Dried Seaweed Thread
- Thread starter KuLong
- Start date
NLNo5
Active Member
I'll go to the beach on occasion and grab some Sargassum and Padina, both brown algae. I'll bake and flake the algae and use for teas and top dressings. I'll also blend up a suspension of the fresh wet and mix it in with my soil mixes. Can't go wrong if you pick the right algae for the job. Oven baking preserves the mineral content but reduces the organic content. Freeze drying is best if you have access to a freeze dryer. Algae shakes from fresh wet sources are the bomb for adding to your soil recipes.
Brown's tend to be the best for P-K boost. Greens for N boost. Red's are between.
And the elemental, mineral, ionic content is throoo the roof. For example Sargassum has about 15% dry weight cationic content (K, Ca, Mg, Fe, Zn, Se, I, Mn). Eight percent is K. 30% complex carbohydrates. And about 30 different kinds of lipids. Amino acids are abundant also.
It's easy to learn about algae nutrient content and how to use algae as fertilizer. It's a topic many of our scientists are taking pretty seriously. Lot's of shit on Google and Wiki. Even some complete journal articles on nutrient contents for most of the popular horticultural algae.
I like my algae because there are not many better ways to supplement K organically.
Brown's tend to be the best for P-K boost. Greens for N boost. Red's are between.
And the elemental, mineral, ionic content is throoo the roof. For example Sargassum has about 15% dry weight cationic content (K, Ca, Mg, Fe, Zn, Se, I, Mn). Eight percent is K. 30% complex carbohydrates. And about 30 different kinds of lipids. Amino acids are abundant also.
It's easy to learn about algae nutrient content and how to use algae as fertilizer. It's a topic many of our scientists are taking pretty seriously. Lot's of shit on Google and Wiki. Even some complete journal articles on nutrient contents for most of the popular horticultural algae.
I like my algae because there are not many better ways to supplement K organically.
NLNo5
Active Member
Here's what I know.
1. Do some honest research and pick your algae. Google: algae, fertilizer, horticulture, nutrient analysis etc. I like to stick with the brown algae (Phaeophyceae) Padina, Sargassum, Fucus, Macrocystis, Laminaria are all good. I like Sargassum because it has 8% potassium. Macrocystis has 33% magnesium. Padina is well known for it's Calcium. I'm currently using both Padina and Sargassum in my grow. Greens and Reds are not always the best choice nutrient wise. Greens are especially low in bloom beneficial components, but good for veg.
2. Collect as much as you need. Ten pounds of seaweed will yield about a pound of dry.
3. Bring home and split the batch, reserve about half to be blended into shakes and the rest for baking.
4. Rinse everything by dunking 3 times quickly in fresh water to remove bs external salts
5. Blend the wet portion with a small amount of water (just enough to keep the weed spinning in the blender). Pour the blended portion into your choice of containers and freeze (fill zipper bags or make ice cubes or fill dixie cups etc and freeze for later). When you want some fresh seaweed just remove the frozen stuff and reconstitute in warm water. You could also fill container and store in the refrigerator but it will not keep as long. Blended fresh wet algae is not preserved/pasteurized like the stuff that you get over the counter (lack of preservation chemicals may be a good thing, but the home made shakes won't last as long).
6. Bake the rest of the kelp at 250F until crispy and crackly (takes some time and patience and it really smells good). If you accidentally burn some that wont hurt the mineral content but it will reduce the organic content (a little bio-char never hurts). Keep in mind if you want the precious organic materials (growth hormones) in the kelp don't dry it, instead blend it and freeze it. I suggest making both liquid suspension and solid flakes. If you have access to a freeze-drying machine then do it because freeze dried algae is the best way to go. Sun-dried algae looses some minerals, oven dried algae looses some organics, freeze dried algae only looses growth hormones. Wet algae retains everything. I use a Barbeque outside to dry my algae, which cooks it fast but I probably loose a little of the organic benefit (I like my algae for the mineral content mostly, any additional organics are a plus).
7. Put the dry baked weed in a dry blender and spin it down to a powder. Use a seasoning blender or such.
8. Freeze the powder to keep it fresh.
Keep in mind the powder is about 10 times more concentrated than the liquid suspension.
1. Use the seaweed ice cubes for making teas and foliar feeding.
2. Use the powder to boost your incubating organic soil mixes
3. Use the powder as a top dressing on your soil prior to watering
4. Use the powder in you teas also.
5. I like to combine the seaweed with fish emulsion and molasses in my teas.
Basic tea instructions: 1tps each, seaweed powder, fish emulsion, molasses and incubate for 24 hours at 85F for 24 within 2L bottle with 1L water and a bubbler stone. From this concentrate make a 1/20 dilution using your feed water. Feed with the 1/20 dilution. You can replace the 1tsp powder with fresh blended algae by adding 3 tablespoons of wet blended algae to the above recipe.
Feed the plants once a week just prior to their regular watering.
You can't really go wrong with these instructions. You'll never have a CaMg deficiency if you feed with a decent algae.
I'm a soil grower so I wouldn't know how to adjust these instruction for hp/dwc. But anyone on hp/dwc should be able to figure out the dosage.
My suspicion is that MOST of the products we buy in the bottles at the store has been heavily processed and a lot of the minor beneficial components are lost in the processing. There are probably some good products out there anyhow.
Any questions send a PM.
elduece
Active Member
I like to mention that kelp meal can be used in making fungal teas 5 days ahead before starting a compost tea batch. What I do is for every 3-5 gallons of tea, I thoroughly mix togeterh 2 cups of compost, 1 ounce of dried baby oatmeal(fungal food), 1 ounce of rock phosphate and quarter cup of kelp meal(fungal food and surface). Get the mix wet so only a few drops of water drips. Place the container in a dark warm area, covered for five days until it gets really, really fuzzy on the compost surface. Then brew your regular compost tea until it's ready then mix in the fungal compost into the strainer in the stew. There you have it, real fungal tea to be used after 21 days into flowering. Don't use a impeller water pump with this type of tea. This stuff really brings truly best out of all my plants whether it's in supersoil or coco coir/veganics.
