Frequently asked questions about ZKsciences’s ZKBoost plant growth enhancer:
Q: What plants does ZKBoost boost growth and yields for?
A: ZKBoost can help any container grown plant that is grown in media that provides support to plant roots and that has sufficient drainage. Suitable media include:
- Potting soil blends based on peat moss, coco coir or similar fibrous compounds with water
- Loose coconut coir, peat moss, rockwool or similar fibrous media as created and supplimented by growers
- Commercial media blends such as Pro-Mix, Sunshine Mix and other loose growing media intended for container growing
Mineral dirt based soils and soils with time-delayed nutrition release will not work as well with ZKBoost as other potting soils and media listed above.
Q: Should I use more ZKBoost than directed for greater growth?
A: No. ZKBoost is carefully dosed and calibrated to provide optimal growth and yield enhancement at the application rate specified on / in the packaging. Adding more ZKBoost than what is recommended will not be any more effective, and at significantly higher application rates may have detrimental effects on plants. Like nutrient blends or watering, there can be too much of a good thing!
Q: Can I use less than what’s on the package?
A: Yes. ZKBoost will provide plant growth and yield enhancement in any application dose up to the recommended application rate. Your results will not likely be as dramatic as when using the recommended dosing – growth enhancement may be more modest at more modest application rates.
Q: Can I use ZKBoost outdoors?
A: Yes, ZKBoost may be used in container grown plants grown outdoors. However, ZKBoost works best with loose growing media rather than dense mineral dirt (please see above).
Q: Does ZKBoost affect dry back periods or percentages?
A: Since ZKBoost holds some moisture, there will be some impact on how you run dry back periods and moisture percentages for dry backs. You can think of ZKBoost very similarly to perlite in this respect:
- Media dry out will occur more slowly and over a longer period of time. If you’re conducting short dry backs, you may need to program these for longer periods of time than without ZKBoost or other moisture holders such as perlite.
- Media moisture probes won’t pick up moisture stored in the ZKBoost zeolite, so like when using perlite you may need to let your media moisture percentage run lower than usual to account for stored moisture.
(Wondering what dry back periods and percentages are? Check out https://blog.growlink.com/dry-back-percentages-explained for a good introduction)
Q: Does ZKBoost reduce or eliminate the need for wetting agents?
A: ZKBoost does not take the place of wetting agents, though it can potentially reduce the need for using these.
Wetting agents are used for dry soil and growing media both to make it easier for water to penetrate and diffuse into dry soil or media, and to counteract the waxy coating that plant roots can build up when soil or media is deprived of water for significant periods of time. This coating helps the plant preserve its stored moisture, but hinders plant moisture uptake once sufficient water is restored.
Adding ZKBoost to your growing media can help reduce low media moisture events, help with long-term moisture diffusion and reduce the need for plant roots to grow hydrophobic waxy coatings.
Q: Does ZKBoost take the place of humic acid in my growing media?
A: No – but ZKBoost may help boost the effectiveness of your humic acid.
Humic acid helps in nutrient transport between growing media and plant roots by holding nutrient cations for transport. ZKBoost boosts media cation exchange capacity (CEC) and cationic nutrient holding capacity, providing greater root / media nutrient exchange capability. Humic acid serves to boost the movement of nutrients between media (including supplements such as ZKBoost) and plant roots, and will also boost media CEC. So ZKBoost and humic acid will work very well together and can together be more effective than either on their own.
(Curious about how humic acid helps plant growth? Check out https://www.ecofarmingdaily.com/build-soil/humus/humic-acid/ for a good overview)
Q: Will ZKBoost interfere with the mycorrhizae in my growing media?
A: No. In fact, our hemp trials with greater than 40% yield improvements were performed in Pro-Mix HP/M with mycorrhizae. ZKBoost does not have any known anti-mycorrhizae properties.
Do you have a question we haven’t answered? Please let us know!