Ann, it is Genestra Brands. BIO B12 + FOLIC ACID. I get them at a Homeopathic Pharmacy. What ever you do make sure you get the flavored one's because well if you have taken B vit. befor you know how terrible they smell. This brand taste like cherry and are cold pressed. If you can't find them, I would be more than happy to get you some and send them out.
Fertilizer?
Thanks, Tami. I'm gonna check for 'em locally - I'll keep ya updated! I really could use that kind of boost, especially since the weather is so dreary this time of year in western Oregon.
:-)
Dreary...ha ha ha....it has been going up to 95 here in Long Beach for 2 days straight. Brother. And to think I brought all those hoyas in. The ones outside are LOVIN it.
I have found that B-12 at Trader Joes before. I always forget to use it. Ha....guess I need some Ginko Biloba too.
I think we have throughly hijacked this thread.
Back to fertilizer!
Marcy
eh, what the heck fertilizer for hoyas ... fertilizer for humans ... :-)
Meanwhile, you don't think the molasses would be a critter attractant do you? Anybody found problems with ants, etc. as they have used the recipe over time?
Ann
Hi everyone. I am Kelley. I have snuck over here from the Brug Forum. A friend sent me this link last week. I do have 2 hoyas and I have 3 hoya friends; Carol, Mel and Patricia so I hope it is OK I am jumping in here.
I was so intrigued by your testimonials that I went out today and bought the ingredients. I am hoping to use it on my brug seedlings. I can't wait. I may have bought the wrong beer though, I could only see expensive lager so I asked a young man who was buying beer for himself. He gave me a Miller bottle and said that was a lager but it doesn't say so on the label. I hope it will do as good a job or should I go back and buy a dark beer? I am not a beer drinker so I have no clue about them.
I also bought Vit B pills, shoot they cost $8 but I bought a high potency multi B. I forgot I was supposed to get just B 12. I wonder if a plant can OD on vitamin B. The store only had 2 kind of ammonia, one was sudsy it said so I bought the lemon one. I am going to mix it up tomorrow. Do I store the left over in the refrigerator?
Thanks for all the great information. I just love trying new things.
Hello Kelley,
I read 7 pages of testimonials before I broke down and purchased the ingredients too :) I have been using it for a little over a week and quite honestly, my plants do seem happier.
I do remember reading though NOT to use the lemon ammonia. I think I would go to a different store (I bought mine at Wal Mart) and look for the kind with no fragrance.
That is what I would do, but I'm sure others that have been using this recipe longer than I have better advice.
Kim
Hi Kell,
Welcome!
MIller Beer is fine, I just don't recommend the "lite" beer. A lot of what is good about beer is taken out of the "lite" beers to make them diet friendly. I don't know about the lemon amonia, I bought plain, but look at the ingredients, and see whtat is in there....is it just amonia, or are there many other things too. If it is only fragrence, it might be ok, remember, you are diluting it down...way down, 1T per gallon.
I am like Kim, when I decided to go for it, after using it on one plant without adverse affects, I watered them all. I didn't loose any sleep, but was a little concerned, so I actually called Becky from the epiforums, and she reassured me as I watered. No regrets here.
Let us know what you think.
Sara
Yes, it is just the plain ol' household amonia you are supposed to use. BE SURE to check the bottle to make sure you do not have one of the MANY household cleaners WITH amonia. Also, whatever you do REMEMBER it is only one tablespoon of the stuff that you put into a GALLON of fresh water that you will be watering with. Don't go mixing the stuff up & then pour it undiluted onto your poor little hoyas. Ha.
From what I understand, you don't have to store this stuff in the fridge. I have mine on a shelf above the washer with soaps so my grandkids will not get into it. I think with the amount of hoyas (and other plants), mine should be gone within a couple of months. Then I probably will let them go all of Jan. & Feb. with no fertilizer to give them a rest.
Marcy
You do not want to use miller lite because it is made with preservatives. how do you know if your beer is made with preservatives? Take a very very very clean glass and pour your beer straight in. You want it to foam. get some oil from your face and touch the foam. in a beer without preservatives, the head will fall. miller lite will not fall even if you stick a teenager's greasy face in there.
what is a lager? OK, there are two types of beer: lager and ale (this is based on the type of yeast they use). to over-generalize, dark beers are most usually ales. if you aren't a beer drinker and want to get beer for your plants, buy a single serve. if you have any questions about your particular beer, just ask me.
gaia the former beer girl
I used Yuengling(sp) OK?
yeungling is okey dokey!!
that's what I used too
thx!
gaia,
I used Samuel Adams Boston Lager when I made my recipe up. Was this an OK choice of beer for this?
Thank you,
Kim
I used icehouse! have already made it and watered a few of my plants with it,but now have a feeling that I may have used the wrong kind of beer. What a wste of a perfectly good icehouse!
dmichael
dmichael, why would icehouse be wrong? Was it a lite beer?
I think sometimes it gets easy to "overthink" some of the simple things, to the point of unnecessary stress. Beer is pretty much beer, I have always used whatever my DH has in the fridge, and I know that it isn't always the same. So far, since using this fertilizer I have used: Miller genuine draft, Miller high life, Corona (there's a detour), and Budwiser select. We have a lot of barbeques in the summer, and there is usually a huge beer variety left in the cooler. I use what is left-over. Many of our friends have found that their left beer has been used in my fertilizer, and strongly expressed their concern about my "lack of better beer judgement".
So far, I have only noticed lots of growth, and nice color improvement....no beer detriment.
Sara
I found this site very informative in regards to beer. Perhaps it will help to clarify the difference(s) between lager and ale brews.
http://www.answers.com/topic/beer
Sara, Icehouse isnt lite, I just wasnt sure if it was an ale or a lager or if that even made a difference!! I just used it a few days ago so I havent really noticed any differences in the plants that i used it on yet.
dmichael
dmichael,
Hope my message didn't come across as criticizing.....sure didn't mean it to !! :O I was just thinking that your beer probably has all the good stuff in it that beer has. Sorry Gaia, I know that to a coniseur that is capitol "w" wrong, but in essence beer really is just beer. On the epiforum thread, I think that there was a member over there that did use light beer, and another that was considering using non-alcoholic beer, and don't remember reading about any ill effects.
Sara
Sara, I didnt take it the wrong way! I just want to make sure that i'm using the right stuff when I make this brew!!!
I wonder what a shot of Jose Quervo gold would do added to this mix!!!!
dmichael
Dmichael, : ] Very funny!! I know what a shot of that would do for me, and I am not sure it would inspire much "activity" giggles and grins for sure!
Gad....lets all go to Sara's next summer. We can all have a BBQ with beer & then fertilize our plants. :-D
Hey, Marcy, Dmichael, you bring the hoyas, and I will provide all the beer, liquor, salads and meat! Montana is cattle country, and I am sure you all have seen the ad: "it's what's for dinner" HA! I think that it would be something like: BYOH ( bring your own hoya..... ;) )!!
This message was edited Nov 8, 2006 1:06 PM
This message was edited Nov 8, 2006 1:07 PM
Sara, By the way I have a cat named Sara. I like my steak extra rare!!! I think about a minute and a half on each side will do the trick. Preferably still cold in the middle is how I like it.
dmichael
I'm hungry
LOL!!!! I am more of a medium rare steak girl, myself.....but hey who am I to say. Besides, the meat warnings really only apply to hamburger, chicken and pork right? I believe in Europe your way would be almost "tar tar" right dmichael?
Dawn, you have hoyas, come on over!!
S
hamburger I wont even eat if I can see the slightest bit of pink in it. Go figure that one!! Pork and chicken have got to be well done for me as well.
Up until 1992 I wouldnt eat a steak unless it was well done and tough as shoe leather. Summer of that year I was invited to a cookout with some friends. The menu was steak,baked potato,salad and the works. I wasnt asked how I liked my meat cooked and didnt take it upon myself to inform the cook otherwise.
When my steak got served it was rare. As I mentioned on another thread on this forum,i'mnot a complainer so I kept my mouth shut about the meat and just ate it. I'll admit that when I was finished it felt like every bite of that steak was lodged in my throat as i had the hardest time swallowing every piece of it!
The next time I cooked steak for myself I cooked it rare,I have been eating it like that ever since. The taste and the texture of the meat is 100 times better than having it cooked to death and loosing all the flavor of the meat.
Steaks,beer and hoyas what more could one ask for at a cookout!!
dmichael
I'd suggest separating the hoyas if you are giving them tequila.....I'm sure you'll walk into your greenhouse one morning and find two of 'em twined together on the floor from the bar fight the night before. but I suppose you could get some nice hybrids now that I think about that.
"you can't cross-breed with a cactus, you silly plant!"
beer really is just beer. the exception I would make is the miller light since it isn't as natural as it could be. now, I do know that guinness has reputed health properties, so that would be a good beer to try to experiment with. but I'm pretty sure your plants will be just as happy to party down with a 6er of bud instead!
I used Bud. The plants seem to just love it :~)
I might have gone too strong on my beer. Bud and some of the others mentioned being used here are 5.2 /5.3 alcohol by volume.
Icehouse is 5.5 by volume. I can see my hoyas out there after I go to bed at night partying away!! I've got a mini stereo with CD in there and it stays on all the time. Gosh only knows whats going on in there after the lights go out now!!
dmichael
Dirty Dancing maybe? :)
ROTFLOL!!! Yall are too funny.
I've watered with the mixture twice now and everything is ok. That exercise from dirty dancing must be helping.
Jeri
First report on using it:
Well, I don't know if I am really doing my hoyas a favor or maybe messing them up with this beer fertilizer or not, seeing as how it is totally the wrong time of year to be doing this, but let me tell ya...I see a big difference already. Things that had been sitting looking frumpy for months have suddenly perked up and started growing new little leaves all over the place. I even had a couple that were nothing but sticks with a leaf or two that are sending out new stems from the soil line. I started out just putting it on things I had under the lights, but they looked so good after, that I have started putting it on everything now. Think I will keep it up until be bottle is gone & then give them a rest until spring with nothing more. They are definately loving it and I KNOW it is the beer stuff as I am not doing anything else different, and they would not normally be doing this kind of growing anyway as it is the WRONG time of year for it. (they don't seem to care.)...must be they are all a little drunk and don't know any better. Ha Ha.
Marcy
PS: All my Christmas cactus are covered with blooms now too, but I don't know if it is that it is just the time of year for them to do that anyway, but they seem to love it too.
Marcy, that is really great that you are seeing some dramatic results. I have noticed lots of growth from the get-go with this fertilizer....but sometimes wonder if it is all in my head, and that they would have grown that well anyway. I think that the biggest convincer (is convincer a word?) for me, was how well my DL cuttings did. After being in the box for 2 weeks, all but two of my cuttings bounced way back ( 2 were beyond hope, and didn't make it) but the rest, even those that were very yellow, restored back to rich green while rooting in the beer fertilizer.
Sara
Sara
Did you mix it 1t to gal. of water and just put your cuttings in some of that?
Jeri
Jeri, yes, I have a 1 3/4 gallon watering can, and I use just under 2T of beer fert. in it. I use the water from that for my cuttings, and dump it and refresh with more beer water every 3 days. Sometimes I will use straight tap water for a day in between beer water, but notice roots within 6-7 days. One of my DL cuttings lost both of its 2 leaves.....they were really yellow, and when I received them had a black mold runnin up the center vein. Sooooo I had about 2 feet and MANY nodes of bare but viable stem. I cut it in to 5 pieces, and all have roots and the start of new growth buds at the nodes. I haven't potted up yet, I don't want to push my luck, and it is doing well in the water.
I use it on cuttings via Becky from epiforums recommendation. She bought the recipe because it claimed to mature cactus 250% faster, and she told me she was looking to see blooms in her lifetime.
S
Hmmm, I am getting more and more tempted to try this as well, there is no way it can be bad for them - being that all my Hoyas has no idea it is "winter" since they get about 14 - 16 hrs of direct "sunlight" per day!
I don't know if it's my imagination or what but my plumeria flowa bud seems to be growing faster. I haven't seen any change on the one hoya I've used it on so far.
Blessings,
Awanda
LOL Just caught up on this thread, and am off to the store shortly.
Sharon
I have been watering now for almost 2 weeks with this stuff. I also,being one to not follow directions have been mixing mine at the rate of 2TBS per G as opposed to just 1TBS.
I have to admit that my hoyas have greened up very nicely and I am seeing a tremendous amount of new growth on a lot of them.
I even have a few trays of newly rooted cuttings that have been catching some drips of this stuff from the baskets hanging above them and they have all become a rather nice shade of green as well!
dmichael
Wonderful dmichael
I've been watering mine for 2 weeks and I definately can see a darkening to the green. I spilt some on my Thanksgiving cactus that showed no indication of blooming is now almost ready to burst.
Jeri