# Biostimulants - what are you using?



## Ryanmorales88 (Apr 30, 2020)

Hi everyone,

What is everyone using for Biostims? I initially bought the NEXT products, but seems this is overpriced from what I hear. Would be interested what the pros on here are using as they see past the Youtube advertising. On recommendations, please let me know what rates per k and when you are applying these things around the year if you don't mind sharing. Thank you in advance!


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## Bigdrumnc (Mar 28, 2019)

Have you priced Lescos bios?


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## CarolinaCuttin (Sep 6, 2019)

@Ryanmorales88 What turf issues are you looking to address? What do you want these products to do?

There are a lot of good biostimulants out there from the golf course side of the industry, but there simply isn't much you're going to find for the DIY guy.

N-Ext products are good for soil but they are certainly long-term plays as far as the humic acid goes. I have no doubt that sustained use over many years will improve the soil and plant health, but a lot of us want something we can spray and see results in days or weeks.

Depending on your goals, I can help point you in the right direction with products and companies, but it'll probably mean you have to find a distributor near you that can ship you the products. There typically isn't an online store for these types of things.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

The N-EXT products really arent that bad price wise compared to a lot of the products from different companies. N-ext or simple lawn solutions or lawn star, or lesco carbon pro L are all fairly expensive but last time I looked it seemed like N-ext was cheaper then most. These products are overpriced when you compare them to something you mix yourself like kelp4less products.

A lot of people dont want to mix anything so the n-ext products are more convenient and are worth the extra cost.

You have to remember there are a lot of people who swear by the products the YouTubers are pushing and then there are a lot of people who bash everything they promote and call it overpriced and fish oil. The truth is probably somewhere in between.


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## MarshalOfFire (Apr 22, 2020)

I used RGS and Air-8 this year, with some microgreene mixed in. The biggest improvement I saw with my yard came after mechanical aeration. I won't be using these products going forward.

Next year I will be using NPK only and good cultural practices. I dont think there is enough benefit from these products to justify the high cost.

My plan next year is root cycling as seen here: https://youtu.be/bNPWEJiKmjE


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

@MarshalOfFire The funny thing is the video actually talks about RGS, humic acid, and other micronutrients and says it helps with this root cycling process.

But I agree for the most part, good cultural practices, N-P-K and some iron is all you need for a great looking lawn. The other stuff can maybe help with stresses or make N-P-K uptake more efficient but are they worth the extra costs???


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## CarolinaCuttin (Sep 6, 2019)

@ksturfguy I think they can in certain circumstances. Rather than humic acid and sea kelp which are fine, I'm more thinking about phytohormones. Auxins, gibberellins, and cytokinins. Coupled with amino acids and plant sugars that are able to go right into respiration and relieve stress. Available through the foliage for quick uptake.

These products probably belong on lawns cut at or below 0.500", it isn't necessary for heathy turf maintained at the HOC of a typical lawn.


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## zackroof (Oct 27, 2019)

What's interesting about the N-EXT stuff, at least the RGS, AIR8, D-Thatch, and Humic 12 is that they seem to all just be variations of the same thing, ie just varying amounts of humic with each have some kind of additional modifier to close the similarities. Further there are the random quantities. Does putting only 6% humic in RGS vs 8% in Air8 really make it a different product? And same for the others. Why not just put it all in one. I really don't think a little Potash in one, Molasses in the other, etc makes all that much of a diff.


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## dman (Nov 5, 2019)

Flushing money down the toilet may have the same results.


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## zackroof (Oct 27, 2019)

dman said:


> Flushing money down the toilet may have the same results.


May not be far off here.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

haha based on his numerous posts about it, @dman clearly not a fan.


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## bernstem (Jan 16, 2018)

Triacontanol is present in Alfalfa and is a stimulator of growth. In grass it pushes top growth. In roses it is well established to encourage new basal shoot breaks. If you want to experiment with Triacontanol, you can fertilize monthly with Alfalfa meal. You can also buy concentrated hormone, but there is virtually no data on appropriate dosing in turf.

If you want to add micronutrients and microflora to the lawn and don't want to go the route of things like the N-ext products, you should look into Compost and Compost tea. Data on Compost is there, but Compost Tea data is sparse. Most of the Compost Tea info is from vegetable and perennial gardening rather than lawns.

I don't particularly advocate for any of the above. I do use Humates, Kelp, and amino acids, but I buy them from Kelp4less. I think that in some instances it can help, but a lawn is a complicated enough system what it does for a particular lawn is very hard to predict and any effects are subtle and long term. None of the things discussed will hurt (other than budget and time) if used reasonably so I view them as a nice add on if you are looking for the "next great thing" or feel the need to do something. None of them are a replacement for proper watering, mowing, and macro-fertilizing.

I'll close by saying I am not really a believer in the idea of root cycling to significantly improve soil structure. If you accept that you will need tons of compost over several years to make an impact in soil structure, then you would need at least an equivalent amount of root turn over to do the same thing. We can use leaf clipping yield as a proxy for root cycling and easily see we are no where near the amount needed to significantly change soil structure.


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