Has anyone tried this product? It was developed at a university in America, they say it contains hormones and vitamins, and is not a fertiliser. You mix a quarter of a teaspoon with a US gallon of water once a month. It is impossible to overfeed with it as the plants only use what they need. Flowers are much brighter and bigger and leaves look so much better. I'd love to hear your opinions on this product. Would you use it? Do you think we should be worried about it containing hormones?
The sites I found doing a google search all tend to be for hydroponic gardening. Which would make sense, plants grown in water need the nutrients that are found in soil. Don't know that I would use in food plants. My first thought was it sounded like steriods for the plant kingdom. One site I found asked why there are no records of testing being done between plants given this product and control plants that went without. I don't know, vitamins are not usually what you find in the soil testing results are they?
I can't see where it would be a problem as long as it wasn't veggies - I would be willing to try it on flowers and such if they were struggling, just to see what would happen. Huh!
Here's a piccie of my American friends Shrimp plant after being treated to Superthrive. Btw I have found out that STh is illegal in Canada and that it doesn't list it's ingredients on the pack. Makes me wonder if it's really as good as it's meant to be or if there's something in it's make-up that the manufactuers don't want folks to know about. :-? Taken from Rich's e.mail: "Now instead of tiny leaves and 1.5 inch long flowers, it has developed into this, and I need to repot it." How a shrimp plant usually looks: Certainly looks impressive but I think I'll stick to my organic way of rearing plants.
Yep, that makes me think of how plump the steers look after being fed all the stuff they get to increase their beef production.
Exactly Toni!!! It really worries me when we start interfering with mother nature. My plants grow to whatever height they want to and that's fine by me. TLC, water, a healthy environment and natural fertilizers (my own compost) are all I ever use or will ever use. I wonder just what tests have been done on Sth and what the results were? I'll try to look into it more tomorrow and post whatever info I find.
I was on a pond tour, and one of the owners did use hormones on everything. He had huge vegetables & flowers, just beautiful. But, I would be hesitant to use it myself, and don't like messing with food & water supplies. I visited a nursery along the interstate a few years back (not in my area), they had the most enormous hanging baskets and annuals, and they were ALL that way. He had to be using this stuff, I asked the owner about it, and he denied anything more than fertilizer. I was skeptical. I've been to a lot of greenhouses over the years, and had never seen anything like that. I did purchase a couple of those hanging baskets, and they were the most phenomenal things I'd ever seen. But I wouldn't use it in anything else, especially in the ground or food staples.
This wouldn't be for me either. Looks like it defeats the purpose of being a gardener if you can just feed Superthrive to your plants and sit back. Where is the satisfaction from seeing something grow into a healthy specimen because of your care? Wouldn't you feel guilty when showing visitors your prized beds full of super-'human' plants? I'm not completely knocking the product however as I agree with PianoLady about maybe using it in hanging baskets. But I'd sure as anything not let this near the ground or most of all near fruit or vegetables.
Well I haven't been able to find out much more about Sth. A lack of information about the ingredients apart from 'vitimin and hormones' makes me think that it's best left on the shelves. I'd still be interested to hear from anyone who may have used it though.
Eileen, Crazy Orchid Lady mentioned Superthrive in posts here http://www.gardenstew.com/viewtopic.php?p=11423#11423 and here http://www.gardenstew.com/viewtopic.php?p=12083#12083 Maybe she can enlighten us. We may have to PM here though as I have not seen her online in a while
I used it once when transplanting some trees, to reduce the shock. I only used it on the initial planting, so I really don't see much difference in the growth of the trees. Some of the ladies at work swear by it. Maybe they don't realize that it has hormones in it.
superthrive Superthrive is wonderful stuff. My opinon is it is deffenitly safe. I've attended many Orchid Society meetings and its real a popular product amongst the orchid comunity. I use it on everthing!
