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lemon_dreams

superthrive question

lemon_dreams
17 years ago

I was given some superthrive in an unmarked container. I never got the instructions on use. anyone out there thats used it that could help? dosage, and such.

I'm hoping it'll give my trees a bit of a boost, they could use it. lost just a few.. ok a lot of leaves to sunburn.

B

Comments (10)

  • gardner_dragon
    17 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    According to the directions on the back of the bottle I have:
    For active development,or resisting stress: 1/4tsp(1ml)per gallon or per 4 liters. 1 drop per small cupfull,3 ounces per 100 gallons.

    Very soft plants or constant,daily,or maintenance use: One minim per gallon,one ounce per 500 gallons.

    For bare root soaking:
    Soak roots 15 or 30 minutes. 1/2 tsp per 5 gallons for roses and tender plants. Others: one ounce(2 tablespoons) per 5 gallons.

    Says you can use it whenever you water, weekly or monthly.
    Hope this helps.
    Andi

    Here is a link that might be useful: superthrive

  • birdsnblooms
    17 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Lemon, I use 1-4 drops of ST per gallon of water once a month throughout the year..If a tree is particulary stressed you can use up to 10 drops per gallon.
    Remember, ST is not to be used in place of fertilizer, it's to be used with it. Because it's mainly vitamins, especially B there is nothing in it that will harm or burn a plant. Toni

  • tapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a)
    17 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Not all are much enamored of Superthrive, and it DOES contain ingredients that WILL hurt your plants if overused. It contains synthetic auxin, the same growth regulator that was used in defoliants in Viet Nam.

    This question arises soo often, that I saved a synopsis of an experiment I've repeated 4 times, with some loose controls in place. You may, or may not find it interesting, but I am pretty settled with my conclusion(s).

    Superthrive or Super-Jivesize>

    The question of the value of Superthrive as a miracle tonic for plants is often bandied about in horticultural circles. Several years ago, after reading claims that range from "I put it on and my plant, which had never bloomed, was in full bloom the next day" to "It was dead - I put Superthrive on it and the next day it was alive and beautiful, growing better than it ever had before", I decided to find out for myself. If you look for information on the net, youll find the manufacturerÂs claims and anecdotal observations, totally lacking in anything that resembles anything like a control. Though my experiments were far from scientific, I tried to keep some loose controls in place so that I could make a fair judgment of its value, based my own observations. Here is what I did, what I found, and the conclusions I made about my use of Superthrive.

    On four separate occasions, I took multiple cuttings from the same plant. The plant materials I used were: Ficus benjamina, (a tropical weeping fig) Luna apiculata (Peruvian myrtle), Chaenorrhinum minus (a dwarf snapdragon), and an unknown variety of Coleus. In each instance, I prepared cuttings from the same plant and inserted them in a very fast, sterile soil. Half of the cuttings were soaked in a Superthrive solution of approximately 1/2 tsp per gallon of water. The other half of the cuttings were watered in with water. In subsequent waterings, I would water the "Superthrive batch" of cuttings with a solution of 10 drops per gallon and the others with water. The same fertilizer regimen was followed on both groups of cuttings. In all four instances, the cuttings that I used Superthrive on rooted first. For this reason, it follows that they would naturally exhibit better development, though I could see no difference in vitality, once rooted. I can also say that a slightly higher percentage f cuttings rooted that were treated to the Superthrive treatment. I suspect that is directly related to the effects of the auxin in Superthrive hastening root initiation before potential vascular connections were destroyed by rot causing organisms.

    In particular, something I looked for because of my affinity for compact branching in plants was branch (stem) extension. Though the cuttings treated with Superthrive rooted sooner, they exhibited the same amount of branch extension. In other words, internode length was approximately equal.

    As a second part to each of my "experiments", I divided the group of cuttings that had not been treated with Superthrive into two groups. One of the groups remained on the water only program, while the other group was treated to a 10 drop per gallon solution of Superthrive. Again, the fertilizer regimen was the same for both groups. By summerÂs end, I could detect no difference in bio-mass or vitality between the two groups of plants.

    Since I replicated the above in four different trials, using four different plant materials, IÂm confident in drawing some conclusions as they apply to me and my growing habits or abilities. First, based on my observations, I have concluded that Superthrive holds value for me as a rooting aid, or stimulant if you prefer. I regularly soak the soil, usually overnight, of my newly root-pruned and usually bare-rooted repots in a solution of 1/2 tsp Superthrive per gallon of water. Second, and also based on my observations, I donÂt bother with its use at any time other than at repotting. No evidence was accumulated through the 4 trials to convince me that Superthrive was of any value as a "tonic" for plants with roots that were beyond the initiation or recovery stage.

    The first ingredient listed as beneficial on the Superthrive label is vitamin B-1 (or thiamine). Growing plants are able to synthesize their own vitamin B-1 as do many of the fungi and bacteria having relationships with plant roots, so it's extremely doubtful that vitamin B-1 could be deficient in soils or that a growing plant could exhibit a vitamin B-1 deficiency.

    Some will note that I used more of the product than suggested on the container. I wanted to see if any unwanted effects surfaced as well as trying to be sure there was ample opportunity for clear delineation between the groups. I suspect that if a more dilute solution was used, the difference between groups would have been less clear.

    It might be worth noting that since the product contains the growth regulator (hormone) auxin, its overuse can cause defoliation, at least in dicots. The broad-leaf weed killer Weed-B-Gone and the infamous Agent Orange, a defoliant that saw widespread use in Viet Nam, are little more than synthetic auxin.

    Al F.

  • birdsnblooms
    17 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Lemon, I've been using ST for many yrs and yes I notice a big difference when using vs not using..It's also great for cuttings, and seedlings.

    Al, I didn't mean for ppl to abuse ST. Any product that is overused will harm a plant, but my point was, if someone added 15 drops of ST per gallon of water, instead of 10, it wouldn't hurt the plant. So, unlike fertilizers that can burn roots..Toni

  • evanrudee_yahoo_com
    13 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Hello,

    I see that per gallon you are supposed to use 1/4 a teaspoon....How much of that gallon should I give to each plant or tree? Is it a gallon a tree/plant? Thanks.

  • greanthum
    13 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I use a drop of super thrive per quart (use rain water) and allow the lower stem of the cutting to hang out in there. Usually it will take about two days to bust out roots. The secret to faster roots is on the node (the part of the stem where the leaf comes out). So say you cut off a branch with about 10 nodes (best if the very end is a node so cutting right under a leaf). Tear off the first 5 leafs on both sides (10 leafs) of the nodes on the bottom half only. Now roots will bust out faster out of the nodes then later it will just come out of everywhere in between. One thing to ALWAYS remember is that the roots NEED COMPLETE darkness! 8 hours of light for flowering and 10 hours for growing fatter stems. Fatter stems = Larger yields. By the way i GOT SKILLS!

    {{gwi:587931}}{{gwi:587932}}{{gwi:587933}}

  • David_Sweden
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Very illustrative in showing that it does not work:

  • meyermike_1micha
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    This Dave..Although this is an ancient thread, good info you provided..

    Mike

  • copingwithclay
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I To borrow an expression from someone more original than me, "Some fishing lures are meant to catch fish and some fishing lures are meant to catch fishermen". Well, as far as the S-T label claims, I don't even read them. Hype is repelling to some of us, even though some get a charge out of claims that an elected official could lower the ocean level and other such hyped up lies. But I did listen carefully as a very experienced commercial fruit nursery owner explained that since he began soaking his annual batch of many hundreds of bare rooted fruit trees (purchased from elsewhere) in a huge "pond" juiced up with S-T, that his annual percentage of dead bare rooted trees went much lower each year....down to about "one percent". I got a pint bottle afterwards when it was -50% off and have been experimenting with the stuff for a decade or so. If it was just a waste, I would have tossed it out. The most interesting experiment that I tried it on was to squirt a large amount ( 2 tbsp.?) into the water holding area of a plastic Xmas tree stand after placing a live tree in it that came from a store with the bottom already whacked off prior to shipping. I did cut about 1" off the original bottom and drilled some 1/4" diameter holes around the submerged area of the lower trunk to allow more water/S-T absorbing. Within 2 months, the tree had grown new shoots and lots of new needles on every outer branch. But, no roots formed on the trunk. That never happened in any other year with any other tree for me when they just got plain old water in the stand. Anyway, don't buy the stuff or use it if you don't want to. But I will continue to until the scions/seedlings/seeds/potted plants/bare rooted trees/asparagus crowns/etc., etc. do not respond any longer to the stuff in the doses that they get it. I don't think in terms of "a drop" or 2 when using it. A "therapeutic dose" of S-T for a given application may be way more than the questionable, skimpy "one drop" type of thinking. If I care enough about a plant/scion/ seedling/etc. to have it grow, I care enough to feed it well. Hey, if you keep putting coins in the machine and the machine keeps spitting out lots of other coins, why stop?

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