Miracle gro is ok to use if that is all you have to use. I make my fertilizer by a formula I found on Bill Jarvis's website. It is called the Hooker formula after the man who developed it. It uses Epsom salts and fish emulsion and other ingredients. I make it up by 5 gallon buckets and use it all when I fertilize. original recipe made 15 gallons , I reduced by dividing the recipe into thirds till I found the amounts needed for 5 gallons.

Can you share the recipe for the 5 gallons? How often do you use it? Can it be used on new daylilys just in the ground this spring? Could it be used on perennials and hosta too?

Thanks so much!!

I've used Miracle Gro liquid fertilizer connected to our garden hose; 15-gallon mixtures of Hooker's formula poured around one plant at a time (fun!); Foliage-Pro and ProteKt *(sprayed) by the DynaGro folks; and Nutricote dry (the high-nitrogen one).

At this moment, I think the DynaGro products are best for summer fertilization; Nutricote for fall or early spring soil applications. It is too soon for us to tell the results of the Hooker's formula, since we just applied that to the newest section of our field bed.

Nancy

Here is the recipe for the Hooker formula, copied and pasted from Bill Jarvis's website.
Trying to be a little more precise and having a 15-gallon plastic barrel for mixing, I adapted the recipe as follows.

15 Tbsp water soluable fertilizer (Miracle Grow (15-30-15), Peters (20-20-20), etc...)

1 cup Epsom salts

1 cup liquid iron

1 cup fish emulsion

1/2 cup Cygon (systemic insecticide)

15 gallons of water

CAUTION: Cygon is a fairly TOXIC chemical and I personally recommend you leave it out. I include it here only because it was included in the original formula. While it does serve a useful purpose (protects the plants against attack by insects), I believe it is also poisonous to earthworms. If used, follow label directions carefully.

Put the ingredients into the 15 gallon barrel, then add the water using a garden hose making sure the ingredients are well mixed and disolved. As the mixture should not be stored, adjust the recipe to make only the amount you need.

When I make it I leave out the product called Cygon.
Just divide the cup measures by thirds to get amounts for 5 gallons.