Superthrive on pines

[M. Frary]

I specialize in pine bonsai. I don’t use it.

Didn't know they still sold the stuff.

 

[Adair M]

Didn't know they still sold the stuff.

Because people still buy it.

 

[BrianBay9]

Is there a decent study on Superthrive and plant performance? That should be easy to test in an experimental setting but I can't find much that's relevant in Google Scholar.

Several challenges with this. First, you have to have access to lots of trees of the same species to make your experimental groups large enough to draw conclusions. Second, Superthrive has soooooo many claims on the label. It says it does EVERYTHINNG. My experience has been testing and disproving (to my own satisfaction) one claim, and then be attacked by Superthrive's proponents because I didn't test claim 2, 3, 4.....

 

[Bnana]

Several challenges with this. First, you have to have access to lots of trees of the same species to make your experimental groups large enough to draw conclusions. Second, Superthrive has soooooo many claims on the label. It says it does EVERYTHINNG. My experience has been testing and disproving (to my own satisfaction) one claim, and then be attacked by Superthrive's proponents because I didn't test claim 2, 3, 4.....

Their wild claims are a reason I don't believe them. For a hobbyist this wouldn't be easy to do but could be a nice student project at a university. 100 trees, all clones, half with superthrive and half without and see whether there is a difference in growth and survival.

I do find a few papers, for example on sale tolerance, but there seems to be no effect.