dyvonnetxgal
Full Member
Posts: 44
Joined: Fri Jul 29, 2005 12:23 pm
Location: Friendswood, Texas Zone 9a

Miracle Gro Organics...

Wow, low and behold what did I see when I ventured into Lowes today to get some more blood meal and bone meal........For some odd reason they did not have Scott's brand bone meal or blood meal.......I was getting a bit frustrated. Then what did I spy when passing by all of the chemicals to check and see if I might have overlooked the Scott's. :shock: Miracle Grow Organics.....blood meal and also bone meal. :shock: I was really hesitant to buy it because it had the Miracle Grow name on it. And my trials with Miracle Grow......so I took a chance.....got home and opened the packages..... :shock: real bone meal and blood meal :shock: :lol: I guess Miracle Grow is starting to realize more and more gardeners are going natural instead of chemical. I do also see more emptiness in the organic section rather than the chemical. Isn't that cool. I don't know if anyone else knew about the new products but I just had to post......:D

User avatar
Grey
Greener Thumb
Posts: 1596
Joined: Sat Apr 16, 2005 8:42 pm
Location: Summerville, GA, Zone 7a

I didn't - but I will keep my eyes open next time I go to one of those big box stores. Nice to see that happening!

grandpasrose
Greener Thumb
Posts: 1651
Joined: Tue Jun 28, 2005 12:21 pm
Location: Quesnel, BC, Canada - Zone 4a

Great news!! Now maybe I won't have to go to the farmer's co-op to get what I need all the time! :lol:

Val

opabinia51
Super Green Thumb
Posts: 4659
Joined: Thu Oct 21, 2004 5:58 pm
Location: Victoria, BC

I guess miracle grow has decided to jump on the organic band wagon so as to not miss out on the revenue. Were the prices similar to other brandes of the same products?

User avatar
webmaster
Site Admin
Posts: 9476
Joined: Sun Feb 08, 2004 12:59 pm
Location: Amherst, MA USDA Zone 5a

I was reading an [url=https://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/archive/2006/05/03/FDGA0IHL761.DTL]article about organic milk[/url] the other day, and they mentioned giant confinement dairies where cheap organic milk is produced. Which contrasted with the smaller dairies producing organic milk that had more humane methods of caring for their cows.

What does this have to do with Miracle-Gro? The term organic not only means being free from chemicals and antibiotics and such, but also being friendly to the earth. It might not be codified in any Federal Law, but the idea of organic is generally tied to causing zero harm to the environment (or animals, for that matter).

There is some controversy over one of the ingredients in the Miracle-Gro Organics line of products (not sure if it's in the products you purchased).

The controversy revolves around the harvesting of Canadian "sphagnum peat moss" and whether or not it's harming the environment.

Here's a quote from a [url=https://horticulture.coafes.umn.edu/vd/h5015/99papers/mccue.htm]University paper[/url] about Peat Most extraction in Canada:
The dominant species in bog ecosystems is Sphagnum moss, which is the major component of peat moss. Peatlands are important in the filtering of water, serving as collection basins for precipitation, in the accumulation and storage of carbon and in providing habitat for wildlife (Rubec 1996).

In Canada the primary threat to peatlands is from the extraction of peat for horticulture use. Peatlands may be harvested for a period of 15 to 50 years, depending on the depth of the peat deposit...

...After the surface peat supply has been exhausted, the field is abandoned to revegetate naturally. This process may take as little as 3 to 7 years on minerotrophic (nutrient rich) peatlands. On ombrotrophic (nutrient poor) peatlands in which vacuum harvesting has been used, this process may take 25 to 30 years...

The harvested site is typically barren and devoid of vegetation with exception of a few vascular plant species that can tolerant dry and acidic soil conditions (Bugon et al. 1997). On post-harvested peatlands there is very little natural recolonization by Sphagnum moss. In Quebec only 10% of the abandoned bogs have some Sphagnum regeneration.

dyvonnetxgal
Full Member
Posts: 44
Joined: Fri Jul 29, 2005 12:23 pm
Location: Friendswood, Texas Zone 9a

Actually opa the prices for the Miracle Grow products were a bit more than the Scott's brand. I guess that should be expected they are going out on a limb trying something new.. :lol: The bone meal was about $4 and also the blood meal. Scott's brand bone meal and blood meal is between $3 and $3.80 depending where I buy it from.

User avatar
Grey
Greener Thumb
Posts: 1596
Joined: Sat Apr 16, 2005 8:42 pm
Location: Summerville, GA, Zone 7a

webmaster wrote:I was reading an [url=https://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/archive/2006/05/03/FDGA0IHL761.DTL]article about organic milk[/url] the other day, and they mentioned giant confinement dairies where cheap organic milk is produced. Which contrasted with the smaller dairies producing organic milk that had more humane methods of caring for their cows.
I can add a little more to that. I think I also have a thread on this subject somewhere, where back in October, Congress has made it possible for there not to be any strict governing rules to organic dairy farming. To the smaller farms, organic milk comes from cows that have ALWAYS been in green pasture, and never fed anything synthetic. A cow on a larger farm, however, may have been weaned on cow's blood (seriously) and be kept on a pen, and still be considered "organic."

This has been reported on both by OCA (Organic Consumers Association) and Newsweek.

So, the Webmaster was saying - just because it SAYS organic does not mean it IS organic. Horizon milk is not organic, and neither is their high-priced butter, cheese, or anything else.

The knowledge of the Spaghnum moss being in the product makes me wonder. It's sad. :(

grandpasrose
Greener Thumb
Posts: 1651
Joined: Tue Jun 28, 2005 12:21 pm
Location: Quesnel, BC, Canada - Zone 4a

Yes, like our trees, we are consuming at a far faster rate than can be replaced. It's like the greenhouse effect, what has to happen for people to wake up - disaster? :roll:

Val

User avatar
Grey
Greener Thumb
Posts: 1596
Joined: Sat Apr 16, 2005 8:42 pm
Location: Summerville, GA, Zone 7a

Oh well. As it is, we just do our part. Little dissapointed that Miracle Gro's organics aren't perfect. (sigh).

opabinia51
Super Green Thumb
Posts: 4659
Joined: Thu Oct 21, 2004 5:58 pm
Location: Victoria, BC

Yes, it is unfortunate because there is no technical definition of what "Organic" means as far as in food production or other such non industrial or scientific circles. The problem there inlies in the fact that scientifically speaking an organic chemical is simply some chemical that is made primarily from Carbon and based on that definition, this "organic" milk is technically speaking organic but, it is definately not healthy.

It's loop holes like that that allow practices like the ones outlined above to slide under the radar.

It's good to make people aware of such practices. Thanks for the posts everyone.

FairyDust
Cool Member
Posts: 60
Joined: Fri Mar 17, 2006 1:39 pm
Location: Browns Mills, New Jersey
Contact: Yahoo Messenger AOL

I'm glad to know about the spaghnum peatmoss. Knowing the destruction caused by harvesting it now, I won't be buying it or miracle grow, even if it is "organic".

peachguy
Senior Member
Posts: 159
Joined: Thu Mar 30, 2006 9:01 pm
Location: Ontario

Ok I have something to say and it kind of has to do with this post. I know it is good to try to help the environment that we humans have messed up, but it quite hard to help. Firstly some product's ingrediants might not even be labled on it becuase they know it will get a bas repsonse by the consumers. So for organics you could be buying some that is bad for the environment anyways. Mostly everone one this forum probably has a car, a house, goes to school has a job etc. and most of those places or things emit toxins into the air. So it is quite hard to help out the environment even if you wanttoo, but it is a slow process to undo what we have done. Its not just going to fix its self overnight, really if you wanted wanted to be truly organic(or leave a carbon footprint) you would have to go live with monkey's in the trees :lol:. It is really up to the big corporations to make the products better to the environment and make those products a lot cheaper so that nonconscious consumers will buy the one that is better to the environment so thats what I have to say.

FairyDust
Cool Member
Posts: 60
Joined: Fri Mar 17, 2006 1:39 pm
Location: Browns Mills, New Jersey
Contact: Yahoo Messenger AOL

That is true in someways, but for myself its more about reducing the impact I have on this beautiful earth and leave the smallest trail I can. Even if I'm only reducing my impact by just a tiny bit by using compost I make myself (which I just started composting since we just moved here 9 months ago), or by recycling, or by using less pesticides than the average person uses, etc. Its better than nothing. I always figure something is better than nothing. I don't personally see a point in being like oh whatever everyone else is causing pollution so why should I bother?

I totally believe in the ripple effect and every ltitle thing I do now will help in the future. Just like dog rescue, sure I might only foster 20 dogs in a year, but the ripple effect saves a lot more dogs than just those 20 I took in; because it frees up space in shelters and gives other dogs more time before winding up on the euthanasia list. And then those shelters also take adoptable dogs from other rural shelters, freeing up space there. So really by taking in 20 foster dogs I may have saved 100 from being euthanized.

Thats how I feel about trying to reduce my pollution waste even if its just by a little. And I try to stay away from any major manufacturers mainly because I don't like the practices and ethics of most corporations.

peachguy
Senior Member
Posts: 159
Joined: Thu Mar 30, 2006 9:01 pm
Location: Ontario

I Know the little things count and I didn't mean to offend you in anyways I even try to reduce lots of things, all I ment is that it is going to take the people in high postions to get the average person who doesn't think about the affect to just go with the better way. Like a lot of organic things cost a lot of money and people who have low income are going to go with the non-organic .

User avatar
Grey
Greener Thumb
Posts: 1596
Joined: Sat Apr 16, 2005 8:42 pm
Location: Summerville, GA, Zone 7a

I'm going to weigh in too.

Theres this thing called consumerism... I know it way too well because I am in the advertising business. There is a definite trend toward being more organic - you can see it just in a lot of the first posters on this forum, asking if there's something other than Roundup or Sevin or other chemicals.

Consumers have enormous power. If a good number of people stop using RoundUp, that manufacturer will have to look at some kind of organic thing to offer. And if those consumers are already happy with vinegar, I don't know that Roundup will create something better that is still ORGANIC and cheap!

As life (gasoline, and its ripple effect) gets more expensive, you'll find the use of vinegar to kill weeds growing pretty quick - simply because it's cheaper than Roundup. Or the use of baking powder for use on roses with JPIXIS concoction to fight black spot. Much cheaper than those sprays.

I think things will change for the better, I am glad there are so many environmentally-conscious people out there. And while I am not perfect either, I figure a little goes a long way. I try to use vinegar and baking soda to clean my house with as much as I can, rather than Mr Clean and bleach. Just me not buying a bottle of that stuff once a month and putting that down my drains to go heaven-knows where has to help a little.

FairyDust
Cool Member
Posts: 60
Joined: Fri Mar 17, 2006 1:39 pm
Location: Browns Mills, New Jersey
Contact: Yahoo Messenger AOL

peachguy wrote:I Know the little things count and I didn't mean to offend you in anyways I even try to reduce lots of things, all I ment is that it is going to take the people in high postions to get the average person who doesn't think about the affect to just go with the better way. Like a lot of organic things cost a lot of money and people who have low income are going to go with the non-organic .
You ddn't offend me at all and I hope I didn't come off that way either. Sorry if I did. You are right, in order for there to be a bigger impact on our environment these big corporations and bigger name brands really need to step up to the plate. But they won't until they see that the consumers want environmentally friendly options that don't rape the natural environment in the process.

garden_mom
Senior Member
Posts: 105
Joined: Mon Mar 13, 2006 7:12 pm
Location: Detroit, MI

Grey wrote:Consumers have enormous power. If a good number of people stop using RoundUp, that manufacturer will have to look at some kind of organic thing to offer. And if those consumers are already happy with vinegar, I don't know that Roundup will create something better that is still ORGANIC and cheap!

I think things will change for the better, I am glad there are so many environmentally-conscious people out there. And while I am not perfect either, I figure a little goes a long way. I try to use vinegar and baking soda to clean my house with as much as I can, rather than Mr Clean and bleach. Just me not buying a bottle of that stuff once a month and putting that down my drains to go heaven-knows where has to help a little.
This is exactly what I was thinking. Refusing to buy from the biggest offenders even their so-called organic products will have an impact, and in fact HAS had an impact, on our options as consumers and, in turn, the effects on this earth. I'm not exactly a tree-hugger or anything; we own and drive two cars like most families, my kids wouldn't eat all organic if I paid them (I myself am a picky eater), but we try where we can, and I know it makes a difference.

That reminds me, there is a website you can go to, https://www.gocarbonzero.org and it will calculate how many trees you would have to plant to take care of your yearly output of carbon, and once they calculate it, you can send them the money to plant that number of trees for you. (Our family was about 20 trees, I think it averaged about $5 a tree or something like that).
I got that from Vanity Fairs Green Issue May 2006. It was outstanding, I never understood the greenhouse effect like I do after reading that magazine, not to mention who knew that you could be so hip and so green at the same time? :lol: I can't wait until Al Gore's movie comes to my area!



Return to “Organic Gardening Forum”