GreenNinja, on Sep 4 2009, 12:48 PM, said:
PlantMagic - thanks for the schedule, but to be honest I think you guys need to work harder on the positioning of your products in the marketplace (i.e. fire your marketing guy - the agency work was great but you've grown beyond selection of a website and branding!).
I'm just telling it the way I see it, so please don't take this as trolling or being overly critical - and this is just my view, but these are the issues:
Everyone has there own opinions, I am ALWAYS open to constructive criticism, I tell all of our retailers who stock the product that if there is anything they would like for me to do then I am more than willing, if it is within my means, to help if it means their clients are more happy, so no offence taken.
This is however waaay off topic and really should have been posted as a seperate thread, but I will answer it here anyway.
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1) The Plant Magic system for anything other than soil doesn't seem to be very consistent/interoperable. For example, grow and bloom ratios need to be adjusted to take account of the humic acids (or fulvics?) if using your additives. Secondly, there appears to be mass confusion about how and when to use which additives. These additives don't appear on the grow schedule, there is no nute calc and so who is to know?
The humates (boost) is geared mainly for the soil / compost users hence why they do not appear on the schedules for the hydro or coco users, so a bit confused as to what you're getting at here? These can however be applied as a foliar no matter what method of growing.
Just so you know, humics do not necessarily mean that you have to reduce the amount of nutrients you are using, what it does mean is that these become more readily available to the plant, this aids to speed up plant growth amongst many other things that I won't go in to right now.
Also, if we were to add every single additive on the grow schedules then I would feel it would deter people from using our range. Over the years we have all seen companies punting products and saying it is a "must have" item and essential to all growing. This is NOT the image we at Plant Magic would like to portray, if someone wants to just use a grow, bloom and a pk boost then so be it. If all and sundry was on the grow schedule it would appear to be a must have item and the price mounts up. Additives are NOT a must have, may be we are too honest for our own good?
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2) Your website is a one page brochureware, which is out of date and doesn't give the user/customer and additional information or help. It doesn't give any more info that you can find at Greens or a retailer (or the back of the bottle). I picked up a flyer with your forthcoming Rockdust products on the back of it but the website says nothing.
Yes our website is pretty pants I admit. It is a working progress, nothing happens over night and EVERYTHING comes at a price, it will be updated as and when finances allow. Please bare in mind we are far far from being a multi million pound outfit, so all promo stuff etc will trickle in slowly but defo surely!
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3) Your prices are EXPENSIVE...e.g. BioSilicon £30/litre, dilution 1.5ml/l compared to Liquid Silicon £10/litre 1ml/litre....or Root Stimulator £20/litre, dilution 5ml/l compared to Rhizotonic £30/litre, dilution 4 ml/litre (or even cheaper is H&G RootXL with a dilution ratio of 0.3/l). They might be the highest performance products on the market but who is going to spend all that money without a 'system' around it or in the very least more info? A lot of your market aren't inclined to spend money to then have to work it all out, especially when compared to competitors products.
Ok, I would just like to break this down......
Biosilicon is made specifically with the soil / compost user in mind. It is unlike Liquid Silicon so does not even compare i.e. Liquid Silicon is for hydro users which can not be used in soil / compost. This would be the same as using a hydroponic nutrient in compost and expecting the same results
You have answered the argument for the root stim yourself
Ours retails at £20, Rhizotonic is £30. This also appears on the grow schedules so where you get that people have to work it out for themselves is beyond me
Plus it does say on the bottle (if you do not have a grow schedule) on how much to use at what stage i.e. propagation, vegatative etc.
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I spent a decent amount of money on PM products yesterday, and I'm really willing to give them a try - but at the moment it just seems so much harder than existing systems. As for product placement in the marketplace, if you're aiming at experienced growers who know that you need to dial in a crop fair play....but for everyone else who don't want to faff about and just want a system to work, the product range offering as it stands needs some adjustment to make it more user friendly. I want to support a UK nute co, and I'm glad it's a high quality product designed for UK water, but right now it appears too expensive and too time consuming to warrant a significant amount of time or effort.
You contradict yourself here. Why did you go out and buy all the product range if you were unsure on how to use it and thought it to be too expensive?
I personally think you have blown this all out of proportion and making it difficult for yourself. It really is not that difficult. Yes the additives could get a bit complex but the important ones are on the relative schedules.
A PM or a seperate thread would have been better than tarnishing this thread.
naahsty, on Sep 4 2009, 04:03 PM, said:
I have been using a few of the Plant Magic products for the last month - granules, bio silicon, boost and Coco Grow Nutes. I like them all apart from the Nutes. I find them way, way too strong and not economical compared to others that I have used (Hesi and H&G). Just my opinion.
Hey naahsty,
Pleased you like the beneficial range
As for the nutrients, we like to add value for money. Have you been using a good ec pen or some sort of measuring equipment?
Yes, you may find our nutrients stronger than other co.s, this is because I am against dilluted down products. We like to offer value for money, just have a look at the colour of our part B compared to others that apparently have lots of humics and fulvics in. You will see that ours are alot darker, this is due to the amount of quality product being offered (NOT dilluted down). This actually makes it more economical as you have to use less nutrient so will go that bit further
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Nice work to you and the team by the way 
Posted 02 August 2009 - 10:46 AM
