All Organic! It's Organic Choice Soil from Miracle-Gro
Written: Apr 15 '07 (Updated Jun 14 '08)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: all natural soil for my organic garden, comes in a 20-pound bag
Cons: Read review update! -- more than soil in the bags
The Bottom Line: Please read the update to this review. I am not purchasing this soil in the future.
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| dlstewart's Full Review: Miracle-Gro Organic Choice |
I have an organic vegetable garden and wanted organic soil to start my seeds indoors. Nurseries, garden supply stores, department stores ... I couldn’t believe how difficult it was to locate an organic soil. Then I discovered Miracle-Gro Organic Choice Garden Soil last year, and I’m using it again this year.
Description
This soil is in a green polybag that holds 1 cubic foot (28.32 L). The net weight is 20 pounds. The bag is marked in both English and Spanish and claims: “Grows Twice as Many Vegetables” ... Produce el doble de vegetables.
Miracle-Gro states that this soil was specially created for the organic gardener (and is not intended for commercial growing). It contains a premium blend of sphagnum peat moss, compost and natural fertilizers. The fertilizer offers both quick and continuous release of nitrogen and is designed for use with vegetables, annual and perennial flowers.
The instructions are simple: Mix the Miracle-Grow Organic soil with native soil (the soil in your yard), plant, water well and cover the area with mulch. This soil is not meant for container gardening. Having stated the “rules” of this soil, now I’m going to say that I broke almost all the rules – but I did water well.
There is a handy chart on back of the bag that says mixing at a 3" rate will require:
24 square feet = 6 bags
48 square feet = 12 bags
72 square feet = 18 bags
Miracle-Gro also recommends wearing gardening gloves when using this product. After reading the list of natural ingredients (listed below), I can understand why! There is also the interesting note that says, “In the state of Washington, do not exceed 130 bags per acre per year.”
My Experiences
This is a dense soil. Opening the bag, I immediately noticed that the dark soil wanted to “pack”. It was not loose in the bag, and tended to clump. This presented an interesting challenge since I wanted to use this soil to plant vegetable and flower seeds. The “rules” stated this soil was not meant for container gardening. Since I couldn’t find organic soil elsewhere, I was determined to make this soil work for me.
When I start my seeds indoors, I fill empty yogurt cups with soil. Using an awl, I had poked four holes in the bottom of the cups for drainage. I plant two or three seeds per container, and set the yogurt cups in a plastic garden tray (21 yogurt cups fit in a tray). The trays stay upstairs where the temperature is constant until the seeds sprout. Then I move the trays downstairs where I have a table set up under fluorescent lights. The seeds sprout and the plants are eventually moved outdoors into the garden beds.
To make this dense soil work for me, I filled 3/4 of the yogurt cup with the Miracle-Gro Organic Choice soil. Then I added a tablespoon of perlite on top of the soil and gently mixed it with some (not all) of the Miracle-Gro soil. The perlite created a lighter soil at the top of the cup to encourage seed germination. (Perlite is derived from volcanic rock and is a lightweight white material that is sterile and has a neutral pH value. Perlite also holds about three-times its weight in water and does not soften.) Once the seeds germinate, their roots can travel down to the richer more dense Miracle-Gro organic soil.
Note: Vermiculite can be used in place of perlite. However some people might consider vermiculite a less than ideal additive to soil since vermiculite can contain trace amounts of asbestos. Vermiculite is a micaceous mineral, a lightweight aggregate. It contains calcium and magnesium with a near neutral pH value. The Environmental Protection Agency says there is little risk for home growers, but that a substitute should be used by commercial growers. The dust from vermiculite should not be inhaled.
Last year I planted a variety of vegetables using this Miracle-Gro soil: zucchini, summer squash, cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes. I also planted marigold seed. One tray of plants I forgot to mix in the perlite ... big mistake. Very poor germination rate. The other trays with the Miracle-Gro organic soil and perlite mix did incredibly well. The plants were lush and quite healthy. I felt I gave them an excellent start to their life outdoors. My garden was fantastic last year (all modesty aside).
This weekend I’ve been starting this year’s seed indoors using Miracle-Gro Organic Choice soil. In addition to the seeds types I planted last year, I also planted honeydew, cantaloupe and pumpkin seeds. I have eleven trays of to-be seedlings on my dining room table ... it looks like an extension of a greenhouse nursery!
I also mixed this organic soil with compost from my composter and used it in my upside-down tomato planter last year. The pepper and tomato plants looked great and did better than the previous year, but I had the best results with the marigolds. They were beautiful with full green foliage and plenty of blooms.
Ingredients
Here is what the ingredients on the back of the bag say:
This product is regionally formulated with organic materials (derived from one or more of the following: forest products, peat humus, or compost) sphagnum peat, composted manure (in Florida, cow manure) and pasteurized, pelleted poultry litter.
In California and Texas, regionally formulated from forest products, compost, sphagnum peat, composted manure and pasteurized, pelleted poultry litter.
Guaranteed Analysis:
Total nitrogen (N) – .10% – (This product contains .097% slow available nitrogen.)
Available phosphate (P2O5) – .05%
Soluble potash (K2O) – .10%
Purchasing
I bought my Miracle-Gro Organic Choice soil at Lowes for $4.97 a bag (each bag contains 1 cubic foot of soil).
Summary
I am very pleased with the results of Miracle-Gro Organic Choice Garden Soil for my plants. I am going to buy a few more bags of this soil so that I have it on hand for any extra planting I need to do.
Update -- June 14, 2008
This year I purchased six bags of this soil, and so far three of them have had "trash" in them! Two bags had thick jagged pieces of glass in the soil, and another bag had a narrow piece of plastic tubing. This greatly concerns me. If the bags contain visible evidence of trash, then what is in the soil I'm not seeing? I am reducing my rating of this product.
I hope you found this review useful.
Enjoy your day,
Dawn
http://dlstewart.com
Please read my other reviews:
Upside-Down Tomato Garden
Earth Box
Jiffy Square Peat Pots
Jiffy Round Peat Pots
Jiffy Peat Pot Strips
Craftsman Long-Handled Weed Digger
Suncast Easy-Reach Hose Reel Cart
Swan Tuff and Flexible Garden Hose
Gilmour Advanced Variable Oscillating Sprinkler
Step 2 Grass Hopper Wheeled Garden Stool / Cart
Rubbermaid Big Max Storage Shed
Black & Decker Cordless Battery Mulching Lawnmower
Copyright 2007 Dawn L. Stewart
Recommended:
No
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