Do any of the "root growth" products work well?

[Greatgardens]

There are a bunch of these! Any tricks you have learned to reliably aid root development in seedlings. Mycos? et. al. Typical starter solutions e.g. Schultz Starter Plus? For me, I have seen no root improvement from additives over a good planting mix with very modest fertilization after a couple of days of true leaves appear. But I'm ever hopeful for a "magic bullet!"
-GG

[Father'sDaughter]

Since I began using DE (Utrasorb from Autozone) for seed starting, I've seen huge root systems on my seedlings. The roots balls are typically three to four times larger than the plant.

[Greatgardens]

Originally Posted by Father'sDaughter

Since I began using DE (Utrasorb from Autozone) for seed starting, I've seen huge root systems on my seedlings. The roots balls are typically three to four times larger than the plant.

I made a brief try of DE and didn't see any difference overall, but wasn't really looking at root development. It is essentially sterile, isn't it? Did you use some specific fert. regimen in con★★★★★★★★ with DE?
-GG

You might try adding extra potassium and phosphorus (which both help root development), as well as worm castings (which may have mycorrhizae and microbes that help bring out the natural phosphorus in the soil). My worm castings seem to have mycorrhizae by the look of the roots, anyway.

For potassium and phosphorus, you could try monopotassium phosphate. Potassium sulfate works pretty well by itself, though. The amount and efficacy of potassium and phosphorus that you get from some pre-mixed NPK fertilizers may not be optimal. It really depends on your soil, and the fertilizer, however. I've noticed that this stuff works, at least (not every full NPK fertilizer I've tried seems to do a lot, however, and they sometimes have unsafe substances in them). I really need to apply some potassium and phosphorus to my seedlings, this year, actually (they're unfertilized as of yet).

Loose soil should help, too (at least before the transplant).

Excess nitrogen may do the opposite of extra potassium, just for the record (but you don't want to get too much potassium, either). If your plants' stems bend easily, they could probably use more potassium.

Rockdust may help for root strength, due to the calcium and silica in it, but you have to be careful to use a safe amount or the soil may be too alkaline.

Wood ash is a source of potassium and calcium; it may also make the soil more alkaline. Tomatoes seem to love it. I'm not sure about using it with seedlings.

Extra light should help, too.

[carolyn137]

In my opinion, good root growth of newly germinated seedlings is directly correlated with what medium you sowed the seeds in.

Nothing else is needed.

Carolyn

[Cole_Robbie]

I like MycoGrow from fungi perfecti. It will make your roots nice and fuzzy. It's certainly not required, but it's worth the five bucks or so they charge. Store it in your fridge, and a home gardener can get multiple years out of one $5 pack.

[kurt]

From the archives.thanx ami

http://www.tomatoville.com/showthrea...ighlight=Mycos


Late note.I have been inoculating the mediums throughout seed starts,application of the beneficials up to final destination.For containers,small patches,or if you will plants that are not acclimated to your regimen(as everyone else seems to be doing No Till as I)inoculation gives them a good start,and finish.

[Keiththibodeaux]

This stuff works.
http://www.horticulturalalliance.com...ulant-compound

[Greatgardens]

Originally Posted by Keiththibodeaux

This stuff works.
http://www.horticulturalalliance.com...ulant-compound

Presume you have used this on tomatoes in a regular planting mix?
-GG

[Father'sDaughter]

Originally Posted by Greatgardens

I made a brief try of DE and didn't see any difference overall, but wasn't really looking at root development. It is essentially sterile, isn't it? Did you use some specific fert. regimen in con★★★★★★★★ with DE?

-GG

For me top growth with DE is really no different than when I was using a starter mix, the root development is a whole different story. I was pleasantly surprised the first time I pulled a plant out of the DE to up-pot it.

And yes, once the plants have their first true leaves, they are given half strength liquid fertilizer with every watering.

Many use it to eliminate damping off issues. I use it for the root development, the need to water less frequently, and to eliminate the chance of another fungus gnat infestation that came from using what must have been an old bag of starter mix.

If organic fertilizers are used, the DE can be dried out and baked in the oven to kill anything living in it, then re-used. This year I made the mistake of using some fine DE I had not baked, and I ended up with bad algae growth.

[RayR]

Magic bullets? It's more of a combination of things.
Carolyn is right that the medium you sow the seeds in is an important factor to root growth. A medium that allows oxygen to penetrate easily is important to root growth. There's nothing worse than a medium that just drowns roots in water.
I think that is one factor why DE in granular form works well for seedling root growth.
I agree with Father'sDaughter that top growth is a different story. I've worked with straight DE and DE mixes compared to peat based and coco mixes and the top growth is variable. Sometimes top growth is bigger in DE, sometimes not. All seeds of the same variety are not the same, some have more vitality and are more aggressive in producing top growth.

A product like Schultz Starter Plus from what I read on the label contains is just Urea, Ammonium Phosphate, Potassium Nitrate and Iron EDTA at a NPK of 5-10-5 with the addition of 0.02% Vitamin B1 (Thiamine Hydrochloride). OK, it's a bit higher in P which may be important for root growth. The addition of Vitamin B1 which some root enhancers may have as a magic bullet is based more on myth than scientific proof. Plants synthesize Vitamin B1 and it is found in greater concentration in the roots.There's no solid proof that the addition of additional B1 to the medium has any benefit.

DIEHARDTM BioRush also contains "Root Promoting Vitamins" as magic ingredient but I think it's other ingredients may be more valuable. Trichoderma Fungi are known to stimulate root growth as are many other beneficial microbial inhabitants of the rhizosphere.
Mycorrhizal fungi, Trichoderma fungi and PGPR's (Plant Growth Promoting Rhizobacteria) can be had alone or in combination in many commercial inoculants.
They all have functions in overall plant health including root growth that science backs up. The vast number of important root growth promoting chemicals they make are better than any kind of single questionable magic bullet like Vitamin B1.

[imp]

I try to remember to use RapidStart by General Hydroponics when I transplant my tomatoes/plants to the garden. I use it at half the recommended dosage and it seems to work well. Normal dose id a teaspoon to 5 gallons of water.

[RayR]

Originally Posted by imp

I try to remember to use RapidStart by General Hydroponics when I transplant my tomatoes/plants to the garden. I use it at half the recommended dosage and it seems to work well. Normal dose id a teaspoon to 5 gallons of water.

I've tried Rapidstart from some free samples I got from the local grow shop.
My first impressions were that it did seem to increase root growth but I didn't do any side by side comparisons with controls. It may be particularly useful for folks using strictly mineral salt nutrients. I do most of my gardening with organics so it's hard for me to say whether Rapidstart adds any additional value and worth the expense. Probably not I'm thinking. I think a proper experiment would be to test it with mineral salt nutrients alone.
Rapidstart's ingredients combine a small amount of mineral salts, amino acids and a propriety blend of plant extracts. According to GH, the plant extracts are the key ingredients.

One product that does work to promote root growth is AZOS from Extreme Gardening. Strictly a biological product, AZOS is a bacteria, Azospirillum brasilense which has multiple beneficial effects in the rhizosphere including producing Auxins, plant hormones that stimulate root growth.
There is a number of threads here relating to AZOS, this one contains my results of my first experience and experiment with it.
This is a good blog article on Azospirillum brasilense and what it does. See here

[imp]

Haven't been growing in anything but soil so far, so ymmv, just stated what I found to be true for myself.

[RayR]

Originally Posted by imp

Haven't been growing in anything but soil so far, so ymmv, just stated what I found to be true for myself.

Ya, I'm sure anybodies mileage will vary depending on growing style.
Are you growing in-ground or in containers? What fertilizers do you use?
Are you using Rapidstart at only the seedling stage or are you continuing to use it at later stages?