Antics tries Miracle Grow

When I was starting out growing, my first thought was using MG. After doing a little reading about nutrients, most people seemed to say no, and only a few said it would work. Since that time, I've used quality bottled nutes, which can be out of the price range for new growers, or those on a fixed income.

I've been growing for 3 years now, and I thought I would give this a whirl to see if it can be done. If the plants die, they die. But perhaps my work will save someone some time, or even some money. At the very least, we'll all get a good laugh out of it.

Alright, setup:

PlatinumLED lights, I'm using a P300 and a P450
Gorilla 2'x4' tent
Ventech 6" filter and fan
2- 7 gal pots with 6 gal medium. One will be a 1 gal pot. 3 total plants.
Soil is my own mix using basic $6 USD bagged soil from a big box store. 4:1:1 soilerlite:coco
I'm going to use tap water only
Strains are Nightmare on Elm St (1), and Brasil_KC (2)
And of course, the star of our show, the Miracle Grow time release nutes.
I'm using the Shake n' Feed intended for Tomatoes, fruits, and vegetables. NPK is 9-4-12. No other supplements or nutrients will be used.



The two older plants are just shy of 3 weeks old (19 days)
The younger plant is just shy of 2 weeks old (13 days)

I'm not going for a long Veg, as most new growers will want to run 12/12 to get things moving, so I'm doing the same thing. Lights are now on a 12/12 schedule, full spectrum.

Nightmare seems to be growing just fine. Brasil is a horrible pheno, both plants are growing in a stunted manner, yet both have decent root systems. We'll wait it out and see what happens.


Both older plants were given 1 TBSP of MG. The young plant hasn't been fed yet.




Let the fun begin!

Here we are about a week later. Everything still looks good, no deficiencies to report.

The plant on the right, which is the Brasil KC, is male.

Still nothing on the other two.

We're right about at the 1 month mark. The left, and right plants are both 30 days old. The one in the middle is 24 days old.

The middle, and right plants are both Brasil KC, so we have 2 very different phenos that we'll choose from.

Quick update. I was asked about how the plants looked under normal light, so I took a few pictures to show that today.

Same as previously, the (suspected) female, Nightmare on Elm st. is on the left. The middle is the short male Brasil pheno, also seems to have stunted branch growth, we're more than likely getting rid of this one, it's just not spreading out to a manageable size. On the right is the taller male Brasil pheno.

And in the back pot, are some oats I'm growing for pets.

I see no reason that this won't work

Happy Monday, and Happy Halloween folks!

Just a quick recap:
We vegged the two older plants for 18 days, and the short male was vegged for 12 days.
We flipped all 3 to 12/12 on October 13, making today day 18 of flower.

All 3 plants were topped, and we got a true FIM on the female, because I missed when I topped it lol.
I also just recently confirmed that our female is in fact female.


The plants are still doing great. We've only used 1.5 TBSP of Miracle Grow in each of the large pots, and 1TBSP in the small 1gal pot. There are still no deficiencies, burn, or toxicity.
The males have started dropping pollen, and continue to produce more.

I'm also doing a little LST on the female just to make her look pretty, and to make it easier during chop.

Anyways, onto the pictures. I've included a natural light picture of leaves from each plant to show their condition, with no noticeable problems as of yet.

All 3 in the tent;

Female is currently 15" tall (Nightmare on Elm st)

Short male is currently 14" tall (Brasil _KC)

Tall male is currently 30" tall (Brasil_KC)

After much thought on the topic, I'm going to make one change to the grow.
We're going to use a bloom booster.

I originally wanted to see if this is possible to do, and get a decent yield. But, I also want to kill it as much as possible, and show new growers that a healthy yield is possible, using only store-bought Miracle Grow.

That's the goal of the grow, at least...

Our current MG product that we're using:
Miracle-Gro Shake 'N Feed Tomato, Fruits & Vegetables
NPK 9-4-12


We're going to start on Miracle-Gro Water Soluble Bloom Booster Flower Food next week
NPK 15-30-15
This product still has more N than most would prefer, but it's one of the best options that they offer.


This product can be used dry, or wet. So far we've seen that time release nutes have been able to maintain the plant with no issues at all. We haven't seen any deficiencies, burn, or toxicity.

We can easily sprinkle the soil and call it a day, but we just did that. Now we'll be mixing with waster. This should introduce new growers to mixing their own nutrients, and will help prepare them if they decide to try other bottled nutrient systems in the future.

Sure you CAN grow plants with MG but it's very high in heavy metals and other contaminants as it's meant for flowers that you show in your garden and not flowers you plan to smoke or eat!

Help support Mon$anto and grow your toxic pot with Miracle-Gro.

Nice work buddy, all is looking on point!!
I used miracle grow some years back and to be honest, it actually grew some pretty dank plants!! I'm sure yours will work well

eastcoastmo said:

Nice work buddy, all is looking on point!!
I used miracle grow some years back and to be honest, it actually grew some pretty dank plants!! I'm sure yours will work well

Click to expand...

Second that MG works great, its just another myth ran wild and non sense

OldMedUser said:

Sure you CAN grow plants with MG but it's very high in heavy metals and other contaminants as it's meant for flowers that you show in your garden and not flowers you plan to smoke or eat!

Help support Mon$anto and grow your toxic pot with Miracle-Gro.

Click to expand...

Such metals are present in other, "Better" fertilizers and nutrients. Including companies like Fox Farms, Humboldt county's own, and General Hydroponics, just to name a few. Gotta research before bashing a product.

eastcoastmo said:

Nice work buddy, all is looking on point!!
I used miracle grow some years back and to be honest, it actually grew some pretty dank plants!! I'm sure yours will work well

Click to expand...

Thanks, glad to have you aboard! I had the same experience outside in the garden. Great flowers, fruits and vegetables. And so far, I'm happy with the results. I haven't seen anything yet that makes me think MG is any worse/better than previous cannabis specific nutrients I've used.

MynameisSolo said:

Second that MG works great, its just another myth ran wild and non sense

Click to expand...

I love dispelling myths. I find the projects to be fun, informative, and we even get a little bud to enjoy.
I'm also trying to find a good dosage schedule for newer growers to avoid burning their plants. I think we nailed it in Veg. Miracle Grow Bloom should be in this week

Happy Monday everyone.

The Miracle Grow Bloom Booster arrived yesterday. Today is our first feeding. We're starting out with 1/2 Teaspoons/gallon, as per the instructions for indoor plants. according to the directions, outdoor plants are fed 1.5 Tablespoons/ 1.5 gal.

If they do well, I'll increase the level to 1 teaspoon /gal, and we'll work our way up from there.

Here's our Bloom booster


The tent, in 2 pictures, since the male on the left just stretched like crazy.


And our female, with no deficiencies.

Happy Tuesday!

Quick rundown:
Yesterday I fed our female again, this time I used 1 teaspoon to one gallon of water. (previous dose was 1/2 tsp/gal)
There are no deficiencies or issues, which I'm really surprised at. I expected some problems through the grow, but I'm quite impressed so far.

Today I cut more of the male,down to the height of the female, and collected some pollen for future use.
I'm also moving the female under the P450 when I finish typing this. The shorter male hasn't produce any pollen, pods aren't open, and are dropping off now, so I cut him down today.

Here's the tent as it stands right now. Male on the left, female in the middle, little male chopped on the right.



Our female, still with no deficiencies. Which still amazes me, considering everything I was told when I was starting out.


Calyxes are swelling up with some fresh genetics to test out next round. We're going to grow out the testers, and if they work out well, we'll work on stabilizing the genetics at that point. Assuming all goes well then, we're going to make some homemade colloidal silver and produce some fem seeds.



And here's our bag of pollen for future use

I used to use mg moisture control soil & it worked in my opinion just as good as happy frog or ffof just gotta remember it has nutrients in it & depending on pot size you don't feed early in the grow until the plant consumes some of the nutrients from the soil

TheRealAntics said:

Happy Tuesday!

Quick rundown:
Yesterday I fed our female again, this time I used 1 teaspoon to one gallon of water. (previous dose was 1/2 tsp/gal)
There are no deficiencies or issues, which I'm really surprised at. I expected some problems through the grow, but I'm quite impressed so far.

Today I cut more of the male,down to the height of the female, and collected some pollen for future use.
I'm also moving the female under the P450 when I finish typing this. The shorter male hasn't produce any pollen, pods aren't open, and are dropping off now, so I cut him down today.

Here's the tent as it stands right now. Male on the left, female in the middle, little male chopped on the right.

View attachment 3831392

Our female, still with no deficiencies. Which still amazes me, considering everything I was told when I was starting out.
View attachment 3831390

Calyxes are swelling up with some fresh genetics to test out next round. We're going to grow out the testers, and if they work out well, we'll work on stabilizing the genetics at that point. Assuming all goes well then, we're going to make some homemade colloidal silver and produce some fem seeds.

View attachment 3831389

And here's our bag of pollen for future use

View attachment 3831391

Click to expand...

Wow man, they look great hey! I think it all comes down to grower environment hey, if it's dialed in like yours then there are no issues!

horribleherk said:

I used to use mg moisture control soil & it worked in my opinion just as good as happy frog or ffof just gotta remember it has nutrients in it & depending on pot size you don't feed early in the grow until the plant consumes some of the nutrients from the soil

Click to expand...

That's one of the more common mistakes with new growers. That, and over watering seem most common. I did the same exact things lol

This has honestly been a pretty fun grow so far, I hope it helps out a few new growers hit the ground down running, so to speak.

eastcoastmo said:

Wow man, they look great hey! I think it all comes down to grower environment hey, if it's dialed in like yours then there are no issues!

Click to expand...

Thanks a bunch! My environment isn't really dialed. At least not to optimum specs that most people say we should have. My temps are usually 75-85 F, 23.8-29.4C, which are within range. RH sits between 35-55% normally, the entire grow. 50-55% in summer, and now we're at 37%.

I just found what worked for me. In my case, keeping it simple works. I like doing grows to see what other options work. It's pretty cool reading messages after the grow about people who have tried something that I did, and they found d it to work for them. It's a cool feeling helping out.

I have another project lined up already for the next grow. And it'll also go against a few common "OMG DON'T DO THAT" rules.

I tried Shake & Feed. It's very easy to put too much. I put 1 tbsp into about 2.5 gallons of medium and the drain water would come out at over 2000 ppm for a couple months. It's way stronger than you would think. I just use regular hydro nutes now, much easier to control. Once the S&F is in there, there's nothing you can do.

TheRealAntics said:

That's one of the more common mistakes with new growers. That, and over watering seem most common. I did the same exact things lol

This has honestly been a pretty fun grow so far, I hope it helps out a few new growers hit the ground down running, so to speak.



Thanks a bunch! My environment isn't really dialed. At least not to optimum specs that most people say we should have. My temps are usually 75-85 F, 23.8-29.4C, which are within range. RH sits between 35-55% normally, the entire grow. 50-55% in summer, and now we're at 37%.

I just found what worked for me. In my case, keeping it simple works. I like doing grows to see what other options work. It's pretty cool reading messages after the grow about people who have tried something that I did, and they found d it to work for them. It's a cool feeling helping out.

I have another project lined up already for the next grow. And it'll also go against a few common "OMG DON'T DO THAT" rules.

Click to expand...

Yeah that's true man! My environment is similar, but it works!! Keep doing what you're doing mate

BobCajun said:

I tried Shake & Feed. It's very easy to put too much. I put 1 tbsp into about 2.5 gallons of medium and the drain water would come out at over 2000 ppm for a couple months. It's way stronger than you would think. I just use regular hydro nutes now, much easier to control. Once the S&F is in there, there's nothing you can do.

Click to expand...

Shake and feed would need to be reduced greatly if you're mixing it with water. The instructions are for using it as a time release nutrient in the upper level of soil. Any concentrated use will give you problems like that. You'd need to use the time the nutrients would last, divide by the amount of water used during that period, taking plant size into account, container size, etc... It's easier just to use it as intended.

Good morning folks!

We have another little update.
I've never made a cross before, but it appears that growth slows to a halt once the plant is fertilized. I'll make adjustments for this in future grows.

38 days of 12/12

Yesterday was our third feeding using the MG Bloom Booster.
The first feeding was .5 teaspoon/gallon.
Second was 1 teaspoon/gallon
And yesterday I fed at 1.5 teaspoons/gallon

We have no burn still, a few lower fan leaves that were splashed suffered some nute burn. As a foliar spray, 1.5 teapoons /gal might be too high, at least for this plant it was.

Anyways, here she is in all of her Miracle Grow glory