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Subject: Re: Miracle Grow, Bt
From: Susan Wehe <swehe@earthlink.net>
Organization: EarthLink Network, Inc.
Date: Tue, 15 Jun 99 16:01:16
Message-ID: <MOD$990615.26379@rec.gardens.ecosystems>
References: <MOD$990610.15237@rec.gardens.ecosystems>



Hi John,
I know of no health concerns where people are involved, but there are
plenty of health concerns when it come to your soil and your plants.
For a garden to grow and truly thrive for years without having to be
babied, good organic material needs to be added to the soil. The soil's
micro-life will thrive and support plants and produce huge amounts of
vegetables, fruit and flowers with little or no fertilizer. Miracle-gro
is a water soluble fertilizer that leaches quickly out of the soil and
does nothing to improve the soil that it passes through. It causes
plants to put on too much vegetative growth which stresses the plant and
makes it very attractive to insect attacks. Many people who write in
with tomato plants that aren't setting fruit are people who are using
products like Miracle-gro. The plant thinks that it has all the time in
the world to reproduce and puts little or no effort into fruit
production. I could show you pictures if you want of plants grown
without anything other than 2 TBL of organic slow release fertilizer and
they're so loaded down with fruit that your can see the foliage for the
tomatoes. I guess I could work harder and get less... but nah.... I
like it this way better :)
As to Bt, again this product is harmless to humans and is very deadly
to caterpillars. Use sparingly as Bt goes a long way and avoid getting
it near desirable caterpillars like swallowtails and such. We plant far
more dill and fennel than we ever need just so that we're not competing
with baby butterflies for our food. At the same time, we've had plants
that were being defoliated by moth caterpillars (cabbage, broccoli, and
other cole crops) and felt that Bt was the best way to go. We carefully
applied it to keep it from drifting to the dill next to it, must have
worked as the dill had more than its share of caterpillars and the
cabbage had none.
HTH,

susan

John Whiting-Grant wrote:
>
> Are there any health concerns regarding the use of Miracle grow on
> vegetables?
>
> What about the insect/ caterpillar controller Bt?
>
> John