Bloom boosters: BS or Necessity?

Traditional theories say you need that P.

The limited science says boosters provide way more P than your plant could ever use.

Opinions? Anecdotal evidence?

Scam is a strong word, I don't see them as necessary though.

I used to use the whole canna coco range for years and then I stopped and just stuck to base nutrients,
the result was zero difference.

Certainly you can do more harm than good if you buy into the idea more is better which most noobs do until they learn the lesson the hard way.

Marketing bullshit...make your own soil

IIReignManII said:

Marketing bullshit...make your own soil

Click to expand...

What about hydro?

I just use a lower P booster. Big Bud is 0-15-35 10%S lots of aminos and a couple of other things. Works well for me in DWC or soil/soilless.

I've been telling people for years that they're feeding way to much P in relation to K especially during the stretch where a good amount of P is needed and K not as much. Tomatoes like it the other way around.

Best bloom boosters are a very healthy root system with a healthy colonization of microbes in addition to light and more light properly applied. I sprinkle liberal amounts of mykos on roots when I transplant. It takes time for widespread colonization so I start early and even with mediums already containing it. Those microbes are what are most responsible in the transport of nutrients into the plant. Especially phosphorus.

hotrodharley said:

Best bloom boosters are a very healthy root system with a healthy colonization of microbes in addition to light and more light properly applied. I sprinkle liberal amounts of mykos on roots when I transplant. It takes time for widespread colonization so I start early and even with mediums already containing it. Those microbes are what are most responsible in the transport of nutrients into the plant. Especially phosphorus.

Click to expand...

All very true as long as the nutrients are present mycos will help gather them up for the plant to use. I just got some made in Israel called DynoMyco and trying it out. Next seed I plant will have a dash of it all around it to inoculate at birth. Supposed to work with any nutes.



Even says near the bottom to 'Minimize use of starter phosphorus to enhance mycorrhizae.'

The8thChevron said:

Traditional theories say you need that P.

The limited science says boosters provide way more P than your plant could ever use.

Opinions? Anecdotal evidence?

Click to expand...

The only additive that Ive personally seen really boost bloom size and yields is Mammoth P. But it is a microbial life additive for the roots. It helps the roots uptake every bit of the nutrients available and this in turn yields a bigger crop. I researched it throughly before trying it. I was impressed with what I found. I bought it and tried it out on one tomato plant. This plant has roots shooting out of the smart pot and has fruit from 7 feet down to 1 foot of the plants height. I can't say the same for the other plants. I usually test any new product on tomato plants. fyi.

The8thChevron said:

What about hydro?

Click to expand...

I’d put hydro right there next to marketing bullshit...learn Aquaponics

Anything that adds potassium and phosphorus during bloom/bud will increase yields. The Canna PK 13/14 Everyone raves about. Thats the NPK values of potassium and phosphorus. From that point of view a bloom booster works.

The8thChevron said:

Traditional theories say you need that P.

The limited science says boosters provide way more P than your plant could ever use.

Opinions? Anecdotal evidence?

Click to expand...

IMHO, "boosters" are not necessary.

So long as you give the plants the proper amounts of each element/nutrient, the plants will thrive.

The plants tell you what they need. Loudly at that. Marketing gurus at a company where their only objective is to make money tell you the plants need way more than what the plants tell you, and use fancy words like "booster" with cartoon characters to promote it.

My instinct is to let the plants tell me, and not someone who shuffles paper in order to keep a job.

All plants need P & K. All plants. P and K play essential roles not just in flower, but through the plant's entire life cycle. This is easy to research. Many plants require a bit more of certain nutrients at certain times of their growth. That's still no reason to throw more at them just because they're in flower.

How about we ditch the marketing speak like "Bloom Booster", and call it what it is... additional Potassium and Phosphorus? I add mine in as a water-soluble powder from weeks 2.5 after flip to 12/12 through harvest.

Im testing Jacks hydro now. If its a success Im buying the jacks fertilizer for buds. The NPK scared me at first because they're very hot mixes. But so far so good. The blossom fertilizer is 10-30-20. Ive seen some impressive flowering gardens, vegetables and cannabis grows all giving credit to the hydro and bloom fertilizer.

i dunno.... its a rabbit hole. some say it helps.... some say... youll get the same results staying with the same NPK from seed to harvest.

I remember watching an interview with the CEO of Dynagro who said plants actually need Calcium more than P and K. You actually dont need that much P and K that people claim... its just one of those cannabis only things.

Im running a test right now last run I ran only one NPK from clone to harvest. Did pretty damn good....Id never done it before like that. This run Im back to bumping P and K in the later stages.... ill see the results in a few weeks. I always use mykos though which are supposed to aid in phosphorus uptake.... maybe thats why my one run with one set NPK did so well.... i dunno.

Its hard to even test cause its such a long process from clone to veg to flower....your bound to do stuff different and u learn more and more as u go. theres so many outside factors that its hard to tell.

Plants need P & K but there is already plenty in any decent base nutrient that there is no reason to add anymore. So many people are posting pictures of crispy fried plants with all kinds of issues halfway through flower caused by overdosing them with P & K. People are eliminating N completely and dumping way too much bloom boosters on their plants. Plants still need N for flower development. The no N and lots's of P & K has a negative effect on flower development. A balanced nutrient from start to finish will produce better flowers than all these chemistry experiments with a dozen bottles of additives.

I’m trying out a low dose of big bud this run, never tried it before, stuff looking pretty good, I’m downing the ec now but still just run Lucas some calimagic here and there and a splash of BB.

xtsho said:

Plants need P & K but there is already plenty in any decent base nutrient that there is no reason to add anymore. So many people are posting pictures of crispy fried plants with all kinds of issues halfway through flower caused by overdosing them with P & K. People are eliminating N completely and dumping way too much bloom boosters on their plants. Plants still need N for flower development. The no N and lots's of P & K has a negative effect on flower development. A balanced nutrient from start to finish will produce better flowers than all these chemistry experiments with a dozen bottles of additives.

Click to expand...

So then why all the hate for MG around here. I could see if your were going full organic but salts are salts. I'm using MG 18-18-10 on my outdoor plants and there seem fine at 5 feet tall. I was going to switch to some sort of bloom booster in a couple weeks but now I'm second guessing that.
I test with an EC meter and the MJ comes in at 1.8 but I can make it as strong of weak as I want

Definitely avoid using MKP. That stuff will ruin the flavor of your flower.

father nature said:

So then why all the hate for MG around here. I could see if your were going full organic but salts are salts. I'm using MG 18-18-10 on my outdoor plants and there seem fine at 5 feet tall. I was going to switch to some sort of bloom booster in a couple weeks but now I'm second guessing that.
I test with an EC meter and the MJ comes in at 1.8 but I can make it as strong of weak as I want

Click to expand...

Do you mean the 18-18-21? I know people that use that and end up with very nice plants and good harvests.

You'll find different opinions for the best ratio's to use in flower. Some say 1-1-2, 1-2-3, 1-3-2, etc... I don't pay any attention to those specific ratios. The 18-18-21 has everything in it and the plant will take what it needs. Regardless of the ration it's more important not to overfeed. You can grow healthy plants from start to finish with just a basic 4-4-4, 10-10-10, or what you're using. Overfeeding is what will cause problems. Completely eliminating N and feeding only higher levels of P/K can cause nutrient antagonism. And a complete reduction of N is not good because flowers use N to develop.

There seems to the mindset with some growers that any N in flower is bad and mega levels of P/K is good. There are many posts of plants midway through flower with yellowing dying leaves because they started feeding 1500+ ppm's of nothing but a bunch of P/K.

As for people hating on Miracle-Gro, ignore them and let them hate. Maybe they're trying to justify spending $100 on nutrients and in many instances get a poorer harvest and yield than people using a $10 box of Miracle-Gro. Whatever their reasons most have never even used it they have only heard that it's the devil on cannabis forums. The same soluble salts that many cannabis specific nutrients use come from the same factories as the ones in Miracle-Gro.

Renfro said:

Definitely avoid using MKP. That stuff will ruin the flavor of your flower.

Click to expand...

Unless you're using organic nutrients most brands are using MKP in their bloom and bloom additives.

If you look at the ingredients of most bloom portions of nutrient lines or bloom additives the majority of them contain MKP and with many it's the primary ingredient. AN, DynaGro, GH, Botanicare, etc...

I've looked at the labels of just about every popular cannabis specific nutrient line and for the most part they contain basically the same things in slightly different ratios. The same soluble salts that are in inexpensive products like Jacks, MasterBlend, etc... are the same ones being used by everyone else. A few years ago I was at a friends house and he asked me about this bloom enhancer the guy at the hydro shop sold him for $25. Just a small container. He took the lid off and it was a light blue granular powder. I knew instantly what it was so I asked him to let me read the label. It said "Derived from monopotassium phosphate. I just laughed. When I told him I buy the same stuff for under $10 a pound he wasn't very happy.

The key to explosive bud growth is all about proprietary biostimulants!



Think beyond NPK.