Really?

[Becca]

Can I really use Miracle Gro plant food spikes as substrate fertilizer?

[halak]

I use Jobe's sticks, so probably yes.

[krisw]

Yes, definitely. I use them all the time for big root feeders like swords. You can also put Osmacote Plus in gel capsules and shove those down below your plants. I do both depending on what's on hand. And like Viktor says, Jobe sticks are good too.

[Becca]

Woo hoo!

[JLW]

But what about just plain miracle grow?

[native_plant_nelly]

Wow. I think I heard somewhere about a LFS that does this but I thought I must be misunderstanding. Do you need to be using aquasoil for it to work properly? It seems like something I'd want to avoid with my more gravelly Fluorite Black.

[halak]

I don't think it matters what type of soil you have. I use Miracle Gro spikes in mineralized topsoil.

[krisw]

Viktor is right -- the best is to have substrate that will keep the ferts (regardless of miracle grow or others) in the substrate. So, large gravel with lots of water flow through the substrate would not be ideal, but Flourite Black, Sand, Aquasoil, etc. should be fine.

[JLW]

If you're sticking them into the roots of swords, they do a really good job of chugging the nutrients from the sticks before they get into the water anyhow.

So, has anyone tried just pouring miracle gro into the tank yet? It's been 3.5 years!

[krisw]

Josh - lead the way with your MiracleGrow experiment. I bet it'll do wonderful things for growing algae!