Espoma Plant-Tone/Flower Tone- how much to use?

[mad librettist]

Hey guys,

forget the name, just look at the ingredients of plant-tone:

Derived from: Hydrolyzed Feather Meal, Pasteurized
Poultry Manure, Cocoa Meal, Bone Meal, Alfalfa Meal,
Greensand, Humates

Here is Biotone plus (minus the beneficials):

Derived from: Hydrolyzed Feather Meal, Pasteurized
Poultry Manure, Cocoa Meal, Bone Meal, Alfalfa Meal,
Greensand, Humates

You don't need 3 months to cook those ingredients, and you shouldn't need to grind it either. Just mix it into your soil at a rate of 3 cups per cubic foot, hit it with a compost tea or slurry, and give it a month.

you can top dress it as well, but I would use a mulch layer on top to keep it moist. This stuff does nothing dry.

 

[Muleskinner]

I have another data point on this.

Recently I started using Plant-tone for the 1st time. I added it to a "cool" mix based on peat and compost but designed for regular fertilizing. (Fafard and Coast of Maine potting mixes).

I started at 50% of the recommended dose. The sativa-type plants LOVED it, but a couple of blueberry-based indicas got burned slightly.

I just want a light dose of it because I want to supplement with other organic fertilizers when I water. So I went with a 1/3rd the recommended amount as a general rule, and if you're doing blueberry or other heavily indica plants such as Sensi Star you're better off with 10-25% the recommended dose. If you're using a truly soilless mix without compost in it then a higher dose is warranted.

but it seems great, very dark green leaves with it and nice organic aromas coming off the plants. I like the fact that it re-uses farming waste instead of sending miners into bat caves in wilderness areas too!

it seems like a great complement to the Neptune's Harvest fish & seaweed liquid ferts we get around here...they are a little P-heavy (2-3-1 and 2-4-1), so having the N-heavy Plant-tone (5-3-3) in the soil is a perfect match. My last bag of worm castings went rotten before I could use it, this seems like a great alternative that stores much better.

 

[Scrappy4]

I had a bag of plant tone for a while, and decided to use it on some, soon to be vegging, plants. The soil has been mixed and wet for a couple of weeks. I added about 1/30 instead of the recommended 1/25, being it was dry, the % should go down a little. i still need to add some perlite and mycor. I have plant success granular. Should I have added it during the mix or at transplant?

Ya, I read some recent stuff on the bio tone and got out my bag of plant tone to compare, seems the difference is the myco added in the bio tone. I looked on the net and seen you can get it in larger quanities too. I think i might get some for my summer veggie garden. I compost, but it is ussually not quite done cold compost that i grind in after pulling the crops for fall, so a little boost might be in order.

 

[Frankinsensi]

I've found 2 tbs per gallon to be about perfect, in combination with 2 tbs per gallon of high p guano. No other nutes. When I added 1 tbs per gallon of alfalfa meal to that, they burned a little. I started with 1/4 cup per gallon of the Plant Tone and worked down from there. 1/4 cup per gallon burnt the shit out of them.

 

[zen_trikester]

I use bio in my current recycled mix.
Mix used soil at 5 gal soil, 2 gal castings, 1 2/3 cup epsoma bio starter plus w/ mycos, 1/4 cup epsoma kelp meal, 1/4 cup epsoma garden lime. Also add 1/2 cup epsom salts unless you water with a micro-nute supliment.

Then at potting time I cut this mix 50/50 with coco (or peat) add 1 tsp bone mixed into the soil.

The soil is balanced for veg essentially with minimal P, the bone kicks in about 4 or 5 weeks into flower and gives a nice boost in weight... that is the part I have been mostly working on. I am currently running a test of the above, vs the above with the bone cooking for a month before planting, and the above with the boone cooking plus more bone at potting up time. The above works very well with every plant I run and I am now seeing how far I can push it with the bone and percentage of mix to coco to maximize my harvests. Longer flowering plants now get the mix at 2 parts mix to 1 part coco, and 1.5-2 tsp bone. With that much bone they finish dark green but the calyxis are fat.

As for the eposm salt thing, I was seeing what I thought was mg def after my soil was sitting for awhile but it ended up being K and the kelp took care of that, so I will be going back to using the epsom salt next batch. For now I am using microblast in my water at 1/2tsp per gal and 1 drop superthrive per gal in tap water that is set out for 24 hrs to declorinate. My tap is hq though so that may not work with everyone's.

This mix has been doing very well for me and the only time I need to fertilize in my watering is when I veg a plant too long or flower out a seed plant or a mother. Most of my plants are in 4-5 cups of soil and most get vegged less than a week or not at all.

 

[dean2015]

Hey all,

Well, it's that time of year again to gear up for the outdoor grow. I'm only doing a few this year, and I want to use Espoma products, top-dressed, in 10 gallon pots. The directions on the bags are pretty varied- does anyone know how much Plant-Tone and Flower-Tone I should use per month? I'm thinking 1/4 cup should do it, but I don't want to go too heavy- any thoughts? Thanks!

FK

im growing indoor and im germinatin the seeds and i have a 1 gal container, how much and how should i apply it? mixing it with the soil and plant the seedling? im new to this

 

[stoned-trout]

I'm a big fan of Rainbow Mix now. It's a finely ground powder with the occasional pieces of meal and the like... Price is competitive but you'll likely need to have it shipped...

Best of Luck

fwiw... I was surprised to see earth juice dry and wet ferts in my local homedepot....Visalia ca homedepot has earth juice products....yeehaw times are a changing and we have better options than chems from miracle grow...I picked up some espoma as I got ej wet ferts already