On 7/20/2014 goldenretriever said: The PROBLEM is the Miracle Grow soil. I had the very same problem this year! I had some MG potting soil left over from last year that I used to pot some new small hydrangeas & coral bells this year. They have ALL STRUGGLED (to put it mildly).
This year, I bought 15 bags of organic soil to use in my raised veggie beds. Every single thing I planted looks spectacular. So, I replanted all my struggling plants with the new soil & organic amendments. ALL of the plants took off growing within a week. When I transplanted my small hydrangeas, I was stunned at how tiny the root balls were. These have been planted for 3 months, & should be sizeable by now.
Ditch the MG soil....not sure what they did to it, but it's horrible at this point.
I want to mention why using organic fertilizers are better than synthetic fertilizers like Miracle Gro or Mir-Acid.
With Miracle Gro or Mir-Acid you are only feeding the plants. The microbes that break down organic fertilizers are not being fed. If the microbes die, then your plants become chemical junkies on that synthetic stuff.
Organic fertilizers feed the microbes in the soil which in turn break down the fertilizers to feed your plants.
Also sometimes it benefits new plantings of trees and shrubs to add an amendment that contains mycorrhizae (a symbiotic fungi) that helps develop a plant's root system faster.
From wikipedia:
Mycorrhizae form a mutualistic relationship with the roots of most plant species.
This mutualistic association provides the fungus with relatively constant and direct access to carbohydrates, such as glucose and sucrose. The carbohydrates are translocated from their source (usually leaves) to root tissue and on to the plant's fungal partners. In return, the plant gains the benefits of the mycellium's higher absorptive capacity for water and mineral nutrients due to the comparatively large surface area of mycelium: root ratio, thus improving the plant's mineral absorption capabilities.
Plant roots alone may be incapable of taking up phosphate ions that are demineralized in soils with a basic pH. The mycellium of the mycorrhizal fungus can, however, access these phosphorus sources, and make them available to the plants they colonize.Thus many plants are able to obtain phosphate, without using soil as a source
Mycorrhizal plants are often more resistant to diseases, such as those caused by microbial soil-borne pathogens.
Plants grown in sterile soils and growth media often perform poorly without the addition of spores or hyphae of mycorrhizal fungi to colonise the plant roots and aid in the uptake of soil mineral nutrients. The absence of mycorrhizal fungi can also slow plant growth in early succession or on degraded landscapes
☼The best place to seek God is in a garden. You can dig for him there. GBShaw☼
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