Biobizz

Thirty-eight items in six roles. One dry base, Pre-Mix, sold as a 5 L tub weighing 2.5 kg. Three liquid base feeds: Bio-Grow, Bio-Bloom and Fish-Mix, in 0.5 and 1 L. Five stimulators: Root-Juice, Top-Max, Alg-A-Mic, Bio-Heaven and Acti-Vera, in 0.25, 0.5 and 1 L. Calmag in the same three sizes, the two pH regulators in 0.25 and 0.5 L, four Try-Packs, the Starters Pack, and the four-item Juju Royal line. Sizes run from 0.25 L to the 5 L tub, and no product in this category is sold in a size larger than that.

In pace and in margin for error. Mineral salts dissolve and are available immédiately, so a correction acts within a watering but an overdose acts just as fast. Organic feed has to be broken down first, which slows both the benefit and the damage. The dosing reflects it: the liquid base of this range works between 1 and 4 ml per litre of water, and the schedule follows the week of the grow rather than a meter reading. The one thing that does not change between the two approaches is pH, which sits at 6.2 to 6.5 either way.

Work it back from litres of solution rather than from price. A 1 L bottle of Bio-Grow at 1 to 4 ml per litre covers 250 to 1000 litres, which is a full grow for most home set-ups. Bio-Heaven is dosed higher, at 2 to 5 ml per litre across the whole cycle, so a 0.5 L bottle covers only 100 to 250 litres. The pH regulators sit at the other extreme: 0.1 ml per litre per step means a 0.25 L bottle covers 2500 litres per step. Same shelf, yields that differ by a factor of twenty.

Your source water decides. Hard water pushes the solution above the useful band and needs Bio-Down; acidic water needs Bio-Up. They are not equally strong, and this is the detail most pages get wrong: a 0.1 ml per litre step drops the pH by about 0.5 point but lifts it by only about 0.1 point, in soil, coco and hydro alike. Going up therefore takes five steps where coming down takes one. In most of Belgium and the surrounding region it is Bio-Down that gets used, and 250 ml lasts a long time.

Partly, and the manufacturer is specific about which products. Bio-Grow, Bio-Bloom, Top-Max, Root-Juice and Bio-Heaven are marked in the schedule as usable in soil, hydro and aeroponics. Alg-A-Mic and Acti-Vera appear only in the column for light substrate and coco, so the manufacturer does not state them for hydro. The pH regulators apply everywhere, since the step of 0.1 ml per litre is the same whatever the medium. Try-Pack Hydro exists as a set and combines Bio-Bloom, Bio-Heaven and Top-Max.

Certifications exist per product, not for the range, and the two we have verified do not match. Bio-Grow carries Control Union NOP Input, Control Union Organic EU Input, Clean Green, EnvirOganic and Ecocert. Pre-Mix carries Control Union NOP Input, Control Union Organic EU, EnvirOganic and Soil Association Approved, but neither Clean Green nor Ecocert. Of the 38 items, those two are the ones we have checked at source. For the rest we make no claim; what does hold across the whole line is that it contains no mineral salts.