Re: Comparing Fertilizers

[Greg Morin <greg at seachem_com>]

>
>I know both TMG and PMDD have a good reputation so the first thing that
>comes to mind is what are all those other elements contained in Flourish
>for? Are they not required for plant growth or readily available in our tap
>waters and therefore not included in the other products? The values in the
>PMDD colum are not percentages of the total contents so I know they can't
>really be used to compare the products correctly but it looks like TMG and
>PMDD are quite similar except for Nitrogen, or at least they contain pretty
>much the same elements. Flourish on the other other hand has a little of
>everything.


The presence of these "extra" components in Flourish are based in 
part on their common use in plant tissue culture media (sold for 
research purposes) as well as a variety of research papers in the 
plant tissue arena. This usage demonstrates that these components are 
important on some level.

>
>My second question regarding Flourish and Flourish Trace, doesn't look like
>Trace has anything that Flourish doesn't, just a little extra CU and Zn. If
>someone is using Flourish would it be safe to say they do not need to use
>Flourish Trace as well?

Maybe. ;-) The components in Flourish Trace are just the trace 
minerals which are commonly lost due to precipitation/oxidation and 
utilization. This can sometimes occur more rapidly than the rate at 
which the other (organic) components in Flourish are utilized, so in 
some situations it may be beneficial to restore just those trace 
minerals outside of the normal Flourish dosing routine. The best way 
to find out is to use just Flourish for awhile, then start using 
Flourish Trace with it for awhile. If you see an improvement continue 
using both. If you see no change then you can likely safely 
discontinue Flourish Trace usage. There are two many variables to 
every system to accurately predict if usage is absolutely 
essential... so a little experimentation here is the best test.

-Greg Morin
-- 

Gregory Morin, Ph.D.  ~~~~~~~Research Director~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Seachem Laboratories, Inc.      www.seachem.com     888-SEACHEM
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~