ESPOMA BIO-TONE STARTER PLUS... REVIEW

This is a new product to me. It just arrived on the shelves of the local Lowe's This is really a good product worth anyone's review and use. It has an organic NPK of 4-3-3, contains 15 named colony forming live bacterias and 7 ECTO AND 2 ENDO Mycorrhizal Fungi in high enough counts to be effective. This product featuring both types of Mycorrhiza will be good for everything growing or to be planted on your property.

I found it in a four pound package. General use suggested: four pounds per hundred square feet tilled into the top four to six inches of soil. Bulbs: one tsp per bulb hole. (that's a light pinch) Potting mixes: twenty pounds per cu. yd or 2.25 cups per cu. foot. 4 inch indoor pots... refer to bulbs. Indoor use no more than twice a year with no other fertilizer.

Because of biology content (living bacteria and sleeping fungi) the shelf life for maximum value should not be more than two years.

I have never seen a package of goodness like this commercially available in one product until right now. In my opinion this is a fine relatively fool proof bag of great helpers for anyone's soil.

Here is the packaging image.

Thanks for the scoop!

me too!

Good job! keep those "watch list items" coming!! Samantha

It is amazing the investments some companies are making to service the growing healthy patch and better potting soil trends. They do not do this without thinking there will be sales and profit. I think we are just seeing the begining of more to come as more and more of you gain faith in the easy way to improve your soils. It is not a difficult thing to understand.....one way you build the soil the other way you put a hurting on the biology that builds the soil. We backyard gardeners and patio freaks need not continue messing up the system without options to help us improve. This introduction is great for those who can not easily build huge compost piles correctly not to mention the difficulty handling manures in close quarters with neighbors who do not even have a hunch as to what we wish to do. If times get very difficult we will be the teachers of tomorrow. I hear a little talk in my neighborhood of gardening once again.

Thank you doc. Soil Gymnastics for gardeners on the go! With your stamp of approval, sounds good to me. {;-D

I've used epsoma with good results as well. It seems to be more difficult to come by though as Lowes and Home Depot seem to stock only small and selected amount.
Rj

Doc,
This does look like a great product, organic as well from the labeling. However, when I was looking up more info on the Espoma Website I came across the Liquid Bio-Tone Starter and see that that is derived from Urea Ammonium Nitrate which is not organic. I use Espoma products but one has to really read the labels as sometimes their fertilizers are a mixture of organic and non-organic. If one isn't truly an organic gardener then the point is moot. It would be easy to confuse the different Bio-Tone offerings. It seems the Plus is the one we want if we are organic gardeners so I suggest one check the labels carefully before purchasing. Thanks for bringing this new product to our attention.
Jessica

I like to refer to healthy soil to avoid minute differences of opinion as to what organic really means. There is so much junk in the air and water now that one can not tell what is really there anyway. Healthy is better than even the term natural. What natural has become is a jolk too. We use manures that are questionable because of what the animal ate. As for my opinion if we just get ourselves and possibly others leaning the right direction we will have been teaching basic organic principles leading to a more healthy soil. Truely organic products are not up to the standards I grew up with. Terms and practices change......rules get bent and the world moves on. We try to do the best we know how. That gets compromised sometimes and we don't even know it. For instance our free range chickens are now eating mixed grains because of the snow cover. Those mixed grains likely are not organic in our area. That's a compromise while the snow takes the range away from the birds and their eggs.

Hi Docgipe,

You are quite correct it is better to aim at creating a "healthy soil" as opposed to "organic". I agree the definitions get a bit fuzzy there and it is virtually impossible to be 100% "Organic" anymore. The only point I wanted to make is that I think the Espoma Bio-Tone Plus contents sound a lot "healthier" for the soil than the Liquid Bio-Tone which seems to be derived from a different source! I could be misled on that and value your opinion! Again thanks for letting us know the new product exists and have a Merry Christmas!

I read on the label of Bio-tone Starter Plus that 1.8% of the potash is natural. That leaves a trace of 1.2% inorganic potash. I do not quite understand this but it is such a small factor that I care not. I would have called all potash a mineral which apparently it is not. The Mycorrhizae content is the biggie here. I just gave all my pot plants a teaspoon full and raked it into the top quarter inch. I visualize a mass of fungi webbing throughout the whole pot attached to and supporting the root mass. I am quite sure this will be a pot advantage that I never opted to use to this point. A heaping tablespoon full was given to the twelve and fourteen inch pots. The little bit of fertilizer going with this fungi introduction is mute. Otherwise I consider my pot plants at rest needing no fertilizer until Februrary. That is when they seem to be waking up and begin pushing new growth moreso than the two previous months. At the start of new growth the pot plants get all they need from my various light tea applications. This refers to potted plants and rooted cuttings indoors.

As an aside I just pinched my Coleus and stuck the cuttings about two weeks ago. They appear to be taking right off..........never mind the season. I had a few losses thus empty pots so I poked in a few cuttings to bring the pots back to usefull purpose. Ditto to a pot of Violets or two. Just can not stand to see an empty pot. LOL

Doc...sounds really good. Do you think you could cut back on the amt. used if you added some molassas for the bacteria to eat and multiply...and maybe organic matter like chicken poop or fish fert.? I always think manufacturers tell you to apply too much so you will buy more....

Carol

Carol..........It's all going the same direction. Only you can see the results of your building efforts and one soil test a year for two or three years all help you determine answers to your questions.
That being said all of what you suggest would not seem questionable. When your organic content by test is 10% you will have made major soil building gains. When your program includes manures, trace minerals, organic fertilizers, leaves and a cover crop you will make great gains in conjunction with compost or elements of compost. I use black strap molasses to boost all in the early spring and late fall. If I am really pushing I use foliar fish and kelp with just a little molasses monthly. Most gardens do fine with the good old time soil building. Your materials for compost should be not to difficult to find. Fish and crab meals should be available. Mix it all up and do not go crazy off in any one direction.

How do you add your black strap molasses in the spring and fall? The same way you do monthly with the foliar fish and kelp? How much do you add? Do you spray the plants with this mixture or just the soil (or both?)
Jessica

JESSICA.........Anything you read about a booster for compost is in Black Strap Molasses. It is simply a very good booster all around.

Spring and Fall, on tilling day............six ounces in water per gallon. One gallon per 1000 sq. ft. slightly more or less. This is not rocket science.

Once a month foliar.......one ounce per gallon of water. Can be with fish or kelp. Usually fish and kelp liquid calls for two ounces per their product. Molasses can go on to the run off point both sides of the leaves along with fish or kelp. Not a problem.

Not a problem with other foliar magic tomato or pepper liquers. There are now a lot of specialized foliar and soil organic applications available. Your molasses can be mixed with all that I have tried. Always take a half cup of the magic liquer mixed soulution and add drops of molasses to be sure there is no chemistry going to work that would cause a foaming reaction. If a reaction happens apply them by themselves and wait until the plants are dry for the second application.

Fish, kelp and molasses gives you the better contents of most great new magic in a bottle.

Thanks for that information!!! You are really knowledgeable!

Thanks, I'll definitely add molasses to my list this summer!

Not sure if you can get it there, but I buy this wonderful alfalfa pellet that has
molasses, fish emulsion, seaweed extract and cottonseed extract all infused in the pellet, matter of fact I just bought a bag saturday. It's called Earth Essentials. I use it about 3 times a year on all the garden beds, and mix it in my tailor made potting soils too. really good stuff.

I'm not having much luck Googling to find the Earth Essentials alfalfa pellets. I come up with other Earth Essentials fertilizersvarieties containing various manures. I assume this is a Texas product? Can it be purchased online to your knowledge? Thanks for any info!

It might be..I'll check around..I bought it at Southwest Fertilizer which does have a few of their own products. Give me a day or two, I'll scope out the bag when I get home.

In the mean time when they are out of it, (which they frequently are) I resort to plan B,
-do it myself- This site gives a pointer in that direction.
http://www.ehow.com/how_17903_fertilize-flowers-organically.html

Plan B makes sense since it's easy to get all the ingredients locally. Thanks for the tip!

Thanks for the link. I was able to get a bag but its nice to know another way to improve my garden

Sure, it's amazing what it does. It turned some new beds I made in the front garden from a wormless desert waste land to organism disney world, and worm metropolis.
I did check the bag of the Earth Essentials and indeed it is a South West Fertilizer product. Learned something new there..so I doubt it's available anywhere except there.

Animal feed in most forms include molasses. Horse pellets or granular feed very often do have molasses. What one must keep an eye on is the acumulation of sodium in the soil. This is one reason soil tests are so important. Most cattle feed contains added salts. We need not worry about natural salts found in the plants or grains used to make those foods. I would test every other year if I were using animal feeds and keep an eagle eye out for salts build up.