Seaweed Extract and Liquid Seaweed Fertilizers for Your Garden

Seaweed extract is soil amendment for organic gardeners. It is often used as either a powder for use directly in the soil, or more commonly it is used in a liquid form for application during the growing season.

When added to the soil, the powdered form of seaweed extract (seaweed meal) has a number of benefits. Just directly as a soil conditioner, it improves the ability of the soil to hold water and improve the structure of the soil. This of course requires a bulk amount of seaweed, and is often reserved for a major reconditioning of the soil.

Seaweed powder or seaweed meal is also used in smaller amounts, usually to make a solution of seaweed power. It’s also very common to find a pre-made solution of seaweed extract. The solution is often used to improve germination, and often hard to germinate seeds are soaked in solution of seaweed and water. Another common use is as a rooting solution, where cuttings from plants that you want to transplant are soaked in a seaweed solution before planting in the soil.

The other major use is as a foliar feeding solution. Seaweed has more than 70 minerals, vitamins, and enzymes. In addition it is commonly believed to improve overall plant hardiness, and improve tolerance to frosts and drought, and improves pest resistance. Just as a fertilizer alone, the NPK analysis is not too impressive as it is typically about 1-0-4. But it is used primarily for its other benefits. It can be used on plants indoors as well as outdoors.

Liquid Seaweed- Quart $15.95 Store: Yardiac.com Liquid Seaweed- Pint $9.95 Store: Yardiac.com Liquid Seaweed-Gallon $39.95 Store: Yardiac.com Hydrolized Fish and Seaweed Gal Model FS191 $39.15 Store: UnbeatableSale, Inc. Hydrolized Fish and Seaweed Qt Model FS136 Pack of 12 $162.02 Store: UnbeatableSale, Inc. Neptunes Seaweed Pt Model SW118 Pack of 12 $105.06 Store: UnbeatableSale, Inc. Neptune S Harvest Fish Seaweed Blend Fertilizer Quart Pack Of 12 - FS136 $147.19 Store: UnbeatableSale, Inc.

Maxicrop is one of the major vendors for seaweed for the garden, and Safer has a few products as well. You will sometimes find it mixed with fish emulsions as a fertilizer solution, and with other organic pest controls such as insecticidal soap for overall pest control in the garden.

You can find wealth of knowledge on the specific micronutrients found and their benefits written up in an article by the folks at Journey to forever here.

http://www.journeytoforever.org/farm_library/seaweed.html