Super-Thrive: Is It Snake Oil?

[311stoner]

Whatever it is, it seems like it works and you know what, it is expensive, but you know what, my pH down and nutes are expensive but they won't last near as long as this stuff will. I dropped $35 for a 480 mL/1 pint bottle. It's also got 8,000 drops in it, that's enough for 8,000 gallons. My nutes and pH down won't last through 800 gallon so really, it's not that expensive....

I read a review on some site that a lady wrote saying her xmas tree was losing it's needles and she happened to have some superthrive, she droped 2 drops in and a week later when they took the xmas tree down it was starting to grow roots.... Now I find that to be amazing..

 

[moe323]

if you really want to see the difference that it makes try doing a control your self. get 2 cutting and water one with water and onewith ST. i have jut trie this with my last 2 plants and there was a major difference between the 2. now this could just be chance that is turned out lke this but it ws given to me by a mate who swears by it. he told me about once injecting concentrate ST into the stem of a plant. it went all limp and looked like it was going to die. but after 2 weeks the plants shot off and was grew over a foot in a week. one thing i was told was that once your plants start budding dont give them any more ST as the plants dont bud right and them will form tiny buds every few CM and not come to anything. so a plus to the ST from me.

 

[zolar]

university agricultural extension offices nation wide have paper and articles on superthrive and IBA and gibberelins and trace mineral supplemwents consistant in all of these is the fact that very tiny amounts one drop ina gallon or one drop in 5 or 10 gallons
have a big effect

the most frequent problem i see on boards seems to be overuse of nutes and chemical catalysts this upsets the balance of your plant in its media[ soil or hydro] and the cation exchange rates way down at the celluar level

i do poor mans super thrive by taking B vitamins and using the bright color pee from the next 24 hours to make a very dilute
high N fert with soluble B vitamin in it

all you grossed out folks should go and read the label on your fertilizer bottles that urea nitrogen source is something's pee

you can learn alot about growing better pot by reading up on organic gardening and checking out "mother earth news"
rodale press out of pennsylvania has lots of good stuff out there

most of those snake oils are extracts of some catalytic thing like a hormone gibberelic acid auxins vitamins trace minerals and so on but it is real easy to use too much of any of these

 

[NigelDale]

For those you have or have not use it, I say to you the following:
Have used it for more than 20 years and all of my plants have been much healthier and fuller and many of them produced more flowers than before use. Also, with my orchids, it has been a tremendous boost for them. I have some cymbidium orchids, which are regular size plants, that have produced 7 spikes! This is exceptional for plant size. The notation of "1 drop per gallon" simple doesn't do much for the plants. I used a "cap full" per 5 gallon bucket!!! Used it for six months, and you will see the difference.

 

[Droopy Dog]

I'm also new here, but have been using ST for over 25 years, also on orchids. No Cyms though, too hot where I come from. Think terete Vandas.

ST is not snake oil and neither is it a miracle worker. It helps, but don't over do it, just like anything.

The hardest thing to learn is how not to kill your plants with kindness.

Too much water, too much nutes, too much touching/playing with the plants.

Add a bit of ST early on, and let them go.

DD

 

[buck180]

Exactly what is the deal with this stuff? I've seen people swear by it, and I've seen people say it's horticultural snake oil.

The labeling is very vague about what it is and is supposed to do, which makes me dubious of its' claims.

What do you think?

Absolutely not snake oil. I have grown orchids for many years and once I added SuperThrive to my watering/fertilizing regimen my plants took off. Locally, here on eastern LI, I became sort of a guru for growning finnicky, difficult, high-altitude plants from New Guinea, Samoa, and SE Asia.

 

[retired again dude]

I used it for 10 years raising very small orchids when they come out of the bottles where seed was sown... It's also great for transplant shock thus the B12 in it.

 

[retired again dude]

I used superthrive on my 9,000 orchids, we use to have 3 greenhouses and a nursery on our property. The difference in the amount of roots doubled from using it.

 

[Irish]

It's worked well for me,Don't use It In the flowering cycle It will make your buds leafy,Non compact,Or loose If you prefer.

I don't know how true that is. I use Super Thrive every time I water and nute, all the way to the end, and it neither makes the buds leafy or loose--nugs here are super dense, and if you threw one and hit someone in the head, it'd probably knock 'em out.... And if you check out my grow journal, you'll see how HUGE my plants get.

 

[420boogie]

POTential: yay u agree with someone, u want him to give u a cookie or what??? u people are attention whores lol, i know this stuff works i have compared side by side it grows stocks thicker producing more rapid growth. People deny these claims but its like tellin me its snowing in july in florida. Try the stuff then deny the stuff but dont think u know about something you dont!

 

[rastajbd]

Bel eave it or not A small bit of superthrive mixed in with RO water saved my 4 dwc girls. I have been foliar feeding them ever since and they've just exploded! Once a day a good spray on top and bottom of leafs and they have just became much more vigorous with everything, from rooting more to excess foliage. I use it with soil as well with the same stable vigorous results. I would highly recommend it throughout the entire grow.

 

[WMDmountainIG]

I have to agree with Racefan...I need to see proof that SuperThrive causes hermies. Actually I don't really need proof at all because I would have to say that I have my own proof. I have been using this product for more than 20 years and it continues to this day to be one of my must have items in my gardening stock room. I use one drop of it to one gallon of water and I use it with every watering. It makes the plants strong and vigorous and resistant to common problems including damage from insects. While it is in no way a "miracle" product it performs very well and is well worth the cost and ease of use. I feel that it stands up to it's advertised claims well. I also use it through the entire plant cycle and I have no problem with loose , leafy, flowers...

...This is 30 days of flowering in this photo and it is 100% organic with one drop of SuperTrive to 1 gallon of water. Those plants still have about six more weeks of flowering left at that

 

[theflymaster]

Somebody mentioned "gibberellins" earlier in the thread. I'm new here so can someone explain the relationship between gibberellins and superthrive. As I understood it NAA and gibberellins are two different things?

 

[420pharms]

Hello I haven't been active here for some time, but your ? about Superthrive got me going. My opinion is that it's very good, I don't know if it contains G.A. but it certainly has b hormone and its likely the oldest plant product made. G.A. used incorrectly can cause strange phenotype expression, hermis, or mutation. I have not had results indicating that G.A. is available in ST. Hormex and Botinicare power clone both have I.A.A. and I think st. also has it I like and use them all, including products that contain G.A. depending on what I desire the plant or seed to do.

 

[theflymaster]

^^Thanks for the confirmation. I might have just been too stoned but earlier in the thread it seemed people were using ST and GA interchangeably so I just wanted to double check. The label on the SuperThrive only mentions B1 and 1-NAA.

This site cleared everything up for me HORMONE

 

[cancerleo]

NAA causes root growth dominance, was using the recommended dosage on the bottle for active development, this is far too much 5 ml per gal. My Afghan Kush grew root balls all the way to all sides of Big Mama (8"x8") Grodan cubes. I will be using 1 drop per gallon as I did on my previous grow on Purple Erkel which had far denser bud growth. I must not I had an issue with improper rooting that could have stunted the growth I observed, however I still feel that much ST did contribute to the lack of bud development, and the supreme root development.

In no way do I, or anyone else as far as I can find claim that 1 drop per gallon is better than say 25, but no one has done the extensive testing needed in hydroponics/aeroponics to find that proper balance.

What I do know and what I can research and perhaps update you with is from other studies the maximum effective level of NAA in other fruits/vegs, I know it also possesses B12, and this also much have a maximum effective dosage, so given the volume of the container versus, the percentage of the NAA which is given, we can at least get some kind of baseline to drops in hydro.

I have seen people in soil claim the 5 ml per gallon but it's my theory that the soil microbiology makes this level productive in this environment.

A gentleman on here claimed to use up to 7 drops per gallon with no ill effects. There must be a minimum, a maximum and a happy happy middle ground.

 

[theflymaster]

What I do know and what I can research and perhaps update you with is from other studies the maximum effective level of NAA in other fruits/vegs, I know it also possesses B12, and this also much have a maximum effective dosage, so given the volume of the container versus, the percentage of the NAA which is given, we can at least get some kind of baseline to drops in hydro.

ST has B1, not B12. Not trying to argue or split hairs, just trying to be accurate..they're two completely different vitamins.

Don't know about anybody else but I'd be interested in your results if you plan on doing a little 'research project', keep us updated.

I don't have much experience with ST but I've just been following recommended dosages. Label says 1/4tsp(1ml) per gallon and I've never gone over 2ml/gallon just because I didn't feel I needed to and because those amounts made very noticeable differences.

It seems like some people incorrectly interchange 1/4tsp(1ml) with 'a drop' measurement which probably accounts for some of the larger dosages, just guessing here. Don't have any experience with hydro, so theres probably some difference there as well vs. soil. 5ml(1tsp)/gallon seems a lot to me but again I'm new to ST.

 

[Captain Kronic]

Super Thrive is teh shizz mah nizzle.... I use it like a health tonic for any baby that looks like she may need a lil something... ST is like the first thing I reach for in the canna medic box... LOL... goooood stuff!

 

[whitey78]

ST has B1, not B12. Not trying to argue or split hairs, just trying to be accurate..they're two completely different vitamins.

Don't know about anybody else but I'd be interested in your results if you plan on doing a little 'research project', keep us updated.

I don't have much experience with ST but I've just been following recommended dosages. Label says 1/4tsp(1ml) per gallon and I've never gone over 2ml/gallon just because I didn't feel I needed to and because those amounts made very noticeable differences.

It seems like some people incorrectly interchange 1/4tsp(1ml) with 'a drop' measurement which probably accounts for some of the larger dosages, just guessing here. Don't have any experience with hydro, so theres probably some difference there as well vs. soil. 5ml(1tsp)/gallon seems a lot to me but again I'm new to ST.

I started reading this thread and kinda started getting a little nervous as I used 1ml per gal. in my cloner yesterday. It was actually the first time I used it so I started to worry a little.

 

[theflymaster]

^^Ok, keep us posted on how they're doing and what you think about ST. I don't have much experience with cloning but my seedlings get only water+Superthrive for the first 2-3 weeks.

I usually start with a few drops/gallon and work my way up to around 1/4tsp(1ml)- depending on the plant. But my guess is your clones will be fine.