Has anyone here ever heard of this product or used it? I was up at a cactus nursery over the week end and ran across a big display of it. I didn't get any but was very curious about it. Looks like they were selling quite a bit of it as the racks were getting low.
It claims to do many of the same sort of things messenger does.
Just wondering if anyone has heard of it.
Marcy
HB-101 (organic growth enhancer for plants)
It's a new one on me, Marcy. I have, however, sworn off Messenger. In talking to the Plant Pathologist at the University who has helped me thru a number of mysteries (deformed or discolored leaves due to excess or lack of certain nutrients made worse by stimulating the uptake of whatever balance or imbalance there may be in the medium) - unless your fertilizing/soil conditions are controlled and totally in balance, you never know what the plant is going to do. In my recent soil test, I came out almost ZERO in calcium and magnesium and have had to balance my medium out with calcium nitrate and magamp. The plants seem a lot happier AND the pH is much more to my liking. Hoyas are very prone to toxcity with an imbalance of phosphorus and potassium...and messing around with designer drugs just doesn't do it for me any more. I am sticking with DynaGro which is complete. But, hey...that's just me out here on this rock ....
I wish someone could please tell me what's wrong with going back to the "good old basics". Does anybody remember anymore when we used to grow the most gorgeous plants on earth, literally dripping with flowers from practically every axel with nothing more than a good potting mix (not potting soil) and one and only one brand of fertilizer. It could be that back then, thats all we could afford but it seems to me that I don't ever remember deformed leaves, corky or rotting stems, and plants with crazy mutated flowers. Are we killing our plants with harsh chemicals? Look what some of the modern chemicals do to our hands these days. Is it possible that we are doing the same thing to our plants? The roots of our plants are their lifeline, their foothold on life. I often wonder how we humans would turn out if someone drenched our feet in some of the chemicals that we so carelessly use on our plants.
I'm all for starting a new thread with input from everyone that would like to try an experiment of growing some plants the good old fashioned way. We will of course have to deal with some bugs but I don't actually remember having all that many bugs way back when either until we started using stronger and stronger methods that the bugs became immune too. Soap and water is probably the best pesticide that was ever invented..it will even kill spider mites which most modern pesticides won't do anymore.
Anyway, I've had my turn on "the soap box" for today. I'm going to go take a nap and will be back later.
Annie W.
I agree almost completely with you Annie, I think people get carried away and buy every new product that comes along, in the interest of babying their plants, which they dearly love. It's also human nature to make something simple, complex. I certainly understand the impulse. I've bought way more esoteric plant products than I would ever care to admit, but lately am felling that "less is more". No chemical, fungus, humic acid, hormone, or vitamin can substitute for or compare with the four basics:
Proper, consistent watering,
Proper light exposure,
Proper, consistent fertilizer, and
A good, appropriate soil mix.
However, don't talk about my BATS!
Oh, and don't forget a little good old fashioned alcohol spray and swab whe we see the rotten little critters.
I agree with your frustration Annie. But the reality is that large corporations who stand to turn a profit, will do everything in their power to convince us we need all this junk (it is an exceptional way to separate the fool from his money). Like Mark, I have spent loads of money buying all this stuff - because, I think to myself, maybe my plants need an extra boost or they won't be healthy - so I use it, something bad (or nothing) happens, and I shove another product onto a shelf in the garage, and go back to the weak fert, potting mix, water and light. And, for that matter, what is the proper fertilizer to use? If we look around the garden store shelves, there are so many "recipes" - one is appropriate?
Ann
Nope I have never heard of this product either. I have had the best luck with my hoya's this year. I repotted 95% of them into a potting soil that I think I am going to really like. By the time I removed all the old potting soil from there root system, I realized that most of them needed to be potted down. I have had alot of new healthy growth and many of them have grown peduncles. I found that I was trying to compensate for our dry climate with a very heavy soil, and plus I was just to darn lazy to water every other day. I picked up a few tricks on keeping my soil moist by letting the pot set in water for 15 minutes every other watering so that my bark would soak up the water and not dry out so fast. It has proved to be a success, in fact since the weather has cooled off considerably I am only watering about every 5 days. As for fertilizing I am still spraying them everyday with Eleanors and use a light fertilizing of African Violet food every time I water.
They really do look the best they ever have.
I guess that was what I was trying to say. I have tried so many new things just to experiment (always pushing myself to try something new) and I am done with that. I am back to basics. The old tried and true, good quality.
I know, Ann, thers a guzillion fertilizers and "fertilizers" out there. The best I have found is Dynagro Foliage-Pro, which seems to have just the right balance for my plants, at quarter strength each watering. I'm sure there are many that would work as well, but this is my favorite.
Thanks Mark. I have been using Dynagro Liquid Grow (7-9-5) - what's the difference between the two ferts?
Ann
Yes...please...do tell!!!
The regular Dynagro (7-9-5) is probably fine for most Hoyas, but I think the Foliage-pro (9-3-6) is better since it addresses the "special needs" of some finiky plants. The higher nitrogen and lower phosphorous and potasium seem to prevent or help correct overdoses of the latter two, something that may be a factor in "Hoya Leaf Distortion". I don't have a rgular (7-9-5) bottle here to compare the labels, but I THINK the foliage pro has higher calcium and Magnesium, which will help prevent chlorosis and HLD.
It seems to work well, and switching to this from a higher dosage of the regular Dynagro seems to have saved my laifolia from compost heap. It has seriously distorted leaves, now it has several sets of pristine leaves reaching full size. I don't think any of us understand this phenomenon that well, but that was my latest attempt to defeat HLD, and it seems to have worked.
I also don't think Hoyas need a seriously high phosphorous number to bloom well.
I am finding that correct, Mark. When I had my soil tested and it was deficient in Calcium and Magnesium...that's when I started seeing problems with leaf curl, distortion and some yellowing at the margins on H. dimorpha. Now...these manifestations were not all thru the GH...just on specific hoyas which I am now considering my 'target' hoyas: H. naumanii, H. lobbii and a few others. I am adding gypsum and epsom salts to my 'deficient medium' and then want to keep up the dosage thru regular weak tho constant fertilization. Thanks for the good news on that....will look for it here.
Carol
All I ever use is Eleanor's, both in the water and spraying on foliage at least every watering. Oh, and I do add some hydrogen peroxide most waterings to aerate the roots. That's pretty much it for me. I don't even bother to fertilize. Eleanor's seems to be enough.
Denise in Omaha
Denise, do you change your soil frequently? I am just curious because Christina has mentioned elsewhere that she does not use fertilizer either, but she (I think) changes her potting medium once a year.
Like you I often add hydrogen peroxide to my water. I don't really need it now that I have a "recipe" for potting mix that I am happy with, but some of my older plants or larger plants that I have taken to my local tropical plant store for repotting (I just don't have the space to do big repotting jobs) are potted in a medium that is much denser, so I make sure to add some H2O2 to the water for those plants.
Ann
How much H2O2 do you add when you water? Thanks - Karen
Karen, I sort of just dump it in. I use the food-grade concentrate, so I use a lot less than someone who uses the dime-store bottles that have already been diluted to 3%. If that is what you use, I think the equivalent of a couple tablespoons would be fine (I think I actually use that much of the concentrate) for every gallon of water. Make sure to wait 20 minutes before adding any fertilizer (by that time the H2O2 has stabilized), and make sure to use it within a few hours or the H2O2 will dissipate.
Ann
Thanks, Ann!
Ann, no, I don't really repot often. Only when they seem potbound. The Eleanor's says it works best by itself, so that's how I do it.
Karen, I used 2 oz. of the 3% peroxide per half gallon of water.
Denise in Omaha
Thanks, Denise!