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 12th: measurements and some more colour.

This is the beginning of Week 3 in my little experiment.  And the numbers are showing  more height gains to the Miracle Gro. But in terms of actual edible output, Better World is ahead (check out the strawberries. And the marigolds, if you care to eat them.).

                                  MiracleGro      gain                    Better World        gain 

• Raspberry                  21.5 in            +2.0                  17.0 in                      +1.0

• Basil                             15.0                 +2.5                  13.0                        +1.0

• Tomato                         14.5                  +4.5                 14.0                       +2.5

• Marigold                      2 blooms                                8 blooms

 The chart above the picture refers to the contents of these baskets.

 Water only. The jalapeno peppers seem happiest with water (the tall things to left of the lettuce). Dumb peppers; everyone knows you need beer with peppers to cut the heat, not water! 

Miracle-Gro. Beans in the little pot seem happiest here. 

 Better World Organic Plant Food. Everything looks happy here, especially the strawberries.  

See close ups below. 

Water only. Still nuthin'!

 Miracle-Gro. Only one sadly deformed ripe berry.

Better World Plant Food.  Wow! 

Here’s two other images. Plants I’m following, just for myself. Fed Better World: 

I’d say it’s time to get the whipped cream out for these babies! 

The purchase, May 25th

I am indeed, the Lazy Gardener. 

My approach to gardening has always been:  stick it in the ground, add water.  After that, the plant is on it's own. Surprisingly, this has worked well for a number of heartier plants that seem to survive on neglect.

This year, I thought I'd try something a little different. I actually hope to harvest some food from my plantings. This suggested that I might need to put a little more effort into the garden this year. So I've added a third step: feed the plants.

The dilemma: what do I feed them? I'm too lazy to research the nutritional needs of whatever I plan to sow. Thankfully, a recent client of mine gave me some plant food. It's called “Better World Plant Food.”  According to the package instructions (I designed the package BTW), it's “Complete Plant Nutrition” and simple to use.  Sprinkle it on the soil around the plant, and water it. Now that's my kind of garden care!

I thought it might be an interesting experiment to compare Better World Plant Food (an organic plant food) to one of those popular, heavily-advertised chemical-based plant foods. So I got my hands on some Miracle-Gro.

Oh yeah, I guess I need some plants too, huh? I visited my local garden centre (East End Garden Centre, Toronto) and purchased two each of the following: raspberry, basil, tomato, marigolds.  

Here’s a picture of the purchase.

Marigolds, tomatoes, basil, raspberry bushes, ready for the experiment.