Fertilizer Supplement

[burz]

This is not spam and I hope I'm not breaking a rule by posting this but I wanted to share my success story. My current feeding program is consists of Advanced Nutrients: Iguana Juice Grow/Bloom, Organic B, Sensizym, Voodoo Juice, and various other beneficial micro organism products such as Great White and Mycos Blast. This seemed to meet the needs of all my potted plants. Nothing special but worked well for me.

I added a supplement called Sea Green by Primordial Solutions 1.5-0.5-4.0. Since then all my orchids and house plants have exploded tremendously. My phals now are sporting 8 going on 9 leaves and roots almost the thickness of about two pencils. The cyms I have are now pushing themselves out of there pots (which I thought I had over potted them) with nice thick sturdy foliage. The house plants that accompany my orchids are banging as well with lots of new vigorous growth.

I'm extremely impressed and surprised what adding one thing to a program can do. I use the Sea Green at full strength and the Iguana juice and Organic B at half.

Has anyone else tried Sea Green or a similar product and had noticeable improvements? Or why something like this would have such a great impact?

[tucker85]

I'm not too crazy about any product that won't tell me what's in it. Hydroponic nutrient companies are notorious for this. They give their products unusual names and don't give you much information about what is actually in the product. Because of the name, I'm suspicious that Sea Green might be derived from seaweed or kelp. Seaweed products have been used on crops for many years and orchid growers have been using seaweed extracts recently. Seaweed products contain plant growth hormones that are particularly effective at stimulating root growth. I was amazed at the results I got when I started using a seaweed extract. There are many products on the market KelpMax, Neptunes Harvest, Maxsea and Maxicrop Liquid Seaweed. I've been using Maxicrop Liquid Seaweed for several years and it's worked wonders for me.

[Island Girl]

^+1 I am weary of using those hydroponic microbe teas, I love to use beneficials, but most products are geared towards (microbes for) soil, not orchid media (like bark, moss, or LECA, etc.). I have been using a Trichoderma product called "RootShield" (it fights off the fungus responsible for root-rot) and I LOVE that stuff, as do my orchids (& it works with bark/moss substrates). But, anytime I've looked at the hydro products w/ beneficials in it, they don't say exactly what strains are in there, so I just have to guess that most (if not all) are for soil-grown plants, so won't work for my 'chids. I would love to be able to find more ben'ies for my orchids.

I also use seaweed "KelpMax" and absolutely LOVE that stuff (the brands Tucker mentioned, are great too, from what I've heard from others, as well as him), and all my roots are going crazy (has to do w/ both KelpMax & RootShield), and when the roots start growing, they produce a hormone that in turn, makes the leaves/top half of the plant grow, which my 'chids are also doing : ) So, I believe what Tucker said, is prob spot-on, in that a lot of what you're seeing, could be the seaweed extract. (If u want a WAY better explaination of whats going on, when u provide root-growing hormones, & why you get top growth too, follow the link below... it's an interesting read, & not too technical, just more technical than my explanation )

Superior Kelp Concentrate (This one explains it better, and is from Ray's store, so it's referring to "KelpMax", but applies to any good brand)

[tucker85]

I decided to buy a bottle of Sea Green and also some Root Shield so that I can experiment with both of them. Thank you both for the recommendations.

[Cym Ladye]

I always say "if you ask 10 different people what fertilizer they use, you will get at least 12 different answers". And I always chuckle when new formulas with mysterious names show up and people actually use them and claim them to be "miracle foods".

Yes, anything you put on plant material in a nutritional sense is better than nothing, but one should always keep in mind that plants absorb their nutrients in specific ratios. I totally agree with Tucker85 when he said he wanted to know what was in the product and also inferring he wanted to know what the ratios were.

Play around with voodoo magic potions all you want. I am sure they will be better than nothing and if it gives you pleasure and you have the time to fuss with all the combinations, play to your heart's content. After all, growing orchids as a hobby should be a fun adventure. I would just rather get my results from a more scientific study of the products and the actual needs of the plants at specific times of year.



Cym Ladye

[ALToronto]

Sometimes, what orchids really benefit from is the extra attention you give them when you're trying out something new. That said, I do agree with Tucker85 about the seaweed. I use both KelpMax and Neptune's Harvest, and they both benefit the plants. KelpMax doesn't smell nearly as bad as Neptune's Harvest, but with KelpMax you still need to use a fertilizer, while NH is a complete product.

[Ray]

Alla, I wasn't aware that NH had fertilizer, so I suppose that makes it roughly equivalent to my SOLO products.

KelpMax and SOLO area really intended for different market segments: if you are a "casual" grower, or one with a relatively small collection, and don't want to have to "hassle" with mixing different irrigation solutions a product like SOLO is a good choice, as it provide the complete array of fertilizer nutrients plus that added benefit of the hormones in KelpMax. It should only be used every two- to four weeks, or the hormone application could overwhelm the natural processes within the plant and cause growth or blooming issues.

If you are more what I would characterize as a "serious" grower - one who prefers to control the nutrient intake with small, frequent, uniform doses of fertilizer, adding that boost from the hormones on a more specific schedule - then KelpMax is definitely the way to go, adding it to your choice of fertilizer.




Ray Barkalow
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[ALToronto]

Neptune's Harvest is a very weak fertilizer, the label says 2-3-1, but I don't know how accurate that is since it's an organic fish fertilizer. I bought it for my phal flasklings, but I've been adding it to my other plants that are being fed with K-Lite. I'm assuming that most of the N in NH is from ammonia, and as we discussed in other threads, it is of benefit to some plants that don't do well on an all-nitrate diet.

[tucker85]

Originally Posted by burz

This is not spam and I hope I'm not breaking a rule by posting this but I wanted to share my success story. My current feeding program is consists of Advanced Nutrients: Iguana Juice Grow/Bloom, Organic B, Sensizym, Voodoo Juice, and various other beneficial micro organism products such as Great White and Mycos Blast. This seemed to meet the needs of all my potted plants. Nothing special but worked well for me.

I added a supplement called Sea Green by Primordial Solutions 1.5-0.5-4.0. Since then all my orchids and house plants have exploded tremendously. My phals now are sporting 8 going on 9 leaves and roots almost the thickness of about two pencils. The cyms I have are now pushing themselves out of there pots (which I thought I had over potted them) with nice thick sturdy foliage. The house plants that accompany my orchids are banging as well with lots of new vigorous growth.

I'm extremely impressed and surprised what adding one thing to a program can do. I use the Sea Green at full strength and the Iguana juice and Organic B at half.

Has anyone else tried Sea Green or a similar product and had noticeable improvements? Or why something like this would have such a great impact?

I'm always curious so I did a little more research on Sea Green and bought a bottle to try it on a couple of orchids. The web-site won't say what's in it (that's a red flag to me) but they say it encourages the growth of beneficial bacteria. It smells sweet, which makes me think that it may contain molasses. There's an organic gardener in Texas who uses a combination of seaweed extract and molasses to grow beneficial organisms in garden soil. I wouldn't be surprised if that's what Sea Green basically is. But since they won't say, we can't know for sure. I'm glad you're having good results with it.

[burz]

I dont really have any special reasoning for using the products I use other than when I started using all of them I listed one at a time I saw improvements quickly with all my other potted plants. I'm convinced that the Advanced Nutrient product line is geared toward cannabis lol but they DO seem to offer a lot info/research on what is in there formulas than many fert companies do. Also we have so many hydro stores popping up everywhere around I'd rather purchase things locally if possible. I try not to get crazy with feeding, I'd rather keep it relatively simple and as universal as possible so I can enjoy my plants and not spend so much time mixing nutrients for different plants. Although I do end up observing how all my plants respond and tweak accordingly. I'm very interested in the root shield, I'm going to check that out today. Thanks for the feedback.