Canna - Terra Flores

Terra Flores is the bloom feed from the CANNA Terra line, following Terra Vega as soon as flower formation begins. What makes this feed interesting is not what is in it but why there is more in it than the plant takes up.

Soil binds nutrient ions, and the bottle counts on it

CANNA write it on their own product page: the soil's tendency to bind nutrient ions is compensated for by the preparation methods used for Terra Flores.

That is a remarkable sentence to put on your own label, and it explains something growers trip over. Potting soil is not passive. Clay particles and organic material in the soil carry charge and hold charged particles: potassium, calcium, magnesium, ammonium. Part of what you pour is held on the way and reaches the root later, or not at all.

It is precisely the same property that makes soil forgiving. The buffering capacity that keeps your pH steady and absorbs an overdose is the same capacity that holds part of your feed. You cannot have one without the other.

So a bloom feed for soil has to go over the top of that. What is in the bottle is not what the plant gets, but what is needed for the plant to get enough after the soil has taken its share.

Why you cannot compare these figures with a hydro feed

A practical consequence follows that is rarely written down anywhere. Put a bloom feed for soil beside a bloom feed for rockwool and compare the numbers, and you are comparing two things that do not measure the same quantity.

In an inert medium what you give is what the plant can get; nothing sits in between. In soil there is a substrate in between that intercepts part of it. So a higher number on a soil feed does not automatically mean a stronger feed, and a lower number on a hydro feed does not automatically mean a leaner one.

What can be compared is the EC you end up with in your watering can, and how your plant responds to it. CANNA give Terra Flores an EC of 0.9 to 1.6 mS in tap water, and add the arithmetic: that is the EC of the concentrate plus that of your tap water.

What it does not do

A feed that compensates for lock-up does not prevent lock-up. That difference is worth stating, because our own page previously claimed the second.

If your soil stays wet, your pH drifts far off, or salts accumulate because you never flush, the soil will lock nutrients up regardless and no bottle prevents it. The compensation in Terra Flores is about the normal, expected binding of healthy potting soil, not about a root zone that has seized up.

In use

You move from Terra Vega to Terra Flores as soon as flower formation begins. From then on you use Terra Flores for the whole flowering period.

Keep your feed water between 20 and 25 °C. Adjusting pH is, per CANNA, not immediately necessary on potting soil, because the soil absorbs it itself.

Store frost-free, closed and dark: UV light breaks down the chelates in the feed, and those keep the trace elements available for uptake.

Available sizes

Technical Specifications:

• Type: mineral base feed for the flowering phase, single component
• Manufacturer: CANNA, Terra line
• Substrate: potting soil, earth and peat mixes
• Stated property: compensated for the soil's tendency to bind nutrient ions
• EC in tap water: 0.9 to 1.6 mS, including the EC of your tap water
• Adjusting pH: per CANNA not immediately necessary on potting soil
• Water temperature: 20 to 25 °C
• Period: the whole flowering period, after Terra Vega
• Storage: frost-free, closed and dark

Frequently asked questions

Why is there more in it than the plant takes up?
Because soil binds part of the nutrient ions. CANNA state that Terra Flores is compensated for this.

Does this feed prevent lock-up?
No. It compensates for the normal binding of healthy potting soil; it will not fix a root zone that has seized up.

Can I compare the figures with a hydro feed?
Not directly. In soil a substrate sits in between and intercepts part of it; in an inert medium it does not.

When do I move on from Terra Vega?
As soon as flower formation begins.

Do I need to adjust my pH?
Per CANNA, not immediately on potting soil, because the soil buffers the pH itself.