Test of Potting Soil / Up-Potting Some Carnations. 3.21.22

Here are the little pepper plants that I up-potted into that Miracle-Gro branded potting soil about two weeks ago. They haven't grown at all and are starting to die off. This never happened to me before this round of starting plants. I used new, unused container and had sterilized my tools, so I feel certain the issue is the potting soil. Disappointing, after caring for these plants from planting seeds until now.

I bought a different brand, labeled "organic", via Amazon. Kind of pricy but I am not ready to go to the stores quite yet. As a test, I up-potted the next six-pack of carnations into some of the new potting mix. Since the past bunch of carnations all died within one or two weeks after up-potting into the MG mix, that seems like a good test for this one. I'm using fresh, never before used containers this time and everything else hase been cleaned and sterilized. Seedlings on the same rack but not up-potted are growing fine. I hope they take off and grow in their new medium and don't just sit there and gradually die.

What I noticed about the MG potting soul was that it has a LOT of fairly sizable chunks of fibrous plant material, like chopped straw or shredded tree chips. Maybe that contains fusarium or verticellium or other pathological fungus. Under the guise of "compost", there could be yard waste or other compost like is made locally at the recycling center, or animal manures. All of that could contain plant disease or herbicide residues. There is no transparency so we really don't know. I'm not trying to dis the MG products. I've used their products manyntimes before and likely will again. But if the replanted carnations grow, then the only think I have left is that the MG potting mix was really bad somehow. The new "Organic" mix also contains similar fibrous stuff. It must be a trend.