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Fw: Alabama Getaway (and Superthrive!)

Title: Message
Have asked permission of super Las Vegas plant personality Lenadams Dorris to repost this to the list.
 
Linda Schaffner
Formerly of Las Vegas,  now in Alabama
----- Original Message -----
From: s*@radiant.org
To: l*@msn.com
Sent: Friday, June 07, 2002 10:42 PM
Subject: Alabama Getaway (and Superthrive!)

Linda,
 
It all started when John, the moderator of the [vegasgardens] group wrote a chatty "what's new in the garden?" part of which said:
 
"Well a couple of plants followed me home yesterday from Star...I also picked up a bottle of Vitamin B1 by Safer. This stuff smells just like Superthrive but costs much much less--32 oz for $3. I will give this stuff a try on my new plantings and in my plant "hospital" and I don't think I will be buying any more Superthrive."
 
I couldn't let this go by without comment. If a person wants B1, then he should buy B1, but he shouldn't think that because they smell similar they are equivalent. So I wrote:
 
"There's a *big* difference between generic B1 and Superthrive. They are hardly in the same category; the only thing locally available that comes close to Superthrive is Star Nursery's Dr. Q's Plant Tonic. It and Superthrive are complex formulas with numerous enzymes in addition to B-1 and a few other chemicals proven to stimulate root growth--and more importantly, root re-growth.
 
"I have always told my customers and students that Vitamin B-1 works (when it does) only because a gardener who takes the time to buy it and use it is also a gardener who is paying attention and who has her plants' welfare in mind...so the plants end up getting the care they need from the gardener, who then attributes the magical results to the B-1! In contrast, Superthrive could be used by the most negligent of commercial landscapers and mean the difference between a 50% survival rate in July and a 75% percent survival rate. This is most definitely a case of getting what you paid for."
 
John replied with this:
 
"Hmmmm...I think I have just been told (very diplomatically!) that I wasted 3 bucks and that I am in touch with my feminine side! (Len: apparently a reference to my use of the feminine pronoun)
 
"Okay Superthrive sounds like the stuff for me! Besides using it as a transplant boost, I have also had to use it for plants that were victims of my inexperience.
 
"Thanks Starfarmer! Superthrive can be a very controversial topic! The first time I heard about it/saw the packaging, I had a vision of Granny Clampett from the Beverly Hillbillies cooking up one of her special plant elixirs! :-)"
 
My reply:
 
"Yeah, I admit it looks hokey, but I have seen it perform miracles...I actually ran a controlled experiment in the nursery after the unexpected freeze of February 1992. I had just brought in a bunch of plants in bloom, including many Australians, and about twelve hours after unloading the truck the freeze came. That afternoon it had been almost 70 degrees; that night it got down to about 22! Anyway, I had maybe $4000 in destroyed unsellable nursery stock. Since I had so many of the same things (20 of that, 50 of this, etc.) I decided to run the experiment.
 
"I split the plants into three groups, with an equal amount of each type in each group. All got cut back as was appropriate for their kind, and then treated as followed: Group #1 was treated with Superthrive according to package directions (if you can find them) once each week for three months in addition to regular watering; Group #2 got the same treatment except with B-1, while Group #3 just got regular watering (they were all watered the same amount at the same time). Obviously this could not be *strictly controlled because of human error in watering, pruning, the cans on the outside of the pallet heating up more, etc., but it was pretty well managed.
 
"The results? The Superthrive group was more or less ready to go back on the sales floor (depending on species; some looked better than others, but 90% of the plants ended up being sold at full price) by the end of April 11 weeks later. The B-1 group and the water-only group had pretty much the same results: about 30% of the plants were ready for resale at the end of April; another 20% was ready by early June, and the rest in both groups were never good looking enough to be sold at full price. I kept records of which species responded the best...I'll try to dig them up. In any case, there was *zero* difference (to the eye at least) between the B-1 and water-only groups, while the Superthrive group was astonishing.
 
"This was enough for me to counter the bizarre marketing and the even more bizarre guy who makes the stuff (many of you may have met him at a trade show or such). It's hard for people to believe it really works, it seems, which is odd since it's apparently easy for people to believe that Slim Fast makes you skinny and diamonds will save your marriage and a Beamer will improve your sex life.
 
"Now just imagine if the makers of Superthrive got together with the makers of Dr. Bronner's products....DILUTE! DILUTE! ALL-ONE-GOD-PLANT GARDEN OF EDEN-SUPERTHRIVE! AMEN!"
 
I will note at this point that my respect for Superthrive did nothing but increase when several years later I was part of a project to "reverse-engineer" the stuff so a generic version could be produced. Let's just say that a) it's really complex and b) it has more in common with soy sauce than you might think!
 
Hope that helps, and thanks for the photos. Are you in Sunset's National Garden Book zone 31 (Birmingham south) or 33 (Birmingham north)? Or are you lucky to be in the small portion of the state around Mobile that is zone 28? I think there's a "Southern Living Garden Book" that's almost a clone of the "Western Gardening Book", too, if you haven't yet encountered it.
 
Also, would I fit in on the Garden Writer's listserve (after all, I *am* a garden writer, although I never joined the guild).
 
Cheers,
 
Len
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