The Organic Alternatives to Miracle-Gro

With a demanding crop or gardener, the temptation rises to use soil enhancements that allow for bigger crops and better blooms. However, if you do not want to use chemical plant food or fertilizer such as Miracle-Gro, organic alternatives also exist that allow you to safely and naturally increase the yield from your gardens and crops.

Miracle-Gro also comes with an organic option that uses compost, sphagnum peat moss and manure. The fertilizer is natural, providing slow and quick release feeding for plants that is 100 percent organic. The best way to use this soil is with native soil. The bag of Miracle-Gro Organic Choice is equal to four square feet when you mix at a three-inch depth. With a rototill or spade, you mix this organic alternative to help plants grow quicker.

Medina Agriculture Products produces a biologically based soil conditioner and organic fertilizer. Medina's HastaGro is an organic alternative for all Miracle-Gro products. This plant food promotes larger fruits and blooms without unnatural chemicals and toxins. HastaGro also prevents salt and chemical buildup in the soil, which is crucial for long-term gardening. Medina sells Growin Green Organic fertilizer in addition to HastaGro plant food and lawn food. For additional garden or lawn maintenance, Medina also sells Beneficial Microbes in four-ounce bottles and Soil Activator Gel, both of which aid in soil improvement and nutrient recycling.

Pro-Gro 5-3-4 comes in bags of five to 50 pounds that cover up to 250 to 2,500 square feet. The organic alternative plant food contains a high amount of nutrients for plants and trees, promoting faster and sustained growth. Farmers, vegetable and fruit growers and landscapers use Pro-Gro to improve gardens and lawn plants. Pro-Gro uses a combination of cottonseed meal, alfalfa meal, feather meal, rock phosphate, kelp meal, cocoa meal, blood meal, fish meal, crab meal, dried whey, natural nitrate of soda, magnesium sulfate and natural sulfate of potash. These ingredients are all natural and promote the healthy nutrients already in native soil

Farmers in the U.S. began using bat guano in the 19th century. As explorers discovered guano, they applied the droppings to soil on farms and noted the improvement in the fertilized soil. Natural desert bat guano all purpose 8-4-1 works as a soil enhancement for potting mixtures. Bat guano is high in nitrogen, which allows for greater growth in plants. Guano also refers to the use of sea bird droppings. Other guano fertilizers are dry-bar bat guano high phosphorous for fruit, flower or vegetable gardening; fossilized sea bird guano high phosphorous for houseplants, bulbs, vegetables and shrubs; and pelleted Peruvian sea bird guano all purpose for outdoor flowers, fruits or vegetables.