Lately I've seen a lot of posts where people are using miracle grow soil. So, I thought I'd start a thread stating the horrors miracle grow causes. So, I'm starting PGAMG, pot growers against miracle grow. Seriously though, this is what they did. From experience, miracle grow's soil is terrible. It seems to always cause yellowing leaves and nutrient burn, especially when young. Here are a few pics that show what miracle grow did to one of my plants. From germination, yellowing leaves are present, all the way through flowering, the leaves curled, yellowed, turned crispy, and made little tiny ass waste of a time buds.
After my problems with MG, I went to bubble buckets and will suggest this to anyone. For me, they were ten times easier and required only a water change every ten or so days. The growth rate is increased, and from what i've seen, so is yield. Theres a thread on how to make a homemade one in indoor or advanced growing. Basically, all you need is a 2/3 gallon bucket, airstone, airpump, and nutes. It cost me a grand total of ten bucks, excluding nutes, but I figure I would need those anyways. Although I have heard good things about foxfarm.
Here ya go... http://forum.grasscity.com/showthread.php?t=35309&highlight=homemade+bubble+buckets Just improvise for some of the things and make it so it fits your needs. I'm using a 2 gallon bucket and it is working great. Good luck!
Just cause I'm feeling nice , ill take some for ya of my setup. Edit: Pics are here Pic 1 - Side view of the whole setup. Pot with electric tape and blue wire is the net pot. You can see the air hose going in on the left. Pic 2 - The medium in my net pot. Just some aquarium beads. Nothing fancy. Pic 3 - Top view of the netpot sitting in the resevoir bucket. The yellowing is from pH lockout. You'll want to buy some type of pH tester. I have test strips and have since gotten rid of this problem. Pic 4 - Air stone at the bottom. Showing the bubbles. This gives oxygen to the roots so that they don't drown. Pic 5 - Showing the root system.
The miracle grow organic line is nice - Look at my grow if you don't believe. Not MG in general just most of their soils.
Nexxus - Maybe thats the problem with miracle grow. I wasn't using organic. So, then stay away from the non-organic. One more pic Showing what my girl looks like now. Ten times better than the other pics with the mg soil.
The bubble bucket instuctions look pretty easy but I have a couple of stupid questions. Where is the water level at? Are the roots submerged? Do the roots eventually grow through the basket into the water? OR - Is the water brought up to the level of the roots? Is the air line in there just to add air into the water? I know the design, just unsure on how it all works.
At first, the water level is up with the net pot, and is lowered depending on the the length of root system. The roots are submerged, but at the top, some of it can be exposed to air. For it to take up the nutes, the root system has to be underwater. They have to grow through the pot to get to the water. The air is there to get the submerged roots oxygen and co2. Without these, the plant would technically drown and would have the same effect as overwatering, but to an extreme.
I have my water line now about an inch and a half below the net pot. Just a little room for the roots to get direct contact with air and the rest is under water getting air from the pump.
Oh Happy Day. Senior Ganj, I was going to congratulate you on starting what I thought should be a thread that we would point all noobies to who ask us the inevitable question "should I grow with Miricle Grow". However, it seems like the thread went a little off topic. Here are some old pictures that I rustled up of my first AND second grows some three years or so ago, with Miricle Grow that contained "Time release ferts". I think the second grow was with Scotts which had the same damn stuff in it. None of the local hardware stores out here sold anything other than this (that I was able to find). Plants start off ok under my low powered and inadequate flouros.
Got a little off topic, but eh, giving those that want to use the mg another option. Is that two plants in one pot i see... But the time relase ferts are what get you. Then if you add any more with the time release later, bad things will happen