lime, you are a great guy and I am NOT going to jack your thread, LOL!
But I do wanna make a reply and and try to dispel some of the MG is the Black Plague of grow mediums thing.
Miracle Grow, IMHO is one of the best products a person can use if it is their first jump into farming, and even beyond. The reason I say this is it is very simple and it can actually teach how to grow, if used properly. I have a grow in MG going now. First ever, I use FF Happy Frog usually. But I had none this grow and MG was available. I did a basic 30/30/30 mix with MG potting soil, perlite, and sphagnum. The key to using MG is all in watering properly. All MG products have time released water activated nutes in them. The product line is designed with the K.I.S.S. theory straight from the bag. But again, it is all in the watering. Too much water and you get too high of a salinity and lock out issues. So let it dry out a bit and modify watering schedule and/or amounts. Too little water and deficiencies creep in, pretty easy to spot and MG as with soil as a whole is easier to fix then hydro systems. In MG a nute issue can cause permanent damage after a few days. In hydro that can be reduced to hours.
I think the real reason MG has so many haters. Is that as a whole, growers are pretty ego-centric. We love our girls and want to be totally in control of every aspect. Who are these MG people to tell us what and when our babies need something? IMHO all the MG bashig is the result of control issues and good sales and marketing tactics by other soil and nute producing companies.
Any soil even he 'top of the line' can have and cause issues. Look at FFOF, far and away the most used from the bag soil I have seen discussed on RIU. Yet most agree that it is too hot for seedlings and younger vegging plants.
IDK, I think the real haters of MG are those that have bought into the marketing and sales ploys and do not want too admit to themselves that they could have saved big bucks going to wal-mart instead of the "We make YOUR money grow on OUR trees" hydro stores. Again JMHO
The pics are of my 1st grow run in MG. went all through veg under nothing but 2 regular 40w fluoro tubes. Just moved too my tent...check the jounal in my sig.
Ok, now let's get back to the plant porn!