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MG Organic Choice - All Purpose Plant Food

has anyone had any experience with this stuff?
i have a bunch rooted cuttings that have been in 1 gal pots for over a month and i would like to give them a feeding since they are due for a watering.

i just noticed that this stuff is 8-0-0, all nitrogen. probably not a good idea for such young fig plants?

I've never heard of it. Do you have a link or something?

not sure if i'm breaking forum rules by posting this link, here it is,
http://www.scotts.com/smg/goprod/miracle-gro-organic-choice-plant-food-concentrate/prod10280006/.com

moderators, if this is a problem please let me know and i will remove the link.


I doubt it's a problem - People post links all the time. Besides, you are not selling anything, and you were asked. :)

I have no opinion about the product, but I guess MG 'needed' to come out with some sort of organic fertilizer to take advantage of that growing market. Interesting what it's made from.

As to using a nitrogen fertilizer, some might disagree, but if you are looking to put on vegetative growth on young trees faster, I do that all the time. I don't have frost worries here with softer tissues being damaged late in the season. It is also suggested that your fig trees will have less fruit when using nitrogen fertilizers and that's probably true. But the first couple years I am looking for more vegetative growth rather than lots of fruit, so that doesn't concern me too much.

fertilizer is always touch subject. like gina said, if you are looking for vegitative growth, N is way to go. i like more balanced approach for first year or two before they are at the height i want.

I would not use this product under any set of circumstances. It appears to be completely derived from sugar beet molasses. Sugar beets produce what is referred to as a "nonprotein amino acid" called azetidine-2-carboxylic acid (Aze) which is a congener of the protein amino acid proline. Aze is concentrated in sugar beet molasses which is a by product of processing the beets for sugar. Sugar beets produce Aze in the beet root (where the sugar is) but not in the beet greens. Aze acts as an anti-microbial agent to kill soil microorganisms that want to get at all the sugar in the beet and also serves as a reservoir for nitrogen storage for the plant. From my point of view, a significant attraction to growing organically is to replicate the complex growing conditions that plants are programmed to grow in. That includes symbiotic relationships with soil microorganisms like mycorrhizae that allow complex nutrients to be broken down & mobilized for your fig trees. The use of an anti-microbial like Aze will kill the beneficial microbes in your plant media. Why would you want to do that whether you grow organically or not? It is clear this product does not supply P or K. It is unlikely to supply many/most/all of the micronutrients. So, it is apparently a N source only. I'd prefer to use feather meal or blood meal for that. Another observation is that this product is made in France & shipped to the US. How dirt cheap a reagent is the beet molasses to allow that? Also, there are toxicities associated with Aze in other systems. I would guess that the people at Scott used short-term assays to test this product and did not see the longer-term downsides you would anticipate.

As an alternative, you might consider a vermicompost tea. You can get bags of worm castings, make sure it is labelled "100% worm castings," at most hydroponics stores. Put a hand full in a few gallons of water, let it sit a day or two and start feeding your plants. A paper is attached talking about vermicompost tea with pak choi (hey, it's a plant too) that will point you towards more of the science on vermicompost.

bullet08 summed it up about fertilizer as a subject!

Good luck with your cuttings.



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