Is Miracle-Gro Potting Soil Safe For Vegetables?

Scotts Miracle-Gro is the brand name of a line of potting mixes and fertilizers formulated for a variety of plants. Container gardeners often use potting mixes like Miracle-Gro potting soil. Safe for vegetables and fruits, Miracle-Gro makes it easy to select the right potting mix for each plant species.

Before working with potting mixes, amendments or garden soil, put on safety goggles, a dust mask, gloves and other protective gear to protect your eyes, lungs and skin. Whether moving flowerpots, building raised beds or digging in the garden, use safe lifting and digging methods to avoid injuring yourself and ruining your gardening season.

The seed-starting mix produced by Miracle-Gro contains peat moss, perlite, fertilizer and a wetting agent to help it hold moisture. Formulated to stay damp so the seeds can germinate, the potting mix has a balanced nitrogen, phosphate and potash mix, at .03-.03-.03 percent. It can also be used for starting cuttings.

To use, add water to the potting mix and stir until it is thoroughly moistened, but not waterlogged. Peat moss can take some time to absorb enough water to stay moist, so keep adding and mixing water into the potting mix until it is wet through. When you squeeze the moist potting mix, it should form a crumbly ball with no dry spots.

Sow the vegetable seeds according to the seed packet instructions. For rooting cuttings, insert 1 to 2 inches into the mix and press the mix gently around the stem. A rule of thumb is to insert the cutting so that at least one node is below the soil surface and at least one node is above the surface. Keep the mix evenly moist as the seeds germinate or the cuttings grow roots.

For growing in containers, Miracle-Gro has several potting mixes suited for vegetables. Miracle-Gro Potting Mix contains not only a combination of bark and other forest products, peat moss, coconut coir or compost, but also perlite, fertilizer and a wetting agent. The precise ingredients vary according to the manufacturing location and specific product. The fertilizer is a slow-release 21-11-16 formulation, designed to produce quick results when growing vegetables and other plants.

Miracle-Gro also produces a Moisture Control Potting Mix, designed to prevent overwatering and underwatering when growing plants in containers. Like the potting mix, the fertilizer in the moisture control mix is a slow-release 21-11-16 formulation.

Plant your vegetable seedlings in the potting mix. Tamp gently and water thoroughly after planting. Once the vegetables are established, allow the soil to dry to the touch before watering again. Monitor the soil moisture closely; in hot, dry summer weather your container garden may require daily watering.

When you're growing your vegetables in the garden, the soil sometimes needs a little help. Miracle-Gro has developed a Garden Soil Mix intended to amend and supplement your garden soil — a combination of forest products, compost, peat moss, coconut coir, fertilizer and a wetting agent. Spread 2 to 3 inches of the product over the garden bed and dig it in to a depth of 6 to 8 inches. The slow-release .09-.05-.07 fertilizer supplements the nutrients in the soil to encourage strong, rapid growth of your vegetables, herbs and other plants.

Raised beds are a good compromise when your soil is rocky, compacted, poor or boggy but you need more garden space than containers can provide. The height of raised beds also makes them accessible to mobility-impaired gardeners.

The Raised Bed Soil produced by Miracle-Gro contains a combination of compost, forest products, peat moss and/or coconut coir, along with nutrients from the poultry litter, alfalfa meal, bone meal, kelp meal and earthworm castings mixed into the soil. The nutrient balance is .09-.08-.09 plus calcium, making it ideal for vegetables as well as for the fruits and herbs in your garden.

In addition to the "regular" potting, garden and raised-bed mixes, Miracle-Gro has developed organic mixes made from varying combinations of compost, forest products, softwood bark, peat moss, rice hulls, coconut coir, fertilizer and yucca, depending on the manufacturing location and intended use. Like the other Miracle-Gro potting and garden mixes, the organic fertilizer in the mix is a slow-release product intended to feed your vegetables and other plants during the growing season.

Miracle-Gro also offers a wide range of fertilizers to supplement their potting and soil mixes through the growing season. To rejuvenate last year's potting mix, the Refresh 1 Soil Revitalizer provides the nutrients that vegetables need to thrive. When mixed into the potting soil, the coconut coir, compost, yucca, gypsum and 3-1-2 fertilizer with added calcium and sulfur refreshes the mix.