July 4th: Invasion of the Klingons, the sequel?

Independence Day in the U.S.A. today. 

And something invaded my garden again last night.

Here’s the eggplant on water only.

Here's the eggplant on Miracle Gro. 

This is where the eggplant USED to be on Better World. 

(See July 2nd post).

The critter took my strawberry too! 

(See July 2nd post).

I guess this means even animals (or space aliens) think food grown on Better World just tastes better. 

Meanwhile....

The tomatoes on Miracle Gro are finally catching up to Better World. 

Raspberries seem to be coming in at last! Planted these on May 25th.

These are on Miracle Gro.

Tomatoes on Better World are humming along. 

Raspberry on Better World is showing some budding too, but not as much as on Miracle Gro.

Raspberries are part of the rose family. My test roses seem to be doing better on Miracle Gro as well. Hmmmmm... coincidence?  

And the bean plant on Better World.....

... is blooming and fruiting. Or beaning... whatever it is bean plants do. 

Carrot seeds are starting to sprout on the Better World side. 

And finally: I’m readying the defenses against further alien attacks. 

July 1st: Happy Canada Day!

Happy 144th Canada.

I know this is a Japanese maple. 

But it’s from my yard. 

And it’s a maple. 

Enjoy.

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 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.

June 2: Plants need food too? Who knew? I thought plants were food. I guess they’re not cannibals.

The first week results are in. 

                                   MiracleGro      gain                    Better World        gain 

• Raspberry                  16 in            +.5                        13.5 in                      +.5

• Basil                             10.5            +.5                          10.5                          +.5

• Tomato                         7.0           +1.0                            7.0                         +1.0

• Marigold                       3 blooms                             6 blooms

So far, everything seems equal, except the marigolds, which prefer Better World.  There is new growth on all the marigolds, so stay tuned. 

All plants seem to have hints of new growth. 

See May 27th posting for more feeding details. 

Both Better World and Miracle-Gro suggest weekly feedings.  Miracle-Gro says you can go 14 days between feedings. 

           According to Eric Rosenkrantz of Matchboxgarden.ca , he uses a lot less than the recommended amount of Better World, because he has a huge greenhouse. Quote:“I basically gave the soil a dusting of the product. Still got great results!”

          So I might try using Better World in lesser amounts than directed.  I think I’ve been adding more Better World than I actually need.   According to instructions “Better World Plant Food is highly concentrated; a little goes a long way.... over-application will not harm your plants.” So it doesn’t scare me the way Miracle-Gro does , which states “ can burn plants. ” 

Anyway, now that they’re all fed, I can go back to being Lazy! 

Till next week, anyway.

June 1: The plot thickens.

I’ve had several requests for a control plot, to properly compare plant feeding to not feeding at all. It’s been a week since started the Miracle-Gro versus Better World Plant Food in matching bins; so it seems only fair to the “dirt and water” contingent to start new beds from scratch.

Here they are:

Each bed contains, from left to right: 

strawberry, eggplant, jalapeno pepper (what was I thinking?!), 

and romaine lettuce. 

The two pots in the foreground contain radishes and green beans, which I’ll grow from seed. I’ve been told it’s too late to start growing from seed. We shall see. 

Or is that “We shall seed” ? 

Ibid with Miracle-Gro.

Ibid with Better World Plant Food. I managed to wedge a rosemary herb beside the lettuce. 

NOT part of this comparative study, but just to see if I can get it to bear fruit, I've set aside another plot bed: 

A fig tree. And some other assorted herbs and veggies. Consider this a stress test. How much can you reasonably jam into a container and still get results? 

Oh, and I’ve chosen to gamble the harvest from this lot on Better World.  

Why? Because I prefer the idea that organic supplements can actually grow food just as well petro-chemicals.  

(I also think the moon is made of cheese, but American dairy farmers won’t let  NASA harvest it.)

Here's what the farm looks like: