Botanicare and Bloom
Botanicare on the left, Bloom on the right, matched on the job each bottle does. Their Expert Recipe already sets the base and add-ons week by week. Here’s what’s in it, and what isn’t.
Last checked 5 November 2026 · Public information only
This Fit Report is a summary of publicly available information about Botanicare and its products, taken from their own website, labels and published material as of 5 November 2026. We’ve linked each source so you can check it yourself. Rates are as printed on each company’s own pages; we don’t show prices. It isn’t affiliated with, endorsed by or approved by Botanicare, and product names belong to their owners. Products, rates and claims change, so please confirm current details with the manufacturer before making any decision. Spotted something out of date? Email nathan@bloomyellowbottles.com and we’ll correct it.
Their Expert Recipe, plus the bits it leaves out.
Botanicare’s Expert Recipe runs Pure Blend Pro with Rhizo Blast, Liquid Karma, Cal-Mag Plus, Silica Blast, Sweet and Hydroplex, week by week. Their product list has no humic product, no fish input and nothing in the last two weeks except Clearex. Humate, Seafuel and Final fill those, and they go in the same tank.
- Stays as is: Pure Blend Pro or Organicare, Hydroguard, Clearex, CocoPro and the Power Cloner.
- Both have one: cal-mag, silica, a root product, a PK boost and a bloom add-on.
- Not on their list: humic acid, a fish input, sea minerals, and a step for mid veg, the flip and the finish.
Where each bottle sits in the cycle
Botanicare’s timing in grey, Bloom’s in yellow, across shared stages of the grow.
| Stage | Root | Veg | Flip | 3–4 | 5+ | Last 2 | Flush |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Botanicare, per their pages | |||||||
| Pure Blend® Pro Grow | |||||||
| Pure Blend® Pro Bloom | |||||||
| Rhizo Blast® | |||||||
| Liquid Karma® | |||||||
| Cal-Mag Plus™ (Botanicare) | |||||||
| Silica Blast™ (Botanicare) | |||||||
| Sweet® | |||||||
| Hydroplex® | |||||||
| Hydroguard® | |||||||
| Clearex® (pre-harvest) | |||||||
| Bloom, per Bloom’s weekly feed charts | |||||||
| Roots | |||||||
| Pre | |||||||
| Ultra | |||||||
| Phat (weeks 3 and 4) | |||||||
| Ooze (wk 5 to flush) | |||||||
| Final (with Ooze) | |||||||
| Seafuel | |||||||
| Seaweed · Humate · Sea Minerals | |||||||
| SWTNR | |||||||
| Cal-Mag | |||||||
| Groigen (foliar, as needed) | |||||||
| Florigen (foliar, as needed) | |||||||
| PK (as needed) | |||||||
| Silica | |||||||
From Botanicare’s Pure Blend Pro feed chart (Expert Recipe): seedling week, three veg weeks, then eight bloom weeks. Fitting their bloom weeks to these columns is our read: weeks 1–2 at the flip, 3–4 next, 5–6 in 5+, 7–8 in the last two. Pale means it stops partway through that stage. Hydroguard and Clearex timing come from their product pages. Bloom’s bars follow its weekly feed charts; pale Bloom bars are as-needed bottles.
Why each one fits
What the Bloom product does, the research behind that kind of input, and where it sits in a program that already runs.
Humic acid and sea minerals
What it does. Humate is 10% humic acid at 2.5 ml/L weekly, seedling through flush. Sea Minerals is trace minerals from sea water at 0.13 ml/L weekly, veg to bloom.
A major review links humic substances to more lateral roots and to root and shoot changes tied to nutrient uptake. It doesn’t test either company’s products.
How it stacks. Small weekly doses on top of Pure Blend Pro, or watered in over Organicare in soil (our read).
A fish and kelp tonic
What it does. Seafuel is tuna and kelp at 1 ml/L weekly, clone through late flower, tapering at the flush.
A 2023 review of protein hydrolysates, the group fish inputs belong to, links them to nutrient uptake and assimilation. The authors say the mechanisms are still being worked out, and it doesn’t test any product.
How it stacks. Rhizo Blast already lists seaweed and stops after flower week 3, per its page. Seafuel adds the fish side and carries on later (our read).
Mid veg, the flip and the finish
What it does. Pre in veg weeks 2–3, Ultra in flower weeks 1–2, Final for the last two weeks including the flush, alongside Ooze. 1 ml/L each, weekly. These are timing tools, so there’s no study cited for them here.
How it stacks. Their Expert Recipe ends with Clearex on its own in the last 3–7 days. Our read: run Final into the ripening weeks and decide how far it goes before the Clearex days.
Their line, Bloom’s fit at a glance
Matched on job, not NPK. Botanicare prints rates in ml per US gallon, mostly with every watering. Bloom prints ml per litre on a weekly feed chart. Tap a tag to filter.
Keep your base. Bloom’s bases are two-part, and its additives sit on top of yours.
A granular base stays as it is. Bloom’s liquids can be watered in over it.
Nothing in Bloom’s range does this job, so it stays in the tank.
Keep it for the flush. Plan Final and Ooze around those days.
Bloom makes no growing media or hardware.
Same job. Theirs lists iron; Bloom’s lists iron and zinc. Pick one.
Same job, and their recipe tips put it in the tank first too. Run one.
Both are root products with different listed inputs. Roots carries on into flower.
Both run as an all-cycle tonic (our read). Their page doesn’t list the ingredients.
Both push P and K in mid flower. Plan the total, or pick one.
Both are bloom-stage add-ons for the sweet side of the crop (our read). Different listed inputs.
10% humic acid, plus trace minerals from sea water, seedling through flush.
Tuna and kelp, clone through late flower, tapering at the flush.
Mid veg, the flip, and the last two weeks alongside Ooze.
Put it side by side
Where both ranges have a product for the same job, the fair answer is a test in your own room. Here’s what to watch and how to keep it fair.
Keeping it fair
- Same plants. Clones off the same mother, same cultivar, same age.
- Same room. Same light, climate, media, pot size and watering.
- Same base. Keep the base feed and EC the same on both sides.
- One change. Change only the product being tested, and write down what you see each week.
Where the programs complement each other
Humic in a recipe that has none
Botanicare’s list shows no humic product. Humate at 2.5 ml/L weekly runs over Pure Blend Pro or Organicare from seedling to flush, and doesn’t touch their recipe.
Final in the ripening weeks
Their Expert Recipe tapers Liquid Karma, Silica Blast, Sweet and Hydroplex out by bloom week 8, then Clearex. Final runs the last two weeks at 1 ml/L weekly, so it lines up with that stretch (our read).
Root support after Rhizo Blast stops
Rhizo Blast’s page runs it to flower week 3. Roots at 0.5 ml/L weekly carries on until the last 1–2 weeks, so a grower could pick it up from week 4 (our read).
Already covered
- Cal-mag and silica. Cal-Mag Plus and Silica Blast are both in the Expert Recipe.
- Roots. Rhizo Blast runs to flower week 3; Hydroguard runs the whole cycle.
- Mid flower PK. Hydroplex covers bloom weeks 3–7.
- Bloom add-on and tonic. Sweet through bloom, Liquid Karma most of the cycle.
Stays exactly as is
- Pure Blend Pro. Your base. Bloom’s additives sit on top.
- Organicare. Granular base; Bloom has no dry products.
- Hydroguard. Bloom has no microbial inoculant.
- Clearex. Bloom has no flush or clearing solution.
- CocoPro, ReadyGro, Power Cloner and benching. Media and hardware stay as they are.
Background, science and sources
Who Botanicare are
Botanicare’s About page tells the story: founder Treg Bradley opened a hydro store called Sea of Green in Tempe, Arizona, in 1992 and made the first Pure Blend supplement for his customers. By 1996 there were three stores; he sold them, incorporated American Agritech in Tempe and launched the Botanicare line. Their Organicare page says that line was developed by Hawthorne’s R&D team.
The range covers one-part water-soluble bases (Pure Blend Pro), granular organic bases (Organicare), supplements, root products, coco and potting mixes, the Power Cloner, and trays, reservoirs and benching. The About page says the products sell through more than 1,500 independent retail stores in the US and Canada.
Sources: About · All products · Organicare
What each company brings
Botanicare: One-part water-soluble and granular bases, cal-mag, silica, root and bloom supplements, a Bacillus inoculant, a vitamin B1 product, a flush solution, coco media, a cloner, grow-room benching and trays, and week-by-week feed recipes.
Bloom: one additive for each stage of the crop, seaweed, humic and sea mineral inputs, foliar sprays, and weekly feed charts for soil, coco and hydro. Rates and timing are on every product page.
Cropping Solutions, the other brand under Agricultural Organics, isn’t part of this report.
Dose basis: how each side counts
Botanicare prints rates in ml per US gallon, mostly with every watering, and gives week-by-week recipes on its feed chart. Silica Blast in hydro goes in per reservoir every 5–7 days. Bloom prints ml per litre on a weekly feed chart.
At 3.785 L to the gallon: Cal-Mag Plus at 5 ml/gal is about 1.32 ml/L, Rhizo Blast and Hydroguard at 2 ml/gal about 0.53 ml/L, Liquid Karma at 5–10 ml/gal about 1.3–2.6 ml/L, Hydroplex at 2–5 ml/gal about 0.53–1.32 ml/L, and Sweet at 8 ml/gal about 2.1 ml/L. Their rates are per watering and Bloom’s sit on a weekly chart, so the same number isn’t the same weekly amount.
Mix calculator
Rates as printed on each company’s page (1 US gallon is 3.785 L). Bloom’s rates are per litre of nutrient solution, dosed weekly per its feed charts. Pick a product and your tank size.
Calcium and magnesium in cannabisWell supported
Llewellyn and colleagues (2023) grew cannabis hydroponically with single nutrients left out. Magnesium-short plants showed lower-leaf symptoms from week four and about 30% less flower yield; calcium-short plants lost biomass and yield too.
Why it matters here: both ranges sell a cal-mag for the same job, and Botanicare’s charts call for it with RO water and coco. The trial shows why the job matters, not which bottle to use.
SiliconEmerging
Deshmukh, Ma and Bélanger (2017) say silicon is widely reported to help plants with stress, but there’s no conclusive evidence on exactly how. Most work so far is in rice and other grasses.
Why it matters here: Silica Blast and Bloom Silica do the same job and both go in the tank first. One silica is enough (our read).
Deshmukh et al. (2017), Frontiers in Plant Science (editorial)
Potassium through bloomWell supported
Hasanuzzaman and colleagues (2018) review potassium’s roles: enzyme activation, carbohydrate metabolism, stomatal control, and tolerance to drought, salt and heat.
Why it matters here: Hydroplex and Bloom’s Phat and PK all sit in mid flower. Same nutrient, different timing, so a grower running more than one plans the total across bloom.
Sources, all viewed 5 November 2026
Botanicare: About · All products · Pure Blend Pro · Organicare · Cal-Mag Plus · Silica Blast · Rhizo Blast · Liquid Karma · Hydroplex · Sweet · Hydroguard · Clearex · Vitamino · Power Cloner · Pure Blend Pro feed chart (PDF)
Bloom: Roots · Pre · Ultra · Phat · Ooze · Final · Seafuel · Seaweed · SWTNR · Humate · Cal-Mag · Groigen · Florigen · Sea Minerals · PK · Euro · Grow · Flower · Silica · OrganiShield
Last checked 5 November 2026. Public information only. Not affiliated with, endorsed by or approved by Botanicare; product names belong to their owners. Please confirm current details with the manufacturer. Corrections: nathan@bloomyellowbottles.com. All Fit Reports