FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

What it is, according to the manufacturer:
Superthrive is a 50-in-one vitamin/hormone-enriched concentrated liquid (I think it comes in other forms as well) that can be used to avoid transplant (re-potting) shock, give temperate plants a solid kick-off in the Spring, revive plants, and so on. It can be added to fertilizer, but is itself NOT a fertilizer.

On Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/SuperThrive-4-oz/dp/B0009DV3HM/

Does anyone use this for CP's? I know people who have used it successfully and I know several CP growers who swear by this stuff (Equilibrio CP's is one, and the US Dept of Agriculture also uses it), so I thought getting more information into a thread would be beneficial for everyone. I have a bottle and plan to use it in the Spring. I'm curious about:

1) What concentration do you use? 1/4 tsp per gallon, or 1 drop per small cup, is "recommended" on the box - I don't think this would change for CP's.
2) What CP's have you used it successfully on? Any CP's this stuff is no good for?
3) How long do you soak the roots before re-potting? Do you just drop the whole plant into a bucket of it or do you need to be careful to only soak the roots?

I've used Superthrive and it's ok for stressed plants and CPs. Use the recommended dose. There's no significant improvements though that's why I went to the PGR side of things.

hb

I used to use Superthrive "religiously" until I found out that transplanted plants seemed to do as well with or without it. However, I'm still very interested (as are a lot of people) in the idea of someone doing a structured experiment with Superthrive on groups of plants with and without it.

hackerberry wrote:I've used Superthrive and it's ok for stressed plants and CPs. Use the recommended dose. There's no significant improvements though that's why I went to the PGR side of things.

hb

Hey HB, what's PGR?

Veronis wrote:Hey HB, what's PGR?

Plant growth regulators. They're more commonly used in tissue culture, but you can apply them as foliar sprays to plants in vivo.

I think HB really likes the 24-epi:
http://www.phytotechlab.com/Detail.aspx?ID=861

Many people use BAP too (though I don't know of anyone using it as a foliar spray, I'm sure it could be):
http://www.phytotechlab.com/detail.aspx?ID=118

I just heard about Fulvic Acid tonight and it sounds really promising too:
http://www.super-grow.biz/FulvicAcid.jsp

Here's a quote from an email I got:

Hi All,

I took 15 cuttings from my Christmas Cactus (Schlumbergera) . Friends, Family, and Neighbors have been asking for cuttings. I decided to try an experiment.

3 cuttings were given fertilizer and water.
3 cuttings were given fertilizer, water, and vitamins.
3 cuttings were given water and vitamins.
3 cuttings were given just water.
3 cuttings were given fertilizer, water, vitamins, and fulvic acid.

The fertilizer: Professional 20-20-20 every 30 days
The vitamins were generic liquid (OTC). Dolor General brand.
The water was tap.
The fulvic acid was ordered in form Canada.

Group 1: Fertilizer and water have set buds Nov.03.'09
Group 2: Fertilizer, water, and vitamins set buds Nov. 22,'09
Group 3: Water and vitamins have not set buds.
Group 4 : Just water have not set buds. There has not been new growth at the time of this writing.
Group 5: Fertilizer, water, vitamins, and fulvic acid have set buds on Oct. 27,'09 and blooms opened on Nov. 20,'09. Secondary buds have started to form and are expected to open in late Dec.'09

All cuttings were taken with 4 segments.
All cuttings were dipped in rooting hormones ( Dip-N-Grow).
All cuttings were air dried for 3 days prior to planting.
All cuttings were planted in cactus and succulent mix
potting soil from Wal-Mart.
The watering schedule was: Water in on Monday, skip 2 days, water on Thursday, skip 2 days etc.
Vitamins were added @ 1tsp per gallon of water.
Fulvic acid was added @ 0.22 grams per gallon.
Fertilizer was added @ 1 tsp per gallon. ( Package recommendation )
Aside from watering all other ingredients were added @ the same time as the fertilizer, every 30 days.

These are the results of my first trial with fulvic acid. I plan on tissue culture trials next year.

I've said this before, but I feel like we should get together as a team (some sort of organization to it) and run experiments. I could potentially provide plants genetically identical plants next year for anyone that's interested in carrying out experiments.