This board is for growers who use BioBizz® products and for growers who want to understand organic feeding before they try it. BioBizz is an organic fertiliser brand founded in 1992 in Groningen, the Netherlands. Since 2015 it has been based in the Basque Country, Spain. It makes organic liquid feeds and bagged potting soils.
Organic feeds work differently from the mineral fertilisers used in most coco and hydroponic lines. This post explains three differences that change what you do day to day: how fast the feed acts, what the conductivity meter can tell you, and how much pH matters.
What is in the range
The range has two base feeds, three additives and two soils.
| Product | Type | What it is for |
|---|---|---|
| Bio-Grow | Base liquid feed | Main feed during the vegetative stage, the leaf-and-stem growth phase before flowering; the schedule keeps it going in flowering too |
| Bio-Bloom | Base liquid feed | Main feed during flowering |
| Top-Max | Additive | Flowering stimulant, used throughout flowering |
| Root-Juice | Additive | Root stimulant made from humic acid and seaweed, used from the start, mainly in the first weeks |
| Fish-Mix | Additive | Growth feed made from fish emulsion and sugar-beet extract; also feeds soil life. Used in veg in place of Bio-Grow |
| All-Mix | Bagged soil | Heavily pre-fertilised soil; feeds plants for about the first two weeks without added feed |
| Light-Mix | Bagged soil | Lightly fertilised soil for seedlings, young plants and cuttings; you control feeding yourself |
The manufacturer’s feeding schedule gives doses for All-Mix, and for Light-Mix or Coco-Mix. The doses assume you use one of these BioBizz substrates.
Before your first run, download the manufacturer’s official feeding schedule. That way your doses start from the maker’s own numbers, not from memory or second-hand advice.
Translator’s note: we could not confirm which BioBizz liquids and soils are currently imported into Thailand or registered as fertilisers. Ask your Thai supplier which products are actually in stock and registered. Fertilisers in Thailand fall under the Fertilizer Act B.E. 2518 (1975), amended by the Fertilizer Act (No. 2) B.E. 2550 (2007). The topic Verifying a Fertiliser Is Legally in Thailand shows how to check a product’s registration and label.
Translator’s note: if you cannot get either soil, ask below which local soil or peat mix other growers use with these liquids. Test that combination on a few plants first. A small trial shows how your soil reacts before you risk a whole crop.
Organic feed feeds the soil first, then the plant
Most bottled hydroponic and coco nutrients are mineral salts. They are already dissolved in a form the root can take up straight away. An organic feed is different: the root cannot use it as it comes out of the bottle.
The bacteria and fungi in the soil have to break the organic feed down first. As they do, they release nutrients in a form the root can absorb. This process is called mineralisation. It takes days, not hours.
Three things set the speed of mineralisation:
- Temperature of the soil.
- Moisture, meaning how wet the soil is.
- How much life the growing medium holds. That means how much soil biology (microbes and fungi) is active in it.
Because of this delay, an organic grow recovers slowly from a nutrient deficiency. A heavier dose rarely fixes the problem faster. The extra feed still has to wait for the same microbes to break it down.
When you see a deficiency, correct it once at the dose in the schedule. Write down the date and the dose. Then wait 5–7 days and watch the new leaves before you add more. New growth shows whether the correction worked. Leaves that were already damaged often stay marked, so do not judge by them.
Translator’s note: much of Thailand and Southeast Asia runs at 30–35 °C, and pots stay wet for days in the rainy season. Warm, moist soil generally makes microbes more active, so feed may be released faster than you expect. Waterlogged soil loses its air, though, and roots and many useful microbes need oxygen. Pots in strong sun can also dry out fast, and dry soil slows microbes down too.
Translator’s note: so the same dose can act differently in the hot dry months and in the rainy season. For each run, record the room or outdoor temperature range and how many days the soil stays wet after watering. Compare those notes with how the plants respond, and you will learn how fast feed is released in your own conditions. In the rainy season, water only when the pot feels light, and raise pots off the ground so they drain. This keeps air in the soil.
Why the conductivity meter tells you less in an organic pot
EC (electrical conductivity) is a reading of how much dissolved salt is in the water. With a mineral feed, the dissolved salts are the food, so the reading follows the amount of feed.
In an organic pot, much of the nitrogen is still locked up in organic matter. It has not dissolved yet, so the meter cannot see it. A low EC reading therefore does not always mean the plant is hungry.
Judge feeding by the plant first: the colour of new leaves and the speed of growth. Use EC as a second check. If you measure runoff, the water that drains out of the bottom of the pot, compare your readings with each other over several weeks. Do not compare them with targets from a mineral feed chart. If the runoff number keeps rising, salts may be building up in the soil. The topic Troubleshooting Living Soil explains what to do next.
Why pH matters less in a living peat soil
pH measures how acidic or alkaline the water or soil is. Coco and hydroponic systems have little ability to hold their own pH. So the pH of the solution you pour in directly controls what the roots get.
A living soil based on peat (partly decomposed moss) behaves differently. Peat is the main ingredient of many potting soils, including the standard All-Mix and Light-Mix. BioBizz also sells peat-free versions of both, so check the bag. A living peat soil buffers itself, which means it resists changes in pH. A watering can that is slightly off target has little effect on the root zone.
You do not need to adjust the pH of every feed to the last decimal. This only holds for living soil. If you move to coco or hydroponics, careful pH control matters again.
Translator’s note: tap water, well water and rainwater vary a lot from place to place in Thailand and Southeast Asia. Measure the pH and EC of your own water source once before your first run. If your water is far from normal, you will find out before you blame the feed. The topic Irrigation Water for Living Soil covers what to look for.
What this board needs from you
This board has no reference articles yet. What it needs first are grow reports and questions from growers who use these products.
Post them below this topic. A useful report includes:
- the soil you used (All-Mix, Light-Mix or another mix),
- which products you used, at what doses and in which weeks,
- whether you grew indoors, in a greenhouse or outdoors, and the temperature range,
- how often you watered and how long the soil stayed wet,
- what you saw on the plants, and on which dates.
With these details, other growers can compare your results with their own conditions. For a full run from seed to harvest, you can also keep a diary in Grow Diaries.
Related topics on the forum
- Organic vs Mineral Nutrients, Living Soil and No-Till, in the Fertilizers board (linked above under “living soil”).
- Mycorrhizae, Trichoderma, Bacillus: the Root Microbiome Arsenal, in General Nutrients Q&A (linked above under “soil biology”).
- BioBizz: An Organic Line for Soil, and How Its Logic Differs From a Mineral Programme.