Sea Crop

[ice minus]

I have a jug of this stuff I must've bought and totally forgot about, looks like very little has been used

I grow in soil

What should I be doing with this stuff?

How do I use it?

How do YOU use it?

Tell me all about it! is it good, bad, useful or not useful? I've already got it, so, might as well ask

 

[farmerfischer]

Never heard of it.. looks like an interesting product, maybe worth trying out..

 

[doublezero]

I would also be interested if someone ever tried a fertilizer based on sea salt.
I would try it but there are no such products available here. I found a company advertising for this product but no way to buy it. I assume they only sell big amounts but I will ask them one day.

It is called Sea-90.

DIY desalination of sea salt while keeping all the minerals is just not something I will dive into so I would prefer a finished product

 

[doublezero]

@ice minus
Have a look at this page. It may provide some information.

 

[xtsho]

Mainly used as a foliar. You can buy sea salt at the store and make your own for a fraction of the cost.

I use sea salt all the time. In fact I'll be using some later today to make JMS to apply to my cannabis plants and vegetable garden.

Sea salt is not the same as table salt which is sodium chloride. Sea salt is safe to use on plants.

Himalayan Salt For Gardening: The Ultimate Guide – TypeOst

https://agriculturalmagazine.com/the-benefits-of-using-himalayan-salt-for-plants-how-and-when-to-apply/

 

[doublezero]

Hey @xtsho,
thank you for posting the videos. I will do some testing in one of my grows for sure.

 

[ice minus]

I'm still looking for a way to incorporate it into my grow! I'm not huge on foliars unless I have to just because they're messy and inconvenient due to the location of my tent

What would happen if you watered with it repeatedly? Its so beautifully water soluble, it's a clear liquid that just quickly dissipates into water.

I'm guessing there's no way it's good enough to provide nutrition on its own?

Is there too much of something? Not enough?

Thanks for reviving this, I still have the full container

 

[Orange's Greenhouse]

Sea salt is not the same as table salt which is sodium chloride. Sea salt is safe to use on plants.

And sea salt is 75 % sodium chloride.

Neither sodium nor chloride is beneficial for most plants.

 

[Old Uncle Ben]

Seacrop has 95% of the NaCl removed. I've been using it in drinking water a long time. 3%Mg 0.02%B

How so?

Sounds like another high priced gimmick to me. They're a dime a dozen in this biz.

 

[Old Uncle Ben]

I'm still looking for a way to incorporate it into my grow!

Why?

Best foliar is Dyna-Gro foods. Leaves may be able to absorb nutrient salfs but unless root feeding is a big chore, not practical (like in my vineyard) foliar feeding is not the best choice.

UB

 

[G.O. Joe]

I've been using it in drinking water a long time.

Concentrated sea crud sounds delicious! How can anyone not recommend this? Made only from "pristine" ocean water - not that bad ocean stuff.

No "river crop" or "pond crop"? Like that would be so much worse.

 

[xtsho]

And sea salt is 75 % sodium chloride.

Neither sodium nor chloride is beneficial for most plants.

Sea water has been used for centuries. I don't use it but it's used in Korean Natural Farming with great results. You don't water with straight sea water. It's diluted and often used as a foliar spray.

I use sea salt when making JMS "Jadam Microbial solution" A couple potatoes, a small handful of sea salt, and some leaf mold. Let it sit a day and it's a frothing bucket of microbes obtained locally. None of the hassle that some go through making aerated compost tea.

But I do agree that Sea Crop is just an overpriced product targeted toward naive cannabis growers. A tablespoon of sea salt in a gallon of water and you have the same thing. You can get a pound of sea salt for $3.99 at any grocery store.

 

[Old Uncle Ben]

Sea water has been used for centuries. I don't use it but it's used in Korean Natural Farming with great results. You don't water with straight sea water. It's diluted and often used as a foliar spray.

I use sea salt when making JMS "Jadam Microbial solution" A couple potatoes, a small handful of sea salt, and some leaf mold. Let it sit a day and it's a frothing bucket of microbes obtained locally. None of the hassle that some go through making aerated compost tea.

But I do agree that Sea Crop is just an overpriced product targeted toward naive cannabis growers. A tablespoon of sea salt in a gallon of water and you have the same thing. You can get a pound of sea salt for $3.99 at any grocery store.

By the addition of such products is not the grower assuming there is a need for whatever they provide?

nah......

 

[G.O. Joe]

This product is sea minus the salt, very much not the same thing. Someone on/near the Pristine Ocean is evaporating some of it in air in troughs/pans/former swimming pools for sea salt to sell from the seashore, until nothing more crystallizes nicely, with the dregs sold as this value-added byproduct/waste disposal scheme.

 

[xtsho]

By the addition of such products is not the grower assuming there is a need for whatever they provide?

nah......

There is absolutely no need for those products at all. If someone thinks they need it then just mix some sea salt with water and you have the same thing. Himalayan pink salt can be used as well. It's not going to harm the plants but I do agree that it's not some magic potion.

JADAM and KNF are productive and proven methods for gardening and growing crops. Seawater is an element used by both methods. But you need to go all in and switch over. Just adding some overpriced solution that's basically a mixture of sea salt and water to a traditional grow is just wasting money.

I did JADAM gardening for several years with great results but seawater/sea salt was just a tiny part of the growing method. It wasn't magic or anything. And it was just a few foliar's throughout the growing season in addition to all of the other pieces.

It was a lot of work which is why I just tossed some Osmocote in the garden this year and called it a day. There is much more work using a method like JADAM than just tossing a few handfuls of timed release fertilizer into the garden and mixing it into the first 5-6 inches of soil. That's why I'm not growing that way this year. No complaints with the Osmocote. Everything is lush, green, and growing crazy.

 

[foomar]

Historically sea salt was used on depleted and overcropped soils at field scale to fix trace element deficiencies , the excess sodium was fine if used properly , but bad lockouts possible if overdone.

My grandfather used it to correct boron and molybdenum issues on a thin acid soil as a light dusting often with lime , from the pounds per acre as i remember it works out around 15 gram per square meter so not a lot.
Unless you have a very poor soil you won see much benefit apart from a Mg greening that epsom does better.

 

[xtsho]

Historically sea salt was used on depleted and overcropped soils at field scale to fix trace element deficiencies , the excess sodium was fine if used properly , but bad lockouts possible if overdone.

My grandfather used it to correct boron and molybdenum issues on a thin acid soil as a light dusting often with lime , from the pounds per acre as i remember it works out around 15 gram per square meter so not a lot.
Unless you have a very poor soil you won see much benefit apart from a Mg greening that epsom does better.

Seawater/salt has been used extensively for agriculture. They key is to use it properly and only when needed. There is no reason to use it when growing cannabis in containers.

 

[Orange's Greenhouse]

it's used in Korean Natural Farming with great results.

And yet korean population increased fivefold since the introduction of abundant nitrogen fertilizer a century ago. Sure it can be used in some situations. I also heard that salt stress can improve the taste of tomatoes but on a larger scale the salt content negates any potential benefit.

 

[Old Uncle Ben]

For the organic purists here, here's some stuff to play with. Comes from experiments of a commercial avocado grower friend from Florida.

 

[doublezero]

For me, the whole idea was to enrich my soil with minerals that in my imagination have been available naturally in the soil and may be beneficial.

Ferfilizers such as Sea Crop or Sea-90 get only the sodium chloride removed (as per description of the producers) and thus should provide a bigger portion of those >80 minerals as opposed to just reducing the sodium chloride content to an acceptable degree by reducing the amount of sea salt, which also reduces all other content. That is not to say "more is better" but more like "too little may not do".

As only around a dozen compounds (nutrients, minerals) are widely covered to be needed by plants I am asking myself if the plants actually would/could make use of those other >60 minerals.

Or is it like all those minerals are already present in all soils in trace amounts (some in homeopatic doses), which is sufficient?

Is this even something worth to look into or do plants not care about most of the compounds?

Time will tell I guess, as research is progressing and tries to untangle the complexity of interrelations.


What do you think?

@Old Uncle Ben
Not a dogmatic organic purist here but for me it started with organics and I got attracted by the theory that everything is naturally available, just not in the proper proportions anymore. Well, this is the reason we (have to) use fertilizers, right?

"One fits all" in terms of having a soil that serves all purposes pretty much would be a perfect condition. Being perfect is an illusion imho but I want to go down this road and see where it gets my plants. What I do not want is to constantly (having to) provide my plants with several amendments. Maybe this is just wishful thinking ...