Is A Diet Of Vegetables That Grow Only On Miracle Grow In My Garden A Good Idea?
Posted by admin on January 29, 2010
With Miracle Grow I get the best tomatoes. Pretty much all the vegetables we eat around here come from the garden, and we buy the Miracle Grow by the ton. Recently someone suggested that this might be harmful to my family, but I’m not sure if they are correct. Especially since I use the Organic Miracle Grow anyway. Any comments anyone?
The other people have it right. It is the same nutrients no matter what brand of fertilizer or even the source. You plants do not get all of the nutrients from the Miracle Grow. Chemical fertilizers mainly provide the three nutrients that are most used by plants. Nitrogen, Phosphorous and Potassium. The numbers on the package are the percentage, in that order of those three. Some others such as Iron and Magnesium are added as well. In addition fertilizer for acid loving plants will also have Aluminum Sulfate. Azaleas and Hydrangea are two that like acidic soil. In some places with very alkaline soil this is beneficial for Tomato’s too.
I don’t know about the organic miracle grow, regular miracle grow isn’t a complete fertilizer, but it has the nutrients plants use up most. Other nutrients are supplied by the soil. I don’t see the harm in eating vegetables that were fertilized with any fertilizer, personally, and surely a lot of your nutrients come from other items in your diet, too. If there’s any harm in eating plants fertilized with miracle grow, every vegetable we eat is subject to the same harm, because the same fertilizer ingredients are used by plants around the world.
If you are using the Organic Choice Miracle Gro Plant Food, there is nothing in that product that would be harmful to you or your family. The nitrogen in the product is dirived from fermented beet molasses. Its not a synthetic fertilizer.
Miracle-Gro is not a good fertilizer for potted plants. The salts that they use as a carrier is harmful, does not leach properly and leave many harmful toxic minerals behind. You can observe plants that have gone downhill by Miracle-Gro’s use by the pots, and sometimes even plants of affected material. A yellowish-brown residue sticks to pot sides, foliage and sometimes on benches and floors near plants overdosed on Miracle-Gro. This residue is a harmful toxic salt, when scrapped off and added to soils of neighboring plants could instantly kill them.
These salts are also observed when making a solution of Miracle-Gro. When dissolving a small amount of powdered Miracle-Gro in a bucket of tap water, one sees the many undissolved salts present at the bottom. These salts are just the start of what to expect when watering your plants with Miracle-Gro. The overall effect is a plant that will eventually die and be blamed for death by some disease or insect, when the culprit is Miracle-Gro!
I don’t think it will harm you to eat vegetables grown with Miracle Grow. I use it some. Usually, though, I use compost and manure instead of any manufactured fertilizer. We have to get rid of leaves, grass clippings, and pulled weeds anyway, so we might as well let it put nutrients back into the soil. My brother has horses, and the county fairgrounds have plenty of manure (well rotted and mixed with bedding straw) that they love to give away to anyone that wants it. Both of these not only provide nutrients to the plants, they help to improve the soil, too.
I would expect that if you could get poisoned by the minerals and trace in Miracle Grow by eating the plants it’s fed to, it would have been banned by now. Miracle Grow is no different than any other chemical fertilizers which, if over applied can cause a build up of salts in the soil, which while it can eventually affect plant growth, still will not hurt you.
It is as good as any other fertilizer unless you are using compost and manure,which is all natural.It has lot less than the store bought tomatoes have.You are probably safe enough.I use it with good results.