Penny Carnathan

Penny’s a Nurture And Hold (NAH): Nah, I won’t pull that out yet, it’s still got a green shoot. She likes dragonflies, lady bugs and new stuff only after weeding, pruning and fertilizing.

Kim Franke-Folstad

Kim’s a Want It Now (WIN): Everything pretty, everything now. She will resort to full-spectrum insecticides in desperate situations, and believes it’s her duty and right to buy new plants every weekend.

Both advocate Plant Choice (SOMEthing besides crotons. Please!), lots of color and low maintenance. We don’t agree on everything, but we’re smart enough to learn from each other - and from you.

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The Spray-N-Grow challenge, Part II

Posted Feb 25, 2011 by Penny Carnathan

Updated Jun 28, 2011 at 10:07 AM

A few weeks ago, FODs Chip and Diane were putting in their regular order of Spray-N-Grow, a foliar spray Diane’s been using for 20 years to give her veggies a boost, when the Texas-based company mentioned the president would be in Clearwater for a Home Shopping Network blast of their product. Long story short, Chip and Diane were invited to film their testimonials.  I haven’t yet seen it, but let me just say, Diane did NOT like the way they did her makeup!

Diane wrangled a handful of 2-ounce sample bottles and she and Chip generously shared them with Kim, me, and a couple of other FODs. They wanted us to take the Spray-N-Grow challenge: Choose a group of the same plants, spray half, don’t spray the other half, see if you notice a difference.

I have a bed of six hollyhocks. Perfect. My “trial” is far from scientific – I didn’t take measurements or control for other variables, except that all six are in the same small bed, get the same water, and got the same dose of fertilizer last week. I took before and after photos. You be the judge.

I gave them the first spray Feb. 12. Here’s what one plant’s leaves looked like immediately after.

And here’s what the same plant looked like today (Feb. 25), six days after a second dose of Spray-N-Grow on Feb. 19. All the plants got a shot of Miracle Gro last weekend.

Spray-N-Grow has been around since 1982.  It says it contains 17 micronutrients not available in fertilizers. The ingredients include nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, which are in all fertilizers and represented by the three numbers on fertilizer labels (Spray-N-Grow doesn’t claim to have cornered the market on these, by the way). It says Spray-N-Gro also has calcium, magnesium, sulfur, iron and zinc chloride, and other unspecified minor elements.

I couldn’t find any independently published university studies of Spray-N-Grow, which is unusual for a product that’s been on the market for almost 30 years. There’s a 1996 trial by the University of Vietnam that reported good results, but it’s published by Spray-N-Grow. I also found a trial conducted by a paid consultant in New Zealand, also published by Spray-N-Grow.

The company cites extensive experiments by a university professor named A.E. Nightingale, but I found only one brief, oblique reference to his experience in a 1990 article in Texas Monthly magazine. The article’s about a Texan named Jim Martin who believed he’d developed a soil-cleansing product in the 1950s. The article touches on descendants of that product, one of which it says is Spray-N-Grow.

The lack of serious, independent trials makes me wary. But I try to keep an open mind. Universities can’t afford to test every product on the market, right? Spray-N-Grow relies on customer testimonials, and there are many. But there are also quite a few nay-sayers on garden forums.

You be the judge. Here’s my sprayed plants “before.” They’re the three plants to the left – the one to the right is part of the non-spray group.

Here’s the control (no Spray-N-Grow) group at the same time.

And here are those plants today.  No spray group here:

Spray group here:

My conclusion? Spray-N-Grow costs $11.95 for 8 ounces. Instructions call for mixing 2 tablespoons per gallon, so 8 ounces produces 32 quarts of spray. Being the cheapie that I am, I just as soon dig lots of good organic stuff into my dirt, sprinkle some slow-release fertilizer, and offer the occasional blast of Miracle-Gro. I do think I see a slight improvement in the sprayed hollyhocks, but I’ve seen much more dramatic results in sandy beds that I’ve amended with lots of compost and other organic stuff.

I’ll never say that what works for one gardener won’t work for others (OK, maybe I will). But I’ve seen Chip and Diane’s gorgeous vegetable garden, and I know they do a lot more than sprinkle seeds and spray Spray-N-Grow.

So, it’s no magic elixir. Just like those diets that promise weight loss with no effort, if you want to see results, you gotta do the work.