Seaweed / Kelp 101 ( Seaweed in Agriculture and Horticulture)

[glock23]

I love kelp. Just put in an order for 10.7 oz of Maxicrop powder. I notice growth spurts each and every time I use the kelp, and I even use it on seedlings. It makes them green up considerably in under 24 hours. This year, all I'll be using is fish emulsion, Indonesian bat guano and Maxicrop. I'll cut down and stop fish emulsion in middle to late flowering, then stop feeding for the last two weeks orso.

 

[sproutco]

Bump.

 

[anna]

has any one used growth max by grotek? I want to use it more often that it says to, but I 'm cutting down to 1/4 strength, and foliar feeding every couple of days. the plants are in flower now with a nft system, they get flora nova bloom 850ppm, I hope I get a reply, and I don't think this is the right place to ask this question!

 

[BUDDY BOY]

Nice one. Do you use kelp all the way through flowering? I was under the belief that if used throughout flowering that it could cause hermies.

 

[Guest]

The Latent Period:

The second effect of adding seaweed or seaweed meal, to a soil well populated with bacteria, has already been mentioned briefly. It is a more complex matter, and requires consideration in some detail. Basically, the addition of seaweed leads to a temporary diminution of nitrogen available for crops, then a considerable augmentation of the nitrogen total.

When seaweed, or indeed any undecomposed organic matter, is put into the soil, it is attacked by bacteria which break the material down into simpler units -- in a word, decompose it. To do this effectively the bacteria need nitrogen, and this they take from the first available source, the soil.
This means that after seaweed has been added to the soil, there is a period during which the amount of soil nitrogen available to plants is reduced. During this period seed germination, and the feeding and growth of plants, can be inhibited to greater or lesser degree.

How is this possible (microbes robbing soil of N) when seaweed is high in nitrogen itself?

 

[stonedeconomist]

if anyone is interested there is a product from south africa call Kelpak, i havn't had the chance to use it yet but it is supposed to be one of the best seaweed products that non-pot comercial hydroponics growers use to enhance their yields. grow shops don't sell it but comercial hydroponics suppliers do. it is supposed to be the most concentrated seaweed extract available and they make it using some pattened exraction process that is supposed to protect the vitamins and hormones from being damaged during extraction. this stuff isn't marketed to the weed crowd so their website has tons of straight up info, none of this secret recipe stuff. google kelpak and check it out. the one problem that buying this stuff might cuase is that only non-growshop hydroponics suppliers sell it so the box will probably say HYDROPONICS.

 

[stonedeconomist]

also even if your not interested in Kelpak their corporate website has a ton of easy to understand information about hoow seaweed extracts work.