# miracle gro organic choice  - enriched



## stan1973 (13 Apr 2012)

Has anyone tried the new one?  - it says enriched with organic plant food and is in a slightly different colour sack to the normal MGOC.


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## stan1973 (15 Apr 2012)

48 views but no comments, looks like I'll just have to be the guinea pig and just try it.


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## Alastair (15 Apr 2012)

Looks ok to me from what I've just read. Doesn't contain any peat at all which I thought was beneficial in a soil substrate but it does say chemical free and all natural ingredients. 

Just to add, it says on its packaging it's made up from wood fibres so not sure how that would fair in a tank but maybe soneone with more no how can chop in. Where's troi when you need him 



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## ghostsword (15 Apr 2012)

You have a link for the product? I woul not mind trying it out also.


___________________________
Luis 
@ghostsword


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## stan1973 (15 Apr 2012)

Alastair said:
			
		

> Looks ok to me from what I've just read. Doesn't contain any peat at all which I thought was beneficial in a soil substrate but it does say chemical free and all natural ingredients.
> 
> Just to add, it says on its packaging it's made up from wood fibres so not sure how that would fair in a tank but maybe soneone with more no how can chop in. Where's troi when you need him
> 
> ...



Miracle grow seems to be one of the main ones people go for in soil tanks, either that or John Innes soil. The only difference with this one is it has some added ferts which I'm not sure is good or bad idea for the fishtank, it could leach into the water.

I tried a mixture of 70% peat, 20% john Innes No.2 10% laterite and most of the plants died. With the hygrophila corymbosa it quickly grew roots into the substrate and then completely rotted, amazon swords & mexican oakleaf turned yellow and had tiny new growth, cryptocoryne neither died nor grew.  I softened the water with RO water, added Excell & EI dosing and then it slowly grew a few small leaves and looked pretty healthy.
My water is GH 11 so fairly hard so doesn't help.

I think this is the same one I got but in a different colour package
http://www.lovethegarden.com/product-de ... ee-compost


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## Alastair (15 Apr 2012)

Isn't the John innes no2 the one that shouldn't be used?? I thought it was 1 and 3 I've seen used. 
Let us know how you get on with this miracle gro mate 


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## stan1973 (15 Apr 2012)

Alastair said:
			
		

> Isn't the John innes no2 the one that shouldn't be used?? I thought it was 1 and 3 I've seen used.
> Let us know how you get on with this miracle gro mate
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk



Sorry It was actually the  John Innes no3 that I used. I still had a 25 kg bag of the normal organic choice miracle grow compost so I've decided to use that rather than risk the new one with added fertilisers. I might do a plant pot experiment with the new one though and see how it compares. I think a lot of the stuff i've seen about organic choice miracle grow was American and theirs is called potting soil not compost so could be a bit different. I don't know if the UK version is as good but I've had good results using it in plant pots. 

I think this video is interesting but not sure where to get all the stuff from?

http://youtu.be/ZN9CC2QoIDs


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## Alastair (15 Apr 2012)

That video is the dry way of doing mineralised top soil which is pretty big in the states. 
The ferts he's using are the same as osmocote granules we have over here. Not sure about the sphagnum moss peat but you can get that here also. 
If its very long term your looking for, then just sprinkle a very very small amount of osmocote under you soil. 


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## dw1305 (15 Apr 2012)

Hi all,


> Doesn't contain any peat at all which I thought was beneficial in a soil substrate but it does say chemical free and all natural ingredients.


This would make me worry that it has a large amount of domestic  green waste compost, which will be very high in soluble salts and raise the TDS and pH massively.

I'd definitely not use it if it has composted green waste in it.

cheers Darrel


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## BigTom (15 Apr 2012)

The MGO stuff also contains a lot of cow/chicken manure by all accounts, so be prepared for a long period of ammonia leaching.

BTW, for anyone wondering about the JI micex this is handy -

http://www.gardeningdata.co.uk/soil/joh ... _innes.php

Of course, it doesn't tell you what's in the loam that individual suppliers are using.


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## ghostsword (15 Apr 2012)

The issue of ammonia is one to worry, but as I plan to use it on emersed tanks it just may have enough nutrients to get me started. Then top up with tank water every so often. However osmocote has been tried and tested.

I currently use miracle grow pelets mixed with my amazonia soil for the emersed tanks, and the plants are picking up on the garden. 


___________________________
Luis 
@ghostsword


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