My DH has used it that way, and likes it.

Jeri

Careful of the ferts. Small amt. should be fine.

Any MG soil I've ever gotten is always hard as a rock, and doesn't drain well,if it were me I'd stick to what works. Save the money for more roses;-)!

This is good as a mixer. One caution is that you don't want bagged soils with foods added in to get wet and sit unused. They get toxic then.

If you have a mix that works, why change? Except be careful about the lime content of mushroom compost; some is highly alkaline and can cause iron deficiency chlorosis.

MG potting mix is fine, but since it contains fertilizer, be careful not to over-fertilize. MG orchid soil is a lighter and more durable mixture (lots of bark fines and peat).

We use MG potting mix/or potting soil only for our tomato plants etc. with good results...

Overpriced. You are paying for all that advertising.

If there is a Costco conveniently near you and you belong, they have two cubic foot bags of the MG Moisture Control Potting Soil for $9.99, making it $5 a cubic foot. It's the best price around these parts. Home Depot and Lowe's sell the 64 quart (2.5 cuft) bags for $14.97, making that extra half cuft cost what a full cuft costs at Costco. Compared to the other brands I have looked at and was inclined to trust, the Costco price is right in line. Kim

Amount tolerance kind of depends on the rose, also. Is it a band? A bare root? A potted rose?

I have always used miracle gro and i think it works great.

Here is a link that might be useful: Landscaping

I like Miracle Grow moisture control best..it seems to have a finer texture than regular Miracle Grow. I tried a different brand one year for my small plants..I think it was Stay Green, and it stayed too wet through the winter or didn't have enough air in the soil so I lost more plants to rot that year. Miracle Grow has the right balance of moisture and air.

During the spring I was too cheap to buy it, rationalizing that I could make a similar mix from bulk stuff cheaper.

Now that it's hot as heck I'm snapping it up, mostly at pretty good prices, since it's a bit off-season. That hand-mixing bulk stuff is a pain.

The MG is so fluffy & well-draining. I'm re-potting the bands now in gallons in it. I have them in a 1/2 (good, bought) native soil & 1/2 pine fines (Hapigro landscape mix).

They almost all look very good. Dr. Grill, Mme Charles, Pink Rosette, Coronado, Atomic White are literally climbing out of the pots. The bands I put in the ground with that mix are even bigger. Sunsprite is a 3' multi-caned plant--a couple of canes are probably 3/8" thick. These are spring delivered bands that looked very nice on delivery.

Bands I potted up last fall in the native soil with some coarse mulch are okay, but not near as robust as the plants from spring in the fines/native mix.

The fruit trees we planted in a mostly MG potting mix this spring look fantastic & have never wilted.

Yeah, it seemed extravagant this spring to buy MG but when I look at how the valuable plants we did put in it last spring have thrived--I'm going to get it at the best price I can & stock up.

I just went out & priced peat--2.2cu.ft. bale was $20. I don't think I can duplicate the MG potting mix at the price it's already offered at--& consider the labor--in this heat! I have also tried several store brands but they seem to have less peat & more fines. For my caliche desert area with thin sandy soil, the amount of peat really fluffs the soil & holds the water when mulched without caking up into a dry clump.

I'm going to fluff up the store brands with a bit more peat to get them to a similar tilth. I've also been adding about a tablespoon of Osmocote per mixed gallon in my experimental native + fines mix.

Sorry for the ramble, bottom line: right now I'm leaning towards putting more stuff in MG potting mix when I consider price + labor.

Coir (ground coconut fiber) is signifcantly better than peat and is renewable, where peat isn't. It holds much more water without becoming water logged, so it maintains better soil oxygen. I don't care for Scott's, but so far, the MG Moisture control remains the best around here. Kim

I planted a small Belindas dream rose bush in a large cedar 1/2 barrel and the planting mix i used is miracle gro potting mix with ferzilizer. I am not sure if this is all my rose bush will need to grow and be happy and healthy. The bag says it feeds up to six months but i am not sure about that. This is the first time growing a rose bush, i hope that i did not make a mistake with the soil that i used.

MG is waste of money. Last time bought it and regreted it.just not soil but some sort of fluffy trash. Will never give my roses that again.

I've gotten great results with Miracle-Gro moisture control mix, both with roses growing in my big pots, as well as newly received roses being grown to planting size in 2 gal. My roses have been in their big pots for about 5 years, and I have two that are ready for repotting.

I dug up Belinda's Dream and Lavaglut ( a dark red Kordes floribunda) which were nearly dead from voles eating their roots: two months later they are nice little bushes and getting ready to bloom . I'll most likely leave them in their pots!

Things must be rather slow here on the forums to be dredging up three to seven year old threads for activity...

Three years after the initial post, I am still using the MG Moisture Control Potting Soil. New climate with much lower temps, about the same amount of lack of rain, greater UV with even higher evaporation rates and it is STILL the best mix I've found for everything I grow (tomatoes, onions, herbs, bulbs, roses, Pacific Coast Iris seedlings and a host of others). Costco is now selling the "organic" version of the soil, made from "landfill material". I've used it. I don't like it. Lowe's and Home Depot still carry the product for the same prices, but have switched from the 2.5 cuft (64 qt) bags to the 2 cuft bags, again for the same prices they used to sell half a cubic foot more. Fortunately, we have a neat small grocery chain here called Grocery Outlet which picks up odds and ends for pretty good prices. They received a whole pallet of the 2.5 cuft soil for $9.99, so I bought ten. I should have prepaid for all of it and then brought it home in stages, but 20-20 hind sight. I raise my rose seedlings in it and then grow them on until they are either culled or eventually planted and the stuff works just fine. I still don't care for Scott's, but this product is THE best potting soil I have used in every climate I have grown plants in. From right on the beach in Pacific Palisades; to the Santa Monica Mountains on the top of a ridge where fogs sometimes interfered with the inland valley heat with its extreme UV, extreme wind and extreme heat (117 there in today's extreme heat event); in the Santa Clarita Valley, the next valley north of the San Fernando Valley, where it's even hotter and windier; and now nine miles from the Pacific in Santa Maria, CA. The plants thrive in it and it appears to have some fertility as they respond with new growth when repotted into fresh product. I have heard from a friend up in Washington State who said with the outrageous rainfall they received this winter, she had some potted plants drown and she credited their losses to the MG MC soil, though when you have rivers running through your yard for weeks, I wonder if any other products would have done much better.

I bought some Miracle Grow, cause I ran out of my usual stuff I get in a humungous bag every spring. I was planning on planting peas and beans in it and most importantly a lot of cuttings. Do you think MG has too much fertilizer for cuttings?

Carol

Your mileage may vary, but I plant all of my rose wraps (Burrito Method) in it. Those planted in the coir product this year worked well. Those planted in the "organic" blend containing "landfill material", did NOT. But, again, I have extreme evaporation here. There is no summer rain. There is almost constant wind of low humidity. There is extreme UV, to the point where roses and hibiscus sinensis REQUIRE some protection from the direct, all day sun or the foliage burns. If you don't have those kinds of extremes, and if you receive rains so your pots don't dry out in a day, you may not need, nor even benefit from it. Too much fertilizer? I don't think so. I think the issue is the amount of moisture it retains and the humidity and moisture of your conditions/location.

Thanks very much! That was very helpful. :)

Carol

I have read that roses are heavy feeders and my miracle gro says it fertilizes for 6 months, will it deplete out of a container sooner in hot weather with frequent watering? Thanks

Yes. Heat and moisture cause the time released nutrients to dissolve faster. Nitrogen flushes from the soil with water. Plant utilize the nutrients faster with heat and more water. All combine to eliminate them faster. How much faster? Who knows? Their test temps and moisture levels haven't been published that I have found, so they could be dry, cold for all anyone knows.

I planted my rose bush about a month ago so I probably should not worry about feeding until spring. I am I right? I do not want to over feed.

That depends. If you are where you shouldn't feed after a certain date due to concerns about freezes, perhaps yes. If you live where it remains pretty warm (in comparison) and the roses tend to flower continuously, and you want them to flower continuously, you may want to feed in a few months IF they appear to be slowing down more than you want them to. Your climate, conditions and desires all figure in to that decision.

I bought miracle grow potting soil for my new knock out roses. Do i need to add regular soil to that or will it kill the roses if I don't. Can I mix it with the old soil from previous years, also MG?

HU - are you putting it in a pot or in the ground ? If in a pot , do not add ground soil . Yes you can use old MG soil on the bottom of the pot mixed in if you want but I’d only do that to stretch my mix .

Again , do not add ground soil .

It is in the ground. Thank you. I put the new MG on the top and turned the soil over with the spade.