You say to-may-to (w/Miracle Gro) and I say to-mah-to (organic)

[catherine]

Well, we have a nice garden growing, but DH and I are butting heads on the Miracle Gro question. I REALLY don't want to use it... and he does--what's more, he is always of the "if a little is good, more is better" frame of mind, which drives me crazy. He pretty much burned the roots of my herbs last year, and I suspect the yellow leaves on several of the vegetables this year (pepper plants) could be due to the Miracle Gro.

But, he's also hard to reason with--he loves the garden and he gets very defensive when I bring up the subject.

Any suggestions? Any good resources I could gently point him to? Or do I just give up and maybe work on a fall garden and tell him I'd like for it to be organic.

[nswef]

We have had this same discussion, but I am the one who would do the fertilizing..so no Miracle Grow. I did concede to use sea kep and fish emulsion- it comes in a jug at the hardware store. I put it in the watering can. We'll see if it helps. Good luck on convincing him that there are safer options.

[ApatheticNoMore]

It's unnecessary? Well I suppose some depends on growing conditions but I have certainly all my life seen tomatoes grow (like gangbangers you know how they take off) with little more than bags of manure mixed in the soil. So yea I'd say it is unnecessary. I see PLENTY of productivity from people using organic growing methods (really abundance, more than people can use). One of the benefits of organic should ideally be a more balanced mix of nutrients in the soil than from just a simple synthetic fertilizer (thus more nutrients in the produce you eat).

And yes there are a lot of organic fertilizers beyond just manure (fish emulsion, kelp emulsion, bone meal, etc.). I wonder if this is "cheaters organic" but it is considered organic. It really sounds like you have a philosophical disagreement here, like it's all about a slight increase in yield when just growing plants can yeild pretty good abundance as is (and miracle grow is produced from petroleum right, how sustainable is that?). Permaculture if done right actually claims even higher yields but that probably takes patience and whether you will or will not acheive it I don't know. (if the individual tomato is somewhat more nutritious by using organic methods do you weight that against some slightly higher yeild?).

Here's an article (that I have no idea of the accuracy of), that seems to think miracle grow is bad for the soil:
http://davesgarden.com/guides/terms/go/2307/

I don't know how bad miracle grow by itself really is in terms of actual harm done, the whole of conventional agriculture and the non-holistic paradigm and peteroleum dependence is what is bad :). It does seem unnecessary to me though.

[redfox]

http://www.ourhappyacres.com/2012/02/another-reason-not-to-use-scotts-miracle-gro/

Plus... using chemicals to fertilize is like using illegal performance enhancing drugs, except you then eat the drugged food. Y.U.C.K. And it trashes the soil. And it's expensive!

[peggy]

Spray and Grow. http://www.spray-n-growgardening.com/products.asp?dept=17&gclid=CJSv3r77jbECFSQDQAod6GciGQ
Point him in that direction. You really can't over do it and he can feel better for putting 'something' on the plants and you can know it's organic and can't really hurt.

[catherine]

Thanks for the articles! Great websites...

nswef: thanks for the sea kelp/fish emulsion tip, and peggy, thanks for the spray-and-grow site: maybe these are alternatives he'll consider

ApatheticNoMore, I agree, our garden was doing fine without it... Maybe I'll encourage him to a little "competition" next spring. He can use Miracle Grow on his side, and I'll use nicely cultivated compost on mine and we'll see what happens. He tends to be competitive, so that might work.

redfox, I agree about the YUCK, but he sees nothing wrong with consuming chemicals and therein lies the rub.


He applied the Miracle Grow yesterday--I saw a couple of yellow leaves with brown curled ends and I really think he just dumped too much of that stuff in there.

What makes it worse for me is I just finished the chapter on Soil in Gaia's Garden by Hemenway and after the wonderful picture he paints of all these little microbes, and worms, and everything else living contentedly down there in the soil giving off nutrients and taking back sweet stuff from the roots, I just feel so bad for those little guys getting dumped on!

[redfox]

Can you make the comparison with us eating too much rich food, and getting indigestion & worse? Maybe he needs his own section of the garden to dump chemicals in, and you have your organic section. It would be an interesting experiment...

[Tussiemussies]

Hi Catherine, did you come to any resolution about your garden? Was just thinking after reading your post, that I'm glad that my DH doesn't like to garden so I don't have to come up to situations like you are in. Would really dislike it if I had to use something on the garden that I didn't agree with. I like the other poster's idea of separating into two plots. One for you and one for him. I realize you will be eating some of his food then this season, but maybe next year you can grow everything you want to eat, on your plot?

[catherine]

Hi Catherine, did you come to any resolution about your garden? Was just thinking after reading your post, that I'm glad that my DH doesn't like to garden so I don't have to come up to situations like you are in. Would really dislike it if I had to use something on the garden that I didn't agree with. I like the other poster's idea of separating into two plots. One for you and one for him. I realize you will be eating some of his food then this season, but maybe next year you can grow everything you want to eat, on your plot?

Well, one good thing happened. Last night we had corn and I mentioned what a shame it is that we throw corn husks in a PLASTIC bag to dispose of them, and what does he think of getting a compost bin? Well, he really took to that, so I asked him his advice on what kind he thought would be best, and so he's been reading up on it and has shared his thoughts and also read about the "how-tos" of composting.

OBVIOUSLY, compost would render chemical fertilizer unnecessary--I hope. So as I keep the dialogue about the benefits of composting I can throw in what I know about what makes GOOD soil vs. what hurts the soil... Plus I AM taking the permaculture course, and I told him I wished he'd take it with me, to which he said, "Nah, you'll tell me all about it." So, that was permission for me to "educate him" as I go along...

;)

[Rosemary]

I use compost.

A compelling argument against chemical fertilizers is this: they cause the cells of the plant to grow abnormally large without a proportional increase in the natural chemicals that provide for disease and pest resistance, so chemically-treated plants are more susceptible to diseases and insect damage.

I'm not a biologist, so I'm just repeating what I've read in other books. But I can say that although my garden has now been in place for about 7 years, I have no insect problems whatsoever, on my vegetables or fruits, including apples. And I've been told that it's "impossible" to grow apples organically in this area.

[catherine]

Wow, Rosemary, our posts crossed at the same time--Yes--I agree that compost may do the trick.

[Tussiemussies]

Well, one good thing happened. Last night we had corn and I mentioned what a shame it is that we throw corn husks in a PLASTIC bag to dispose of them, and what does he think of getting a compost bin? Well, he really took to that, so I asked him his advice on what kind he thought would be best, and so he's been reading up on it and has shared his thoughts and also read about the "how-tos" of composting.

OBVIOUSLY, compost would render chemical fertilizer unnecessary--I hope. So as I keep the dialogue about the benefits of composting I can throw in what I know about what makes GOOD soil vs. what hurts the soil... Plus I AM taking the permaculture course, and I told him I wished he'd take it with me, to which he said, "Nah, you'll tell me all about it." So, that was permission for me to "educate him" as I go along...

;)

That sounds really hopeful Catherine. Neat that you are taking that class too. Great that he is open to you teaching him all about it, and that he would like to compost!!!

[iris lily]

I like my chemicals and will use them when appropriate, but I'd not use Miracle Grow. Compost--that's the ticket. I love me some compost. Quality of soil is far more important to most plants than the crap you can dump on them, but Miracle Grow manufacturers know that Americans are lazy and they just want to take a pill/dump on a chemical wash to feel good/grow big veggies. That's why compost is so fab--it enhances the soil structure AND provides important nutrients.

Miracle Grow is, to me, the least sophisticated of nutrient enhancements. It's not even formulated for tomatoes (unless you are using a "tomato" formula?) And there is the burn that you noticed, not cool.

[toxcrusadr]

Soluble plant food has its place, but at my house the place is usually in a potted plant. ;)

[awakenedsoul]

That's great that he's open to comopsting. I water my plants with a week compost tea once a week, and my vegetable garden is glorious! I feed the fruit trees in my orchard compost once a year. I think once he has his own compost pile, and sees the red wigglers and microbes, he'll be on board. I used to use Miracle Grow when I didn't know better...