Potting Mix

Bart Fri Apr 17, 2015 8:18 pm

Hello Gardners,

I have a few bags of Miracle Grow Potting Mix in my shed from days gone by. Would it be worth while to add it to the Mels Mix? I hate to throw it out. Would it do any harm? thinking

Thanks
Bart

littlesapphire Fri Apr 17, 2015 8:40 pm

I personally wouldn't add the MG to my MM -- UNLESS I really needed to add volume to one of my boxes and couldn't afford to buy either compost or more MM ingredients. From my experience with MG, it's mostly shredded wood and I think some peat, and it's not nearly as fluffy and lovely as MM is. That said, I honestly don't think it would harm your MM to put MG in it, but consider it like adding extra peat moss to the mix. You'd probably want to add some compost to balance it out, if you have any available. That's just my 2 cents, though.

If it was me, and I had some extra MG, I'd use it to start some veggies in a pot or bucket. I'm always on the look out for more places to grow veggies! One year I grew some in a cardboard box! They did surprisingly well, but of course the box was toast by season's end. You can reuse the MG next year if you do this, if you drench it well and add a goodly amount of compost to it.

**sanderson** Sat Apr 18, 2015 1:40 am

Bart, Are you planning to build a compost cage to make your own? You can slowly get rid of it as you make your piles.

If you add it to the Mel's Mix, you may have to increase the manure to make up for the wood and decrease the fluffed peat moss to compensate for its peat moss content.
I'm using Kellogg (the "other" Miracle Grow) Very Happy

to buff up dirt flower beds. I toss on manures, veggie-based compost, cheaper perlite, left-over vermiculite (ha!), some fluffed peat moss, moldy leaves, coffee grounds, and the kitchen sink, knowing it will take months for the woods to decompose but will be for the better in the long run.

Bart Sat Apr 18, 2015 8:25 am

I don't have that much to compost with. I don't collect the grass clippings. While mowing the leaves are blown into the woods. As for clippings from the garden, they're usually stems and old dried out branches which I don't think is good composting material. Basically what goes into my compost is what comes from the kitchen.

**sanderson** Sun Apr 19, 2015 4:19 am

Mowed-up leaves and lawn clippings plus kitchen waste. Very Happy

Bart Sun Apr 19, 2015 5:45 pm

I would if I had them........ Potting Mix 3170584802

**donnainzone5** Sun Apr 19, 2015 10:34 pm

Bart,

Do you have any neighbors who have lawns and don't use chemicals?

I just scored two bags of partly dried-out grass clippings from one of my neighbors.

Bart Mon Apr 20, 2015 7:45 am

Good idea, thanks

**sanderson** Mon Apr 20, 2015 1:00 pm

I forgot to mention Starbuck's used coffee grounds.

**Turan** Mon Apr 20, 2015 1:35 pm

I would count MG potting soil or other similar things as the peat vermiculite part of the mix, not as a whole mixture.

Razed Bed Mon Apr 20, 2015 2:05 pm

I had a free bag of this a few years ago and kept it away from our garden. We had just experienced the worst flood in 500 years, and we had lots of erosion, because we live on a steep hill.

I used the bag to fill a sinkhole after I covered the bottom 80% with pea gravel.

Can you use the junk some other way than to ruin perfect Mel's Mix?

Would you add canned vegetables to a 4-star Prime Rib?

vortex Mon Apr 20, 2015 4:10 pm

Maybe use it for some potted plants? Repotting of plants? Annuals? Fill in a hole in your yard?

At least it wouldn't be going to waste.

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