Am I damaging the envirnment by using Miracle-Gro on my plants?
Question:
Answers:
Yes. As a synthetic fertilizer, it ends up in the aquifers and eventually, your local rivers and water sources via runoff.
Its nitrogen content promotes eutrophication, or the extreme growth of algae in water zones. In some areas, this creates hypoxia, or a condition where the algae thrives at the top, uses up all the oxygen and the fish and animals living below suffocate. You see this more commonly in the western part of the Long Island Sound.
So please, avoid those synthetic chemicals and use organics instead. Bone meal, blood meal, fish emulsion, etc., are much kinder to the environment, are more effectively taken up by plants and don't last long in the soil.
Not if you're using it according to instructions
Miracle-Gro like any other fertilizer when used properly should cause no damage to the environment but instead replace chemicals that are needed in the land for growth or in your case accelerated growth. And you can always look at it from this stand point, you are growing something that is taking in Co2 and producing oxygen which is always good.
Chemical fertilizers such as Miracle-Gro can damage the environment in two ways. First, they require inputs of fossil fuels in order to produce them. Many organic gardeners feel that organic fertilizers put less of a strain on the world's oil supply and add less to global warming since they don't involve this heavy energy input for production.
Second, overuse of fertilizers of any kind (chemical or organic) can result in agricultural run-off, which causes algal blooms in our streams and ponds and can kill water life. Chemical fertilizers like Miracle-Gro are easy to overdo, and they also wash away more easily than organic fertilizers.
If you are only using Miracle-Gro on your indoor potted plants, of course you don't need to worry agricultural run-off. But there is still that nagging point about fuel consumption and global warming. Next time you buy fertilizer, you could experiment with an organic type, and see if you like the results.
More Related Questions & Answers...