Any reviews on Superthrive

[opaline]

Hi all , I am reaching out to anyone with experience of using this product to date., pros and cons. Have done a search but did not turn up alot. I have recently mounted my collection and would like to give it a start and boost. Have used rooting hormone diluted and fertilize weakly weekly with Miracle G. Is the ST product more advanced. Thanks

[cakedaddy]

I use superthrive regularly in my watering and fertilizing regimen. BUT, I use it at a much greater dilution than the packaging recommends. There are people who believe that overuse/overdosing can result in bloom deformation. I am among those people. Also, the packaging doesn't include any sort of warnings or caution statements, at least here. If I have heard correctly, one of the hormones included in the formula causes non-specific cell proliferation.....which in humans can mean cancer. Avoid getting it on your skin. Don't allow it to come into contact with anything that could be used with food prep or eating. Avoid breathing mist when you are watering. That being said, I think it works quite well when used sparingly and I store mine in my fridge in a plastic baggie.

[opaline]

Thanks for the input Jason.

[otis226]

MOST of the bottles I find for sale are usually in an outdoor area of one of the big box stores, usually in full sun in 90+ degree weather, for gosh knows how long? ANYTHING they originally had in them must be long deactivated/neutralized by this type of storage.
I'll admit to using some superthrive years ago when repotting bonsai. Never really noted any difference in results, plants that were doing poorly, continued to do so with/without ST! I do love the huckster-type advertising on the packaging, which is almost worth the price of admission by itself, (Kind of like modern day snake oil without the horse and cart )
Seriouisly, I've been having MUCH better results using liquid seaweed lately than I ever did with superthrive. Any product that wants to keep its ingredients 'secret' can do without me for a customer. YMMV.
Best,
Tony

[Kassie]

The package details are freakish--lots of font/color changes and dangling participles and very little useful information. I'm sort of alarmed to see that it has carcinogenic properties! The packaging did say to use the crud that collects on the lid--can't tell you how many times I have chipped that stuff off with my bare fingernails. It also doesn't say anything about shelf-life or storage requirements--you have to learn that elsewhere. I used it for quite a while and saw nothing notable over simple balanced fertilizer.

However, I started adding liquid seaweed and a dash of vodka once a month and growth exploded everywhere! I know that the season was partly responsible for the new growth, but I started the seaweed tonics weekly back in February and slowed back because I was afraid I was pushing them too hard. Phals sent out roots double the thickness of the ones they had. ALL my catts pushed up multiple leads. And I seem to have less repotting shock with the liquid seaweed, although I may just be getting less heavy-handed with my post-potting watering. Based on my meager experience, I don't think I will buy superthrive again.

[cakedaddy]

I didn't think about seaweed extracts! I use seaweed extract as well and love the product! Sorry that I forgot to mention the products that I use that do virtually the same thing as ST without all the scariness!

[otis226]

Oh, and for what its worth. I did read somewhere, (probably online), that using liquid seaweed as a spray was supposed to be 8-20 times more effective than using it as a soak. Don't know it this is true, but 95% of the time I do use it as a spray on foilage and roots.
Tony

[orchidlady]

Regarding toxic effects of Superthrive, the product has been around since 1940 and there has been no link to cancer at all. Superthrive contains vitamin B-1 and 1-Naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA) which is a plant hormone (auxin). NAA itself can be poisonous in high concentrations, but it has not been linked to causing cancer. The levels of NAA are so low in Superthrive that it is considered non-toxic. As with anything, toxicity is related to dose and concentration. Anything, including water, can be toxic in high enough amounts.

I have used Superthrive in small amounts since I started growing orchids in the mid 1980s and have never had any incidents of deformity that I would attribute to its use. I find it the most useful in newly repotted plants. It seems to give them a jump start.

Susan

[cakedaddy]

Thanks for the info Susan! I was curious as to why there were no warnings on the package after what I kept reading.

[Brutal_Dreamer]

Very cool topic. I don't use superthrive, but it was interesting reading about how others felt about it.

cheers,
BD