June 30th: “No comparison” comparison.

Okay, so I’m really starting to slant heavily in favour of the organic Better World Plant Food. Why? compare these tomato plants: 

In my Miracle Gro bin, I have 4 tomatoes starting to come in:

Meanwhile, in the Better World bin...

In the Better World bin, I have five tomatoes, all of them out-sizing the MiracleGro. 

Meanwhile, in Test Bed 2:

MiracleGro Tomato 11 inches high.  Better World 12 inches high. 

They started out equal 4 days ago. 

Miracle Gro rose has 3 long, new shoots. 

Better World rose is off to a slower start, with a single shoot.

They started out equal 4 days ago.

Seems I may have found a preferred use for the Miracle Gro. 

June 28th: Visible results showing Better World is a better product.

June 28th measurements:

                          MiracleGro                                                                     Better World 

                          current height   recent gain /since May 25th       current height    recent gain/since May 25th 

• Raspberry           29.0 in               +2.0/ +13.5                                23.0 in                        +2.0/   +10.0

• Basil                    22.0                    +2.0/ +12.0                                  18.5                             +1.5/    +9.5

• Tomato               22.0                    +1.0/  +16.0                                19.0                             +0.5/ +13.0

• Marigold          7 nice blooms, finally                                               4 full blooms for the past week

Better World Plant Food clearly outperforms MiracleGro. I get a lot of leaves and more height with MiracleGro (shows most clearly with the basil). 

But I’m more interested in the actual, potential harvest. As you’ll see below, I’m getting earlier fruiting, and more of it, with the organic Better World.

MiracleGro leaves on the left. Better World on the right. 

 The first fruit finally appears on the Miracle Gro plants.

 Meanwhile, on the Better World side I already have four tomatoes coming in. 
And remember, these were the ones I underfed. 
(See blog: "Instructions?..." http://hasenfrass.blogspot.com/2011/06/june-26th-instructions-what.html  )

 Lookin' good to me! 

 Another tomato coming in on the Better World side....

...and another one.

This beans comparison speaks for itself.

Here’s an eggplant coming in on the water only.

Eggplant on MiracleGro is doing WORSE than the one on just plain water. 

It's smaller than the one on water. 

I had two coming in, but the other fell off when I took this picture. 

Meanwhile, in the Better World box I have two healthy, relatively large fruits coming in. 

(Ummmm... is it a fruit when it's an eggplant? Maybe I should call this a hatchling?)

Here’s the Columnar basil on MiracleGro. It’s the only plant that seems to be doing better on MiracleGro. 

And, after 4 weeks, the marigolds on MiracleGro are finally coming in. 

The Better World marigolds were at this stage over a week ago. 

Test Bed 2:

As per my posting of June 26th, http://hasenfrass.blogspot.com/2011/06/june-26th-test-bed-two-lets-start-again.html  I’ve started a second test bed to make up for my screw up. 

There’s not much to see yet. But I am being far more rigorous about making sure ALL the plants are getting the correct dosages (as indicated on packaged instructions), and giving each plot equal amounts of their respective feeds.  Hence the glasses as measuring tools. 

I've mixed up ten litres (approx 10.5 quarts, for my U.S. fans), of each. I give each container equal amounts of fluids.  I am NOT going to record how many glasses I’m giving to each plant. I’d have to give up my Lazy Gardener moniker if I did so. 

I’ll put some effort into tracking height growth, but as I’ve already pointed out, it’s the fruiting and flowering I have the greater interest in. 

June 27th: Figgin’ birds!!!

The figgin’ sparrows seem to have discovered my fig tree. One of them pecked off my largest fruit yesterday. And it wasn’t even ripe yet! 

 Pictured last week, here you see the large, lovely fig ripening peacefully. 

 Here you see the fig, gone! 

Thankfully, I have more of them coming in. Being fed wit Better World Plant Food.

 I may have to cage the tree in. 

June 27th: Another plot! Is it a conspiracy?

For those of you in Toronto Ontario...
The Evergreen Brickworks  (in the Don Valley, off Bayview Ave.) has a brand new garden centre:
http://ebw.evergreen.ca/whats-here/evergreen-garden-market/


And look... they have a test bed using Better World Plant Food. 
Drop by and check it out.

June 26th: Test Bed Two. Let’s start again!

As I mentioned in my other blog today, I under-fed the Better World plants for the past month (and still got better results than with MiracleGro).  But I want to see how well Better World can perform if I actually follow the instructions, ie: use the recommended dosages. 


Here’s my new test beds, with Better World Plant Food mixed into the soil to start with. 

I’m doing this on the ultra-cheap. I’m using trays and containers from the Dollar Store, because clay pots (I know they’re better) are expensive. And heavy! I have to haul all this stuff up 3 flights of stairs.... 

The nice ladies at East End Garden Centre recommended I use container soil, instead of Triple Mix.

 Tomatoes.

 Peas from seed.

 Discounted ‘Mister Lincoln’ variety roses from my local IGA. 

The leaves were spotty when I got these plants. Probably one reason they’re on sale?

 Carrots from seed.

Lettuce from seed.

If I can find some more strawberries, I’ll add those too. And some decent basil. I hate the taste of the Columnar Basil. 

Stay tuned! You never know how I’ll screw up next! There’s a reason I chose the moniker: The Lazy Gardener. 

June 26th: “Instructions? What instructions...?”

One month into my test:

Okay, this will be no surprise to my family or close friends. I rarely bother with instructions. Or directions when I’m driving. I like to “go with the flow.” What’s this got to do with my garden experiment?

       Well, ummmm... this is pretty funny... really... 

        It seems I’ve been UNDER-FEEDING the Better World side of these tests for the whole month. I’ve only been using 1/4 (!!!) of the recommended dosage.

 And yet I’m still getting better results than with the MiracleGro.  

       Now, some of you might rightly ask, “How do we know you didn’t screw up the MiracleGro side too?” A fair question. The answer is, I know I’ve followed the MiracleGro directions carefully, because I’m afraid of handling chemicals, and wanted to be sure I wasn’t harming my plants. I read those instructions carefully. And, MiracleGro comes with a handy measuring spoon.  

       On the Better World side, after the first week I didn't refer back to the instructions.  I, being so forgetful, just added one teaspoon of Better World per litre of water (to make a tea), instead of the recommended four teaspoons. 

      Now, to make up for my bungle, I will start some new test beds today. Those will be posted as Test Bed 2. 

In the meantime, I’d suggest that the results of my test to date is still valid. After all, here I’ve found a very forgiving organic plant food that, even when it’s under-used and misused, gives me results as good, and better, than Miracle Gro. 

See my notes below:

Here's some bean plants. 

Water only /                Miracle Gro  /            Better World tea.

Radishes. 

Water only /             Miracle Gro  /           Better World tea.

I should have transferred these into larger containers 2 weeks ago. Probably too late now, although I will try it. Still, you can see clearly that plants need food. 

And that the Better World Plant Food seems to work, well, better! 

Radishes from the pots above. 

Water only /       Miracle Gro  /          Better World tea.

         

You might find this interesting: the fourth radish, on the far right, was growing in my other test plot (the one containing the fig tree). This plot has the powdered Better World Plant Food mixed directly into the soil. Mixing Better World directly into the soil, or sprinkling it onto the soil around your plants (not mixed as a tea) is one of the options  given in the instructions.... yeah, those instructions..... 

 Above are my tomatoes on MiracleGro. 

Nice thick stems, lots of leaves, and getting some good flowering, at last. 

Above are my tomatoes on Better World Plant Food. The diluted tea version. 

Nice thick, hairy stems. Flowered days ago. AND.... I’m getting fruiting.  

Ha! Who needs instructions....

 Strawberries on water only. Still no fruit !

 Strawberries on MiracleGro. Harvested 3 fruit from this, am waiting for more. 

Seem to be getting new leaf growth.

Strawberries on Better World. 

Harvested five fruits from this plant, and have new fruit on the way! 

Jalapeno peppers are coming in. Here they are on Better World. 

Again, same results as everything else above: some fruit on water, more on MiracleGro, the most with organic BetterWorld Plant Food. 

I like how forgiving the plants are of my neglect. 

I gather plants don’t read instructions either.