Superthrive

I have not seen much difference either but have not used it as a experimentnfor 2 identical plants.

Could a few drops in water possibly be used for rooting rose cuttings I wonder ?

It's not a rooting hormone, it's a root booster. If the plant already has roots, then Superthrive could be useful, but if it's a cutting and hasn't rooted yet you'll want rooting hormone instead.

Yupp,You're right,I wasn't thinking straight..must be the heat :-)


I have done that several times before using rooting hormone .The matter of fact I am doing this hopefully today,if not the next few days.

I want to relay my experience with SuperThrive. I have used it occasionally for many years. A couple years ago, in the summer, I took lots of cuttings of our Aloysia virgata, sweet almond bush. The cuttings were in excellent condition, took about 50, used Rootone and placed them on our mist bench for rooting. Only about 3 rooted. Since then, I have taken more cuttings of the Aloysia, immediately placing the cuttings as I take each one, into a bucket with warm water and a capful of SuperThrive. The cuttings soak (the entire cutting, not just the cut stem) in the bucket for ~ 1 1/2 hours before I apply Rootone and place them on the mist bench. I have been getting excellent results!

That sounds great !!! Have no idea what Aloysia is,have to look it up .Congratulations.

Hmmmmm so maybe I should try that after all !!!
I wonder if some else has done that experiment ?

A prominent nursery near me uses SuperThrive buy the gallon. $$$$$$$

Garyt

all good to know. I've never had ANY luck with cuttings of any kind. Maybe there's hope for me.

I came across this thread as a result of doing a search for what I think was ArtCons instructions for making a mini-greenhouse from a 2-liter soda bottle to create a humid environment as a benefit to propagating cuttings (still can't find that thread!)

I have been a SuperThrive skeptic for some time. The ST labeling is somewhat like that of Dr. Bonner's Pure Castille Peppermint Soap - it will clean all surfaces, cure all ailments and coincidentally bring lasting peace to all humankind. LOL I scanned through the above posts and still have a question. The thing I notice most when I open a bottle of SuperThrive is the strong vitamin smell (possibly from the B-12 that someone mentioned is present in ST?). I had assumed the primary ingredients in ST were vitamins. That has led me to wonder if it would be beneficial (or perhaps harmful) to dissolve unused out-of-date vitamins in a gallon of water and use that concoction as a plant or propagation booster.

I suppose the only way to find out is to try it (unless someone else has already implemented Sugarweed's suggestion of using Geritol as a plant supplement, or has already made a solution of dissolved vitamins). As also mentioned in the posts above, it may be difficult to truly ascertain if there are any real benefits unless the variables are controlled, but maybe we are never to old to do a "science project." I would think it might be especially useful to mix up a witch's brew of some of the common human mineral supplements (calcium, chromium, copper, iodine, magnesium, manganese, molybdenum, selenium, zinc, potassium, chloride, boron and sodium -- probably leaving out the chloride and sodium due to potential harm to plants from an excess of those substances). The drawback might be that it may prove to be more expensive to use human vitamins and minerals, even at rock-bottom discount prices, than buying something like ST that is already formulated (but which I hesitate to buy because I think it is too expensive, probably because I don't use it properly when dumping a capful or two or three into whatever amount of water my bucket d'jour might hold).

Any thoughts on using human vitamins and minerals as plant supplements?

BTW - I think I mentioned "dissolving" vitamins and minerals in water. A Chemistry professor I once had would possibly cringe in psychic abhorrence from that terminology. He was the one to point out that the old adage about the deleterious effects of being rained upon was incorrectly stated. Instead of, "You're not sugar. You won't melt," it should be, "You're not sugar. You won't sublimate." (Assuming, apparently, that the person upon whom the rain might fall would totally disappear into a gaseous cloud.) He explained his correction by pointing out that solids melt from the application of heat and they sublimate when they transform from solid to gas with no liquid phase in between. LOL If that sounds overly erudite on my part, I must point out in my defense that the professor's subliminal phrase is absolutely all my predominately right-brained consciousness can recall from the chemistry class.

Jeremy

Can't help you on whether human vitamins would do anything or not, but I don't think they'd hurt your plants. I have a feeling Superthrive would be cheaper in the long run though (especially if you follow the directions about how much to use since the recommended amount is very tiny).

Also, you can rest easy that your chemistry professor won't be coming after you about dissolving vitamins in water--dissolving is the correct term for that (assuming the vitamins are water soluble ones). When you add sugar to water, it dissolves. It does not sublimate--the sugar is still right there in the water when you're done, if it sublimated then you'd have a cloud of sugar vapor floating around you and the water would just be water. The first example of sublimation that comes to mind which non-chemists might be familiar with is dry ice--it is solid carbon dioxide, and when you warm it up it goes straight from solid carbon dioxide to the gas carbon dioxide without ever becoming liquid in the middle.

I think the stuff is good, but I didn't use just one drop. I gave my plants more. LOL.

I think they're counting on that--even though they say on the bottle that using more won't do anything more, it's all psychological, feels like adding more ought to do more! Plus unless you get out the eyedropper it's hard to just use what they tell you to anyway, I'm too lazy to be that precise so I just splash some in.

The thing I noticed was that it is really good for plants growing indoors. I used it on plants that I was starting early inside.

I think it makes a difference too. And I noticed it especially with the little seedling plants also.

Here is the Wiki entry for Superthrive: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SUPERthrive Whoever wrote it doesn't know much more than anyone else about it, but for those among us who are curious, the entry does cite some sources for review.

y'all, I just replace the cap with an eyedropper cap as soon as I open the bottle. they sell them, less than 50 cents used to, or you can find someone with a baby, as baby meds often come with eyedroppers. In fact, I thought that's why the bottles are the size they are, to fit commercial eye droppers. they just don't put them in there. why, I don't know.

I have not read all of the above posts, just enough to get the gist of what the consensus was/is.

I have been using ST for many years for transplants. It smells just like the vitamins I gave my daughter when she was a baby over 50 years ago. And she grew and grew and grew until she is taller than me. LOL So, I guess it works.

Jeanette

Jnette, I luv your logic and scientific method!

Sometimes feminine intuition is the best way to go! (-:

Good idea about the dropper. I didn't know you could buy them at the drug store.

if you'd ever had a child that would not swallow medicine, you'd know about those droppers! LOL

LOL!

My daughter loved those stinky things. Vitamins stink! Liquid vitamins. Every time I smell them it reminds me of giving them to her with the dropper when she was a baby. She would lick her lips to get every little bit. Yuck!!

Poly-Vi-Sol tasted wonderful, LOL. It did smell though.
Sidney

The leaves of Clerodendrum bungei when crushed smell exactly like Flintstone's Vitamins or Geritol - depending on your age or frame of reference. LOL http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/1253/ An interesting novelty to include on garden tours, but the plant is a very invasive thug in our climate.

Jeremy

That is funny Jeremy. You could always tell them to do that, crush a leaf, to smell a nice mint or vanilla. LOL.. Dirty trick.

Superthrive has 1-naphthaleneacetic acid, classified as an herbicide.. supposedly safe, wonder how it affects my bees
I’ll stick to B vitamins and kelp