CULT: Miracle Gro & seedlings

I put down 6-24-24 granular fertilizer every spring and, lightly, again after
bloom.
The Miracle Gro is just for added oomph.  Once accidentally sprayed at about
3X recommended strength on one end of a seedling row. Didn't check the
sprayer
setting.  Went back and sprayed it well with just water.  That end of the row
grew like horse weeds and bloomed like crazy.  The whole row had been planted
with
lots of compost, in virgin soil, so the only difference was the MG and the
extra watering.
Of course they were all different breeding, but the extra spraying spanned at
least 2
dozen different crosses.

I've never really grown modern iris any place but here.  Miracle Gro may be
bad news in
other situations.  Other products may be better, I wouldn't know.  The more
time I have
to spend running around trying to find a product, the less apt I am to use it.

The story of the seedlings sitting out is long and involved.  Stripped to the
essentials:
The sunroom was a disaster and had to be torn down.  Seedlings have been on 2
4-shelf
units smack in front of the south-facing sliding glass doors.  They all had to
be moved
for my new, mop-able floor to go in.  So I set them out the door.  Got down to
36F last
night, so I'm already separating the men from the boys.

It would figure that the first year I don't have my sunroom would be the year
with the
most seedlings.  With so much cold, wet weather, damaged pods and stalks (some
even
laid under downed trees for up to 2 weeks) and quite a few lousy looking
seeds, I thought
germination would be bad.  Wrong-O!  Am guessing it's another function of
using tough
customers for pod parents.

Or else that's just the way life is.

Mary Lou, near Indianapolis, Z5 - 62 days to first TB

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