Not sure if many people here use seaweed as a fertiliser, I it's for outdoor grows mainly but as an organic fertliser its a great thing to add to plants. The best way to use it is in its dry form as a mulch or as a foliage spray in liquid form. This liquid form is very easy to make so I thought I'd share it, it takes a bit of time but once you're done, you're cruising. Go down the beach and collect a ton of seaweed, check your local laws you don't wanna get busted for raiding the beach, although I'm sure not many of us care about that here. Collect as much as you think you can fit into whatever container you decide to use. You can use any size container, just remember, the bigger the container, the more fertiliser you will have. Take your seaweed home and give it a rinse to remove excess salt. Next fill your container 2/3 of the way full with water. Tap water is fine since its going to be left sitting for a while anyway. Next grab your seaweed and shove as much in the container as you can without the water overflowing. Next simply cover your container and let mother nature take care of the rest. Giving it a stir once in a while will help spread nutrients into the water evenly but really as long as you give it a stir before you decide to use it, you'll be fine. Leave it for a minimum of three weeks and then it's good to go. Just remember, the longer you leave it the stronger your fertliser will be. Seaweed is high in Potassium and is also used as an organic pesticide so use a spray bottle and give the leaves a misting every few days in the flowering cycle if your plants need the extra potassium boost.
good post bro. hey do you dilute your seaweed emulsion? if so what do you dilute it at? and do you ever use it in teas?
i don't bother diluting my homemade seaweed tea, seaweed is fairly gentle so I'm not worried about it As for bottled seaweed emulsion, well I'd probably follow the instructions on the bottle to 3/4 strength or so for mature plants.
i live along the coast so this is great considering there's more seaweed then i would know what to do with ive used maxicrop's liquid seaweed and had great results with it in my tea's. i reccommend it highly considering the potash in it is usefull in all stages of plant development.
Here's another idea for using seaweed that you've gathered along the coast. Rinse, rinse, rinse and then rinse again. Lay the strands of kelp out to dry out completely and like any other plant it will shrink in size big time. Once it's completely dried out grind it up and viola! you've got kelp meal. To make a kelp meal tea - add 1/4 cup to 5 gallons of water and aerate for 24-36 hours. Apply as a soil soak and as a foliar spray. Kelp products contain specific agents which inhibit spider mite eggs from hatching, helps to maintain healthy aerobic microbe levels on your branches & leaves as well as the microherd in your soil. Good stuff - I wouldn't grow any plant without using some form of seaweed/kelp products. HTH LD
How long does it take to dry out? I've also heard of people rinsing well and then chopping up to bury when they till their garden. They'll bury down the rows and then sow next to where the kelp was buried.
I 'almost' have a doctorate degree in kelp products (just kidding!!!) and can discuss several products in depth such as............ 1. ASL Seaweed Extract (human food-grade AND organic) - out of Nova Scotia 2. Acadian Seaplants Kelp Meal - out of Nova Scotia 3. KELPGROW - out of Vancouver, B.C. 4. KELPAK - out of South Africa 5. Eco-Nereo Kelp Liquid - the company is based in Northern California but the production/processing is here in Oregon 6. Fossilized Sea Kelp (Heh! - no endorsement here. Trust me.) 7. Maxicrop (at the bottom for a specific and important reason) If anyone is interested that is............. Peace LD
pinkpipe It takes several weeks to completely dry out kelp from the ocean. That would also depend on what the ambient temperatures are in the drying chamber/whatever. You can certainly use fresh kelp/seaweed (rinsed, rinsed, rinsed and rinsed again) in your raised beds but I wouldn't necessarily recommend it in a container garden situation. Fresh kelp has been used as a 'fertilizer' (I can't believe I typed that word) for centuries with some of the earliest writings dating back over 3,500 years out of China and India. Japan was/is also a big user of kelp for both agriculture as well as in their cuisine. Same deal with the Korean farmers - longtime users of kelp as a way to vastly increase food production. HTH LD EDIT: I also highly recommend the use of kelp/seaweed products in thermic compost piles as well as in worm bins.
BTW - for the majority of folks who don't live close enough to the ocean you have a viable option - algae. Find a lake, pond, river, stream, etc. that you have confidence in with regard to the water purity (pretty important, IMHO) - simply gather up as much algae that you can and let it dry out. You'll only need about 1/2-3/4 of the amount of kelp meal that you might be considering using. There are number of reasons and most of them are fairly esoteric but basically fresh water sources contain high levels of PNSB (Purple Non-Sulphur Bacteria) which is said to increase a plant's ability to absorb and more importantly use light - HID, sunshine, etc. If using algae make sure that you apply these teas to the leaves and branches of your plants as the PNSB culture will give a strong impulse to the plant to maximize your light's potential. That's my experience but YMMV Peace LD
I'm pretty sure I saw this from you somewhere else but this is the info I was looking for. I'm thinking your thinking "confidence" means lack of "cides" (pest, miti, etc.) and "enes" (carbon based run off from roads) and fertilizers? I'm in agri-world and I'm thinking that even these fast moving fresh water sources around here shouldn't be consumed by humans. It worries me to introduce it and it's algae to my garden. Should I be that concerned you think? Thanks.
Yep - that was what I was talking about - chemical salts from inorganic fertilizers, pesticides, etc. If your local water sources are of concern I have another suggestion for getting kelp into your growing projects assuming that sourcing kelp meal is difficult or too expensive. There is a kelp extract from a company based in South Africa called KELPAK which is derived from Ecklonia Maxima which is a different kelp variety that's used in MaxiCrop, Acadian Seaplants Ltd. which is the Ascophyllum nodosum variety. That isn't necessarily a good or a bad thing. It's just that the Ascophyllum nodosum variety has been studied for over 90 years. A book written by the founder of MaxiCrop, i.e. William A. Stephenson titled Seaweed in Agriculture and Horticulture is a good book to find, keep and read. Here's an extract from that book. Back to KELPAK - this company uses a mechanical process to extract the good stuff in the kelp resulting in a clear liquid. This product is used by the makers of hydroponic nutrients in some of their products because since KELPAK is clear it doesn't interfere with their color schemes </snerk> At any rate I've done quite a bit of testing this product and I can recommend it without any hesitation. A company out of Colorado Springs, Hydro-Gardens which sells the base ingredients for the DIY crowd carries KELPAK - here The rate of usage is 1:500 dilution (1.5 tsp per gallon) so it goes a long way. If you do buy this product make sure that you store it in a dark place. It will grow 'algae' which doesn't affect the quality (according to the manufacturer) but some folks might get concerned. The other option is to purchase Acadian Seaplant Extract (fairly difficult to source in many areas of the country but you don't mind doing a mail-order deal I can give you a couple of sources in Oregon). This company is the only processor of kelp in North America and they're out of Nova Scotia. All of the 'good kelp meal' is from this plant. They also manufacture an extract that is a dry powder. They use the same variety of kelp that MaxiCrop uses but the extraction process is completely different. Acadian Seaplants uses a 'cold extraction process' which maintains high microbial levels. It runs 'around' $14.00 per lb. The rate of usage is 1.5 tsp. per gallon so it also goes a long, long way. A lb. should last you a year or more. HTH LD
LD, how'd you get to be so smart man? I've been reading briefly on these products and their msds sheets. Should there be any overt concern about the heavy metals content in some of these sea kelp products? A couple of them had measured amounts of arsenic. Yek! And just curious if it would be a wise choice to grind up the Amazing Organic Fertilizer Spikes (on the kelpak website) and use as a one-mix-all-soirée soil amendment. Thanks.
The 'idiot savant' deal from my perspective and probably little else. Just a thought - on a 'road trip' through Southern Asia (circa 1972) I wrote down some thoughts on the road to find out................. I was pretty 'high' on some Nepalese temple hashish as I recall. That or some "chokin' red" (red Lebanese bricks) - who knows!! LMAO LD