG out does fox farm. im subbed

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i agree. i <3 MG

mg is great soil. i use expert gardener cause it isnt as hot. but i used mg before and it worked out great. i think lighting matters much more than medium. btw, if those are flouros, move them a bit closer.
one more thing, if one of the clones dies in the beginning, it would be because it didnt grow roots, which has nothing to do with the soil. keep that in mind.

I did this same test miracle grow vs Happy frog when I did my first test grow in my grow box before I got my first seeds pineapple chunk, to make sure everything was running right temps mainly they were from bag seed same bag two in miracle grow three in happy frog.both in MG were about 1/2 the size of all three in happy frog. still look forward to some results from someone else though.

Im growing with a MG medium and i havent seen any problems, i grew from seeds too. I used the moisture control one but transplanted it to some MG brand peat moss. If anything, id say go with organics if you could. Id like to see how this experiment comes out though.

im subbed
i think mg is fine aslong as u dont water too much
ive used the african violet mg with fairly well results

to get accurate results with this experiment you will have to make sure all plants are receiving the same conditions, same light,same water amounts, same nute amounts in flower nothing can be different or the results wont really matter