I have used it. My daylilies in pots are doing great in it, but I ams sure there are others who have a lot more experience than I do.

It is far to hot and humid to spend a lot of time outside yet. I am trying to work in "spurts" for now and delaying my garden moves. I probably have a lot longer to work in the fall than you do though.
kay

I've used it straight up in the front raised beds I put in and mixed in an older bed with lots of clay. The straight up did best, but it did help the clay area.

As I recall, it has a lot of mulch in it--not exactly what I consider "soil." However, mixed with other things, it's okay.

I find in recent years it has a lot of wood chunks in it that I don't like. They are not fully composted and can burn the roots of your plants. I only use it mixed with native soil in the fall. In my opinion, the fertilizer is good but the "soil" is not. I would rather use what is called Soil Conditioner (pine fines) and add Milorganite or some other granular fertilizer. Just my two cents.

Debra

I am using the MG Garden Soil for Flowers and Vegetables. That is what is written on the bags. I have, so far, found no mulch in the bags (used 4 out of 10)so could other brands of MG's Garden Soil be the one with the mulch in it?

Julia

I used the MG with the three month fertilizer in it to pot up my new daylilies this spring. When I planted them in the garden about a month or two later the pots were full of roots. I am getting a couple more daylilies soon and will plant them directly in the garden adding some of the MG to the planting hole. Someone on the AHS robin mentioned that they used MG for potting and were very happy with the results.

flowergardener: I read on the bags that I have that the MG Garden Soil should not be used for pots. It is suppose to be mixed with the soil already in the garden.

You used the MG Garden Soil in pots and had no issues?

Julia

Actually Julia, all forms of Miracle Grow soil sold here (the potting soil and the garden soil) have the big chunks of wood in them. They have for the past 3-4 years. Before that I did not have an issue with the Miracle Grow brand. Apparently Mantis has encountered this same problem. Obviously the company cannot keep up with sales demand and bags the "soil" before it's fully composted.

Debra

I'm not sure about Miracle Grow specifically, but a lot of times those bagged soils are prepared regionally, so they may vary a little depending where you live.

Check the small print on the back of the bag to find out where it came from.

Nate

Nate: You had me curious on that, so I checked the bags this morning. It says Marysville, OH as the place is was packaged.

Julia

The MG I got here did not have chunks if bark in it. Just looked it is MG potting mix with six months of fertilizer. I use MG in all my pots of flowers have for years and never have a problem.

I've used it for years too and have only found a few chunks of wood. I know I've gone through 30 or so bags in the last two years for the raised beds.

We use Miracle-Gro Potting Soil with Moisture Control when we plant new daylilies in our garden. The special mix we originally bought to create the raised beds above hard-pan clay is a disaster. We dig a nice big hole in it and plant our newly purchased daylilies in the MG PS. I haven't noticed any wood chunks in it.

Nancy

I finished all the original bags I bought and no chunks so I guess I was lucky.
Lowes had a sale on the big bags, 2 Cu, for $5.00 so I picked up 4 of those. Very heavy compared to the smaller bags, 1 Cu, I first got. I'll manage :D. Just hope I don't find any chunks of mulch in it.

Julia

I haven't foud wood in it here. there is a big plant just a few miles from us, so I assume it is local. I know the plant bought a huge pile of well composted sawdust from very bnear here to use a couple years ago, so I assume a lot of it is regional. I have used it for mine, and had no problems.
kay

Maybe I need to buy MG soil out of this region since it seems I'm the only one with a problem. The quality of it here is awful. I have consistently found the big wood chunks in both the MG Garden Soil for Flowers and Vegetables and the potting mix. The bags also sometimes have rocks in them. My Home Depot no longer carries any other brand of garden soil. The garden manager said their contract with MG prohibits it. Maybe I should send a copy of this thread to MG headquarters.

Debra

I have been using the MG potting mix since last AUGust, since I couldnt get that wal mart brand of potting soil thet I like,and I have not had any issues with it, excpt dont let the pots dry out that has this ine it or its hard to get it to take water.back when out tempature was holding at 100 plus daily,I had 2 pots that dried out and when I watered the water ran out the side and didnt wet he roots of the plants at all, so I had to get a long plastic tub I had and put water in it and set the pots down in the water for over a half day,till they soaked up water again,after that I haven't had a problem with it.But,I do prefer to use the wal mart EXPERT GARDENER potting soil.Its a little cheaper in cost,and I find it a better potting soil.course now me, I have never liked M,G. products.
..

jean

jnow me, I have never liked M,G. products.

jean

Thanks for the tip, Jean. I will be needing some once the weather gets cool enough to transplant.

If you are getting wood chunks in Miracle-Gro Garden Soil, please think about e-mailing a complaint to them. I think it might help. Several years ago, I was not only getting wood chunks but little rocks in the Seed Starter. That's when I decided to mix my own. I wrote to them about it and voiced my dissatisfaction. They sent me a coupon for a free bag, and it appears they have really cleaned it up. I still get little pieces of wood, and they float to the top when I add more water to the cups. I just pick them out if it looks like they will interfere with growth.

Nancy

Bag quality has varied here, but generally the potting soil has been very peaty and more like mulch. Some bags have been better.

Did y'all know that one hybridizer is successfully growing daylilies in aged horse manure? I think I'll dig up one of my poorly performing plants that I have scheduled for the trash bin and try that out, just to see what transpires.

Nancy

I haven't opened any of the new ones I bought yet. Waiting for rain to soften up the ground again.

Debra: You should post your review on the product site for MG. http://www.scotts.com/smg/catalog/productTemplate.jsp?proId=prod70232&itemId=cat50152
A waste to spend $$'s on chunks of wood and rocks.

Julia

I would be very careful in the use of horse manure. It can burn quickly and needs to be well aged. And any compost used in hot weather can encourage crown rot.

I've opened 2 of the larger bags I got on sale and a bit disappointed with what I found. No chunks of mulch but the MG was hard as a rock - compacted so hard- so I had to take a shovel and keep trying to break it down into finer consistency as you would expect garden soil. Not chunks and compacted soil. Both bags also had what looked like a whitish substance on one side of the compacted material. Possibly mold? I still have two more bags and I suspect they will be in the same shape when I open the bags.
I think they may need to put an expiration date on the bags as it appears after awhile on the store shelves/stacked, the materials compresses and gets very hard.

Julia

Julia, it sounds like mold -- the bags may have been stored outside somewhere at some point. I bought several bags of the Seed Starter at Lowe's, and one was wet inside. Apparently either from rain or when they water plants?

Nancy

I've seen the white mold inside also, definitely in mulch bags, maybe also in soil/mix. Never stopped me from using it, but not my favorite thing to see either.

Nate

If you check the ingredients on the bagged products for potting, they contain only organic products like peat moss, composted wood products and usually some perlite. These are for potted plants but can be added to existing beds as a soil amendment. My favorite bagged potting medium is made by StaGreen. It has lots of aged pine bark in it and the daylilies do well in it.
The MG Garden Soil is not for potting plants, it will compact, get hard and have poor drainage. It is supposed to have the correct proportions of dirt and organic materials in it that you need for outside gardens. I bought a couple of bags myself. It's getting harder to find soil conditioners and that's what I bought these for.
Ed

Your suppose to mix this product with your garden soil (which I've been doing) but kind of difficult with these bags since it is hard as a rock and when you do break it down, it still remains in chunks. I actually have to keep working it till it becomes a fine consistency to mix it into my garden soil.

I guess I should have stuck to the smaller bags.

Julia

One of the complaints I have had about MG products is their consistency. Sometimes the product is very good, but sometimes very poor. You may have gotten some bags at the beginning or the end of the run, and the mixture of the ingredients are not what they are supposed to be. I suggest you add a little water to the bags and see if that doesn't loosen up the mix.
Ed

In Maryland, I found the quality of this product went down a lot since about 2007, with a lot of wood chips.

Add water? hmmm, I thought that is what is making it hard as a rock.
If only this had more mulch in it, it would probably have kept it from hardening.

Julia

Well, I didn't promise. But to makes bricks, you take wet clay and then bake the water out. Top soil without amendments can get very hard if it dries out, so will peat moss. Both need to be moist to regain their looseness. Give it some time too, won't happen quickly. My best guess. Ed

I bought a couple bags of MG potting mix and its hard as a brick in the bag, so I poured about a gallon of water in the bag,and closed it back up for the day. next day it was soft and I just grabbed handsfull to pot up a plant.. I used half the bag,and got down to where the hard stuff is again, so I added a lot mre water to it and its set for a day, and now I can use the rest of the bag.

jean

MC 2cu ft on sale at HD special buy until this Wednesday. Here its $6.88

The MG potting mix that I get here is more like what mantis described, varied but generally very peaty and more like mulch. I always mix with Baccto potting soil and perlite vermiculite for pots. I haven't mixed any in my beds.

"I find in recent years it has a lot of wood chunks in it that I don't like. They are not fully composted and can burn the roots of your plants. "

Wood will absolutely not burn the roots of your plants. Uncomposted manure may, but wood is nitrogen deficient in general.

JoppaRich - It's the composting of the wood in the soil that burns - and I mean heats - the plants to death.

I just recently planted a tomatoe plant in a huge plastic pot.I grow all my tomatoe plants in pots,as I can have them inside a small fenced in area to keep the deer from eating them up, and I filled the pot with the MG garden soil.it says to not plant in pots using only this mix, but,I did it anyway,and I will continue to do it,as this one tomatoe plant has tripled in size, compared to my other pots with MG potting mix.It grew huge just in 3 days and full of flowers already.and there was no chunks of wood in mine either.really nice soil mix.

jean