Mamunia mamunia mamunia Oh oh oh
Mamunia mamunia oh oh oh oh
It might have been a bright blue day
But rainclouds had to come this way
They're watering everything that they can see.
A seed is waiting in the earth
For rain to come and set him free,
So the next time you see L.A. rainclouds
Don't complain, it rains for you.
Two days in a row of continuous rain. As a cyclist, I’m none too happy with it.
But as The Lazy Gardener, it’s great! Less work for me!
I’ve been away from my blogging post for a few days. The jungle of tomato and basil plants is doing fine without me.
The MiracleGro box.
The Better World Plant Food box.
Marigolds on MiracleGro. Blooming later than the Better World box.
Note also the ill-formed blossom.
Marigolds on MiracleGro. Smaller than the Better World blooms, but this could be just because these are blooming later.
Nicely formed bloom on Better World.
My bean pot booming on Better World.
See June 19th posting for comparisons.
Figs are filling in nicely (on Better World).
Assorted veggies on water only.
Still no strawberries.
Assorted on Miracle Gro. Strawberries finally ready to be picked.
Assorted on Better World. Am starting to see my second crop of strawberries.
Also, am harvesting the romaine lettuce.
Here’s the MircleGro strawberries. Note the deformed, split skin and uneven shape.
The split skin might be because the berries might have been ready for picking yesterday.
I love fresh-picked strawberries. even these, grown with chemical MiracleGro, tasted better than the ones I'll buy in the market in winter. But these did not have the tart, tangy flavour of the berries grown with Better World (which I ate last week).
If I needed further proof that Better World seems to speed up fruiting and growing, this is it: my first tomato is coming in!
On the MiracleGro plants, I have counted 19 blossoms today. The Better World plants have 28 (!) blossoms, one or more that is already fruiting. Remember, these identical plants were all planted in the same conditions on May 26th. The only difference is the plant food.
And of course, today’s measurements:
MiracleGro Better World
current height recent gain /since May 25th current height recent gain/since May 25th
• Raspberry 27.0 in +2.0/ +11.5 21.0 in +1.0/ +8.0
• Basil 20.0 +2.0/ +10.0 17.0 +1.0/ +8.0
• Tomato 21.0 +3.0/ +15.0 18.5 +0.5/ +12.5
• Marigold blooms coming in now large, full blooms for the past week
What I’m gathering from this is, chemical MiracleGro seems to help plants grow taller faster. But for a fuller, faster fruiting plant, the organic Better World is the way to go.
Great! I went back to the start of your experiment and couldn't find N:P:K: ratios for your fertilizers posted; that's an interesting variable to look at. Also, what are the ingredients of each fertilizer? My guess is that MiracleGro is higher in fast-acting N (nitrogen), which promotes "green" (above-ground growth -- stems and leaves) and thereby creates a false sense of lushness. Organic fertilizers offer more balanced ratios and slow-acting ingredients that promote root growth, thereby encouraging nutrient uptake to the plant, which affects plant size, healthy fruit formation, and TASTE. Maybe this experiment will make a gardener out of you!
ReplyDeleteHi Pam! Thanks for reading through the whole blog. I'll be posting something on NPK values, etc very soon.
ReplyDeleteI think the Better World is 3-3-3.
And yes, I think I've been bit by the gardening bug!