About.com Rating
The Bottom Line
TerraCycle All Purpose Plant Food is easy to use, has no odor, and definitely improves overall plant health. The company's efforts toward reducing waste, recycling, and offering eco-friendly products that are easy to use should also be applauded.
Pros
- Completely natural, OMRI listed.
- There was no mixing required.
- TerraCycle is odor-free.
- Better plant health.
Cons
- Application instructions are ambiguous.
Description
- TerraCycle All Purpose Plant Food has an N-P-K of 0.03-0.002-0.02.
- TerraCycle products are made from liquified worm castings.
- All TerraCycle products are sold in recycled packaging, such as 20 ounce soda bottles or gallon milk jugs.
- There was no detectable odor.
Guide Review - TerraCycle All Purpose Plant Food
The first thing you notice about TerraCycle All Purpose Plant Food (0.03-0.002-0.02) is that under its yellow and green label, it is packaged in a reused 20 ounce soda bottle. The bottle is topped with a simple sprayer.
TerraCycle states that a weekly dose of their All Purpose Plant Food, sprayed on the foliage and soil, will "provide your plants with the primary nutrients for optimal growth" and that it "will not burn your plants" the way synthetics can.
The label provides application instructions, stating that for a three to five inch pot, you should apply 0.3 to one fluid ounce per week. I'm not patient enough to measure out how many spritzes it takes to make one fluid ounce, so I just sprayed until the surface of the soil was damp and the foliage was wet.
I used TerraCycle on a pothos ivy in my kitchen window, and left a second pothos of the same size untreated. Was there a difference?
I can tell you that the plant treated with TerraCycle looks quite a bit healthier than the untreated one. Even with my sporadic spraying and forgetfulness about watering, the pothos that I fed with TerraCycle All Purpose is greener, and its foliage has a bit more lustre to it.
What I really liked about this product that it was easy to use. I didn't have to measure out dosages of "the blue stuff" that we so often use on our houseplants. It is completely safe, having been made of liquified worm poop. And, no, worm poop doesn't smell. I spent a good deal of time trying to detect an odor, and I can guarantee that you won't smell anything.
I definitely recommend TerraCycle All Purpose for your houseplants. It's a good, easy-to-use, safe product that provides results. Many of us grow houseplants to improve our indoor air quality, yet use synthetics to fertilize these plants. If you use a product like this, you can be assured that your air will stay clean.