We Tried Making Better Soil Mix Than Miracle-Gro
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Date: 2025-01-19
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Comments and reviews: 20
epic_gardening
I would suggest going with your same soul mixes but sub out Down to Earth Blood Meal for Down to Earth Feather Meal then add DTE Bat Guano with N, Azomite, Diatomaceous Earth for silica and lastly crab shell meal. Add just lime to it. You can buffer between bio-char and coco coir. You get 3 kinds of calcium from bat guano, crab shell and lime. P from guano and east N. Trace minerals from Azomite and Kelp. The crab shell stimulates chitinous bacterial geowth and stimulates the plant to increase its insect defenses. The fine easily absorbable silica & Mg is from the D. E. Feather meal is keratin protien and can triple the size of your leaves. Your compost & worm casts will be your bacteria source which is needed to break down these organic soil amendments to make them plant available. I would water with a mixture of plant mollases and water which will activate the bacteria quickly and they will spread to the other amendments to accelerate their breakd
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I would suggest going with your same soul mixes but sub out Down to Earth Blood Meal for Down to Earth Feather Meal then add DTE Bat Guano with N, Azomite, Diatomaceous Earth for silica and lastly crab shell meal. Add just lime to it. You can buffer between bio-char and coco coir. You get 3 kinds of calcium from bat guano, crab shell and lime. P from guano and east N. Trace minerals from Azomite and Kelp. The crab shell stimulates chitinous bacterial geowth and stimulates the plant to increase its insect defenses. The fine easily absorbable silica & Mg is from the D. E. Feather meal is keratin protien and can triple the size of your leaves. Your compost & worm casts will be your bacteria source which is needed to break down these organic soil amendments to make them plant available. I would water with a mixture of plant mollases and water which will activate the bacteria quickly and they will spread to the other amendments to accelerate their breakd
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Micaelangel07
I did a test this summer on brassicacea and Arbuscular Mykorhizza. Had two large beds quite a distance from each other and one with AM and one without. The one with AM grew to almost 2x. Which was weird as brassica plants are NOT AM symbiotic. Turns out that AM had larger water retention and kept the soil a more consistent and lower temperature which brassica like.
Also turns out that brassica releases chemicals that kill a lot of fungal diversity in the soil. Which means it could be good to plant brassica once in a while to reset the soil fungi.
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I did a test this summer on brassicacea and Arbuscular Mykorhizza. Had two large beds quite a distance from each other and one with AM and one without. The one with AM grew to almost 2x. Which was weird as brassica plants are NOT AM symbiotic. Turns out that AM had larger water retention and kept the soil a more consistent and lower temperature which brassica like.
Also turns out that brassica releases chemicals that kill a lot of fungal diversity in the soil. Which means it could be good to plant brassica once in a while to reset the soil fungi.
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brendawydeven2934
Congrats! I use Michigan peat potting mix with 1/4 compost, 1/4 vermiculite and worm castings, with a cup of time release fertilizer and a cup of blood meal. I put a couple calcium plugs in, mulch heavily with pine pet bedding and feed them with fish emulsion once a month when small, when I see flowers I mix fish emulsion with flower food to get more flowers then go back to fish emulsion every 2 weeks. I grew really tall big boys in 7 gallon grow bags and got lovely huge tomatoes. I would love to see your results with mine.
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Congrats! I use Michigan peat potting mix with 1/4 compost, 1/4 vermiculite and worm castings, with a cup of time release fertilizer and a cup of blood meal. I put a couple calcium plugs in, mulch heavily with pine pet bedding and feed them with fish emulsion once a month when small, when I see flowers I mix fish emulsion with flower food to get more flowers then go back to fish emulsion every 2 weeks. I grew really tall big boys in 7 gallon grow bags and got lovely huge tomatoes. I would love to see your results with mine.
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GreenLove1
Wow, I suspected Jaques would win because his mix is very similar to what Gary recommends from GarysBestGardening, who owns Laguna hills nursery and is incredibly experienced (decades in the family business) and I respect him a lot. My dragon fruit mix stems from his formula, and the secret ingredient by far is sand! Now about the Miracle Gro. hmmm.
Kevin, there's always next time, and you are such a sport!
Jacques, congratulations!
You are both awesome!
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Wow, I suspected Jaques would win because his mix is very similar to what Gary recommends from GarysBestGardening, who owns Laguna hills nursery and is incredibly experienced (decades in the family business) and I respect him a lot. My dragon fruit mix stems from his formula, and the secret ingredient by far is sand! Now about the Miracle Gro. hmmm.
Kevin, there's always next time, and you are such a sport!
Jacques, congratulations!
You are both awesome!
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michaelrose5154
Loved it, definitely good call on the sand! And thanks for the original soil test.
I’ve had a few people at Armstrongs in El Cajon and Walter Anderson tell me to throw sand in the birdies raised beds to help slow long term settling and to help prevent over watering.
Turned all the beds over before fall planting to hand pick all of the grubs out. Then went back in with two 50lb bags in the 15 med beds and everything exploded after replanting.
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Loved it, definitely good call on the sand! And thanks for the original soil test.
I’ve had a few people at Armstrongs in El Cajon and Walter Anderson tell me to throw sand in the birdies raised beds to help slow long term settling and to help prevent over watering.
Turned all the beds over before fall planting to hand pick all of the grubs out. Then went back in with two 50lb bags in the 15 med beds and everything exploded after replanting.
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jakelooter5139
Be$poke on a Billion. $oil Mixes $traight FIRE Tailored to individual evolutionary biology of exact $pecies. Im Taking the poverbial cultivational CHEEKS of every grower on the net THIS IS NOT A GAME my fam farmed the entire state of Wisconsin back in the day with the LaKota Sioux (I am Sioux also) Now We have the internet its Game over baby Miracle Grow Zero competition Fake Experts/Influencers and General mediocre cultivators CHEEKS TAKEN,
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Be$poke on a Billion. $oil Mixes $traight FIRE Tailored to individual evolutionary biology of exact $pecies. Im Taking the poverbial cultivational CHEEKS of every grower on the net THIS IS NOT A GAME my fam farmed the entire state of Wisconsin back in the day with the LaKota Sioux (I am Sioux also) Now We have the internet its Game over baby Miracle Grow Zero competition Fake Experts/Influencers and General mediocre cultivators CHEEKS TAKEN,
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epic_gardening
Thanks for taking the time to do these comparison videos that show the end results! I use a gorilla cart and fill it with my mix of coconut coir, homemade compost, pumice, earthworm castings from my worm bin, azomite, kelp, and biochar. Then I dump the cart in the raised beds in between each planting and mix it in the existing soil. It gives great results and nutrient dense foods. You could add a worm bin to your garden area!
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Thanks for taking the time to do these comparison videos that show the end results! I use a gorilla cart and fill it with my mix of coconut coir, homemade compost, pumice, earthworm castings from my worm bin, azomite, kelp, and biochar. Then I dump the cart in the raised beds in between each planting and mix it in the existing soil. It gives great results and nutrient dense foods. You could add a worm bin to your garden area!
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ariannagarza4457
I would love to see a video on how to propagate citrus/avacado plants from cuttings off an already established tree. My grandparents grew fruit trees. I would love to get fresh cuttings from their tree directly and grow them in containers as a dwarf fruit tree. I've read that it's possible, but I can't seem to find a full video tutorial on how to do it successfully. If anyone has recommendations that would be amazing.
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I would love to see a video on how to propagate citrus/avacado plants from cuttings off an already established tree. My grandparents grew fruit trees. I would love to get fresh cuttings from their tree directly and grow them in containers as a dwarf fruit tree. I've read that it's possible, but I can't seem to find a full video tutorial on how to do it successfully. If anyone has recommendations that would be amazing.
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K8TYK8
Last year I sifted compost from my compost pile, put it in 3-5 gallon containers with nothing else added, and my plants were super happy and healthy. No drainage issues. Best part is that it was free. I did fertilize every couple of weeks as you would also do with any commercial potting mix. You don’t need to add things like coconut coir to soil. Big Ag just says this so people spend money.
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Last year I sifted compost from my compost pile, put it in 3-5 gallon containers with nothing else added, and my plants were super happy and healthy. No drainage issues. Best part is that it was free. I did fertilize every couple of weeks as you would also do with any commercial potting mix. You don’t need to add things like coconut coir to soil. Big Ag just says this so people spend money.
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barbarageorge7971
After watching this and the last one on soils I’m almost convinced to try the Miracle Grow. I used a recommended soil mix in my Green Stalk last summer and nothing grew. Part my fault because of the heat from the asphalt and the building but the soil had tons of large wood chunks in it. So disappointing as it was not cheap. I love these contests between you guys.
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After watching this and the last one on soils I’m almost convinced to try the Miracle Grow. I used a recommended soil mix in my Green Stalk last summer and nothing grew. Part my fault because of the heat from the asphalt and the building but the soil had tons of large wood chunks in it. So disappointing as it was not cheap. I love these contests between you guys.
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sharonknorr1106
Loved this - I am a sucker for experiments in the garden. I think that Jacques made a good point in that some mixes may do better than others depending on the plants you are growing. Do think that the blood meal was a bit much, but maybe it would have been great for lettuce or spinach. Have also been playing with ratios in my own mixes, so this was very helpful.
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Loved this - I am a sucker for experiments in the garden. I think that Jacques made a good point in that some mixes may do better than others depending on the plants you are growing. Do think that the blood meal was a bit much, but maybe it would have been great for lettuce or spinach. Have also been playing with ratios in my own mixes, so this was very helpful.
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TobyRobb
I love you guys. Got to say that a sample size of one in an experiment really doesn't tell you much. All plants are different and some plants don't do well regardless of the mix. I wish you guys would look up experimental design. Next time just do several plants in batches and all of the scientists out there will feel a little better about these experiments
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I love you guys. Got to say that a sample size of one in an experiment really doesn't tell you much. All plants are different and some plants don't do well regardless of the mix. I wish you guys would look up experimental design. Next time just do several plants in batches and all of the scientists out there will feel a little better about these experiments
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donadams2419
I really enjoyed this video. I like making my own potting mix. I make my own and have had lots of great results as I grow most of our ola r in pots. The one thing I would like to se you do is to do the same experiment but have a small bowl under your grow bags so that the leached waiter an nutrients can be reabsorbed back into the grow bags.
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I really enjoyed this video. I like making my own potting mix. I make my own and have had lots of great results as I grow most of our ola r in pots. The one thing I would like to se you do is to do the same experiment but have a small bowl under your grow bags so that the leached waiter an nutrients can be reabsorbed back into the grow bags.
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FishingForLife28
My mix is 50% homemade compost and 50% of my native topsoil (which by itself already is extremely fertile. Mixed with a handfull of blood and bone
Might not be the best, but it works great and its cheap. If I spend more money on garden supplies than I save growing food, it kinda loses the meaning of why I grow food to begin with
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My mix is 50% homemade compost and 50% of my native topsoil (which by itself already is extremely fertile. Mixed with a handfull of blood and bone
Might not be the best, but it works great and its cheap. If I spend more money on garden supplies than I save growing food, it kinda loses the meaning of why I grow food to begin with
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terryeckmeier7027
There is a brewery unlike that keeps their grains, water, temps, yeast, etc all the same BUT they changed the hops. It would interesting to have an ongoing experiment for some like this where you pick the same plant, planter, location, water schedule, soil profile BUt adjust the amount of bone meal, or blood meal, or kelp, or etc.
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There is a brewery unlike that keeps their grains, water, temps, yeast, etc all the same BUT they changed the hops. It would interesting to have an ongoing experiment for some like this where you pick the same plant, planter, location, water schedule, soil profile BUt adjust the amount of bone meal, or blood meal, or kelp, or etc.
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lanceperry1115
Guys- this is the bomb diggitythis is what we need our big brothers doing with a little more money than us, your little bros. Can’t thank you enough, the video was great, the contest was relevant and the results are truethank you so much - keep doing these types of tests for us little bros it helps us immensely
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Guys- this is the bomb diggitythis is what we need our big brothers doing with a little more money than us, your little bros. Can’t thank you enough, the video was great, the contest was relevant and the results are truethank you so much - keep doing these types of tests for us little bros it helps us immensely
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meowcat64
My mix varies every time, but I always make sure to add biochar, compost, castings, a bit of native dirt, and a thin layer of aged woodchpis at the bottom to absorb nutrients and water that would typically run off. But I'm on a budget so I specifically like those things since I can make them all for free.
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My mix varies every time, but I always make sure to add biochar, compost, castings, a bit of native dirt, and a thin layer of aged woodchpis at the bottom to absorb nutrients and water that would typically run off. But I'm on a budget so I specifically like those things since I can make them all for free.
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ptypablo
In my department at work we get sent every year to an asbestos class, according to the instructor ALL vermiculite is considered asbestos because there's no way to test it or there's too many too test all of them I forget exactly what he said because the class is such a snooze fest
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In my department at work we get sent every year to an asbestos class, according to the instructor ALL vermiculite is considered asbestos because there's no way to test it or there's too many too test all of them I forget exactly what he said because the class is such a snooze fest
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antonebanantone
Jacq soil is my exact same mix and my plants look amazing so I'm not surprised. But I think the compost and sand really help. Plus I'm a %100 a fan of pumice and charcoal. I will never got back to perlite but I've never tried vermiculite so one day I will try it out.
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Jacq soil is my exact same mix and my plants look amazing so I'm not surprised. But I think the compost and sand really help. Plus I'm a %100 a fan of pumice and charcoal. I will never got back to perlite but I've never tried vermiculite so one day I will try it out.
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AncestralCyborg
Watching Kevin using that much blood meal had me concerned he'd throw his ph off, but when I did this I was also using bone meal. Scorched a bunch of seedlings. Seemed like my soil went anaerobic. Anyway, good job Jacque. I will probably try your mixture this spring.
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Watching Kevin using that much blood meal had me concerned he'd throw his ph off, but when I did this I was also using bone meal. Scorched a bunch of seedlings. Seemed like my soil went anaerobic. Anyway, good job Jacque. I will probably try your mixture this spring.
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