Miracle-gro garden soil

11 years ago

Last year, I dug the hole for my old reliable Jet Star tomatoes, and when I put them in the ground, I filled around the plant and to the top of the hole with Miracle-Gro garden soil.

Initially, the vines took off like the Starship Enterprise, and I was delighted. And then............

.....the heat wave hit. I'm sure most folks remember the terrible temps that nailed just about every state last year, and my old reliable Jet Stars suddenly weren't very reliable, in spite of extra watering, weed preventing screens, and mulch. I lost almost half of my crop, and I can tell you, I was not a happy camper.

I'm wondering if adding the MG garden soil to the initial planting was a mistake.

Has anyone besides me tried planting tomatoes in this manner? And in your opinion, was this the wrong thing to do, or was it the extensive heat.....or perhaps both?

Any comments would be greatly appreciated, as I am considering trying this method again, but I'll wait for some replies before I do.

Thanks in advance.

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Comments (5)

SneakyP86
11 years ago
I do the same thing with almost all my transplants. All my tomato plants got up to almost 8' tall last year and we're talking 80 tomato plants. So I don't think it was the Miracle-Gro garden soil. Now take my opinion with a grain of salt as this is only my second year for having a garden and I know just enough to be dangerous. I would suspect maybe it had something to do with the extra watering. I live outside Atlanta and it gets very hot, even so I didn't water more than every 3 to 4 days. I hand water everything at the root level and gave them some miracle-gro fertilizer every 2 weeks.
missingtheobvious
11 years ago
drumz1, was it the "Moisture Control" garden soil? I've never used it, but the potting-mix with Moisture Control is warned against on this forum. Here's a Google search for comments about it on this forum:

Miracle-gro with Moisture Control on the Tomato forum
dickiefickle
11 years ago
MG MC is only really frowned upon(by some) for CONTAINER use ,and is highly approved for IN GROUND use
digdirt2
11 years ago
Can't see any problems with using the Garden Soil with in ground planting, just creates problems in containers. It does suggest mixing it in well with the surrounding soil. Did you do that?

Given the problems most of the country had last year with the heat I'd be much more inclined to lay the blame on the weather then on the MG.

Dave
drumz1
Original Author
11 years ago
missingtheobvious, the MG I used was the "standard" type, not the moisture control. I made a mix of the MG, plus some bagged topsoil, and added the surrounding soil when I planted the tomatoes.

So far, from the replies I've seen in this thread, I'm thinking that it was just the horrible heat wave that did the plants in.

I'm hoping that we don't have a repeat performance of these conditions this year.