There is an organic store down at Virginia not far from here.

i have just bought ‘nutri-kelp’ – soluble seawwed powder – as a replacement for my ‘maxicrop’ which will run out soon.
i’m wondering if anyone has used it or heard reports about it.

i’m also wondering about these statements from the supplier -

‘Christopher Columbus identified four crops which he considered indispensible for human survival and well-being – grapes, olives, wheat and Aloe Vera.’
‘Aloe Vera is a powerful botanic activator and plant growth promotant that increases phytoalexin production and improves overall plant health……’

should i be composting my aloe vera??

justin said:

There is an organic store down at Virginia not far from here.

i have just bought ‘nutri-kelp’ – soluble seawwed powder – as a replacement for my ‘maxicrop’ which will run out soon.
i’m wondering if anyone has used it or heard reports about it.

i’m also wondering about these statements from the supplier -

‘Christopher Columbus identified four crops which he considered indispensible for human survival and well-being – grapes, olives, wheat and Aloe Vera.’
‘Aloe Vera is a powerful botanic activator and plant growth promotant that increases phytoalexin production and improves overall plant health……’

should i be composting my aloe vera??

Something I would chop up first. I’d be tempted to juice aloe vera and spray it on the garden.

justin said:

‘Aloe Vera is a powerful botanic activator and plant growth promotant that increases phytoalexin production and improves overall plant health……’

should i be composting my aloe vera??

It couldn’t hurt. Let us know the results, huh? :)

roughbarked said:

justin said:

There is an organic store down at Virginia not far from here.

i have just bought ‘nutri-kelp’ – soluble seawwed powder – as a replacement for my ‘maxicrop’ which will run out soon.
i’m wondering if anyone has used it or heard reports about it.

i’m also wondering about these statements from the supplier -

‘Christopher Columbus identified four crops which he considered indispensible for human survival and well-being – grapes, olives, wheat and Aloe Vera.’
‘Aloe Vera is a powerful botanic activator and plant growth promotant that increases phytoalexin production and improves overall plant health……’

should i be composting my aloe vera??

Something I would chop up first. I’d be tempted to juice aloe vera and spray it on the garden.

You have just jogged my memory. I read in a mag at the Doctors rooms yesterday that seaweed fertilisers aren’t all they are cracked up to be. Something about they have never been properly tested and proved to do what it is said that they do.

Sorry about the oldtimers brain. I’ll think on it some more. Try to remember which mag it was.

pomolo said:

roughbarked said:

justin said:

There is an organic store down at Virginia not far from here.

i have just bought ‘nutri-kelp’ – soluble seawwed powder – as a replacement for my ‘maxicrop’ which will run out soon.
i’m wondering if anyone has used it or heard reports about it.

i’m also wondering about these statements from the supplier -

‘Christopher Columbus identified four crops which he considered indispensible for human survival and well-being – grapes, olives, wheat and Aloe Vera.’
‘Aloe Vera is a powerful botanic activator and plant growth promotant that increases phytoalexin production and improves overall plant health……’

should i be composting my aloe vera??

Something I would chop up first. I’d be tempted to juice aloe vera and spray it on the garden.

You have just jogged my memory. I read in a mag at the Doctors rooms yesterday that seaweed fertilisers aren’t all they are cracked up to be. Something about they have never been properly tested and proved to do what it is said that they do.

Sorry about the oldtimers brain. I’ll think on it some more. Try to remember which mag it was.

Scientific American?

Anyway, all claims are spurious until proven. Then there is against what parameters?

The real issue is that seaweed concentrates do promote growth that is more pest and frost resistant, less disease prone. They do not force growth like other fertilisers do.
The easiest way to observe an improvement is to use seaweed on unhealthy plants.

It isn’t so much about the NPK in seaweed. It is more the balanced way the trace elements are delivered.

To continue on.. The commercially available seaweed extracts have ingredients added.

Something I would chop up first. I’d be tempted to juice aloe vera and spray it on the garden.

————————————————————-

juice it? how? put it in a juicer? remove the skin or squeeze out the juice?

anyrate – you’ve got me thinking. but whilst the brain ticks slowly over i can throw some on the mowing heap and add it to the compost.

hortfurball said:

justin said:

‘Aloe Vera is a powerful botanic activator and plant growth promotant that increases phytoalexin production and improves overall plant health……’

should i be composting my aloe vera??

It couldn’t hurt. Let us know the results, huh? :)

funny thing about these organic methods – they are usually so subtle you can’t really say – you just get a healthy garden that is a culmination of lots of different factors.

roughbarked said:

To continue on.. The commercially available seaweed extracts have ingredients added.

it has proven very valuable on sick plants here. so i’m a convert. i also use it at fruiting time and when transplanting.
it is one of those subtle organic additives that we say ‘eventually science will catch up’.

justin said:

Something I would chop up first. I’d be tempted to juice aloe vera and spray it on the garden.

————————————————————-

juice it? how? put it in a juicer? remove the skin or squeeze out the juice?

anyrate – you’ve got me thinking. but whilst the brain ticks slowly over i can throw some on the mowing heap and add it to the compost.

yes it is the pulp you want.. as juice. Same as it is the pulp you use as a band-aid on your own skin. Though it does work, I can’t imagine people applying the skin of an aloe to their nose and walking around with it on. I’d probably put the lot through the blender but some of the skin is too tough for blender so slice off the thorny edges first. Throw them in the compost plus any scraps. .

justin said:

roughbarked said:

To continue on.. The commercially available seaweed extracts have ingredients added.

it has proven very valuable on sick plants here. so i’m a convert. i also use it at fruiting time and when transplanting.
it is one of those subtle organic additives that we say ‘eventually science will catch up’.

Yes. Without a doubt. I pushed the Maxcrop multi-concentrate on to a local orchardist back in the seventies. He came back with.. “It seems to have nil noticeable fertilising effect on healthy plants, yet shows dramatic improvements on unhealthy plants”.

roughbarked said:

pomolo said:

roughbarked said:

Something I would chop up first. I’d be tempted to juice aloe vera and spray it on the garden.

You have just jogged my memory. I read in a mag at the Doctors rooms yesterday that seaweed fertilisers aren’t all they are cracked up to be. Something about they have never been properly tested and proved to do what it is said that they do.

Sorry about the oldtimers brain. I’ll think on it some more. Try to remember which mag it was.

Scientific American?

Anyway, all claims are spurious until proven. Then there is against what parameters?

The real issue is that seaweed concentrates do promote growth that is more pest and frost resistant, less disease prone. They do not force growth like other fertilisers do.
The easiest way to observe an improvement is to use seaweed on unhealthy plants.

It isn’t so much about the NPK in seaweed. It is more the balanced way the trace elements are delivered.

I don’t think seaweeds were ever promoted as fertilisers as such, but as tonics – like vitamins as opposed to food.

I don’t think seaweeds were ever promoted as fertilisers as such, but as tonics – like vitamins as opposed to food.

————————————————————————————

the use of seaweed on gardens is fairly ancient – used by farmers on the english coast centuries ago – and used as a blanket mulch.
so when that broke down it probably did turn to a seaweed compost and fertiliser.

it does contain all the elements because the rivers wash all the elements into the sea. so it has a fair dose of things like phosphates and calcium in it.
..and, in a sense, a tonic is a tonic because it supplies the missing elements.

roughbarked said:

pomolo said:

roughbarked said:

Something I would chop up first. I’d be tempted to juice aloe vera and spray it on the garden.

You have just jogged my memory. I read in a mag at the Doctors rooms yesterday that seaweed fertilisers aren’t all they are cracked up to be. Something about they have never been properly tested and proved to do what it is said that they do.

Sorry about the oldtimers brain. I’ll think on it some more. Try to remember which mag it was.

Scientific American?

Anyway, all claims are spurious until proven. Then there is against what parameters?

The real issue is that seaweed concentrates do promote growth that is more pest and frost resistant, less disease prone. They do not force growth like other fertilisers do.
The easiest way to observe an improvement is to use seaweed on unhealthy plants.

It isn’t so much about the NPK in seaweed. It is more the balanced way the trace elements are delivered.

I use it all the time. For everything and it serves me well. I don’t understand soil and all it’s do’s and don’ts but seaweed seems to do what it claims.

my first drum of maxicrop wasn’t available here. I had to write to Maxicrop and buy it direct. Yet where I live is the agricultural heart of southern Australia.
It wasn’t long before farmers and gardeners were asking me what I was using.

roughbarked said:

pomolo said:

roughbarked said:

Something I would chop up first. I’d be tempted to juice aloe vera and spray it on the garden.

You have just jogged my memory. I read in a mag at the Doctors rooms yesterday that seaweed fertilisers aren’t all they are cracked up to be. Something about they have never been properly tested and proved to do what it is said that they do.

Sorry about the oldtimers brain. I’ll think on it some more. Try to remember which mag it was.

Scientific American?

Anyway, all claims are spurious until proven. Then there is against what parameters?

The real issue is that seaweed concentrates do promote growth that is more pest and frost resistant, less disease prone. They do not force growth like other fertilisers do.
The easiest way to observe an improvement is to use seaweed on unhealthy plants.

It isn’t so much about the NPK in seaweed. It is more the balanced way the trace elements are delivered.

I explain to clients that it is not a fertiliser, but a health tonic. You are not ‘feeding’ the plants, but you are promoting good health.
Seaweed concentrates are not marketed as fertiliser if you read the small print. After using them in tandem with other treatments to revitalise a stagnant garden recently, I’d say they definitely make a marked difference.

hortfurball said:

I explain to clients that it is not a fertiliser, but a health tonic. You are not ‘feeding’ the plants, but you are promoting good health.
Seaweed concentrates are not marketed as fertiliser if you read the small print. After using them in tandem with other treatments to revitalise a stagnant garden recently, I’d say they definitely make a marked difference.

It is incorrect though as you are feeding the plants.
You are providing better nutrition for the environment in which plants thrive.
Revitalisting is a good word.. fertiliser conjures up the image of plants jumping out of the soil to reach for the sky because that is what we are used to expecting from super phosphate fertilisers.
Such fertiliser is incredible in the way it can make grass grow to hold up the sky.. However it destroys soil life, soil pH, and clogs waterways with algae…. and kills the grevillea at the bottom of the garden.

Old farmers call fertiliser manure.. but that is because before fertliser in a bag came along, they had to shovel shit for a living.

pomolo said:

You have just jogged my memory. I read in a mag at the Doctors rooms yesterday that seaweed fertilisers aren’t all they are cracked up to be. Something about they have never been properly tested and proved to do what it is said that they do.

getting back to this statement. I shake my head when I read some about some scientific breakthrough proving something that we have always known anecdotally and by experience, at the cost of millions of dollars. Like proving that water is wet! Why do we need science to validate generations of experience? Just because it hasn’t been “scientifically proven” doesn’t mean it is not true. Frankly quite often I prefer experience to science in these cases. Don’t get me wrong. Science has its place and has provided amazing information and breakthroughs, but it is not the last word on everything in the universe!

bluegreen said:

pomolo said:

You have just jogged my memory. I read in a mag at the Doctors rooms yesterday that seaweed fertilisers aren’t all they are cracked up to be. Something about they have never been properly tested and proved to do what it is said that they do.

getting back to this statement. I shake my head when I read some about some scientific breakthrough proving something that we have always known anecdotally and by experience, at the cost of millions of dollars. Like proving that water is wet! Why do we need science to validate generations of experience? Just because it hasn’t been “scientifically proven” doesn’t mean it is not true. Frankly quite often I prefer experience to science in these cases. Don’t get me wrong. Science has its place and has provided amazing information and breakthroughs, but it is not the last word on everything in the universe!

Problem is.. as I mentioned earlier.. against what or which parameters?.. It is easy to misconstrue things unless they are viewed within context.

Science has never tried to invalidate the use of seaweed or its extracts as a soil conditioner. I’m sure the article was simply pointing out that science is capable of proving that it isn’t Superphosphate or Urea.

roughbarked said:

bluegreen said:

pomolo said:

You have just jogged my memory. I read in a mag at the Doctors rooms yesterday that seaweed fertilisers aren’t all they are cracked up to be. Something about they have never been properly tested and proved to do what it is said that they do.

getting back to this statement. I shake my head when I read some about some scientific breakthrough proving something that we have always known anecdotally and by experience, at the cost of millions of dollars. Like proving that water is wet! Why do we need science to validate generations of experience? Just because it hasn’t been “scientifically proven” doesn’t mean it is not true. Frankly quite often I prefer experience to science in these cases. Don’t get me wrong. Science has its place and has provided amazing information and breakthroughs, but it is not the last word on everything in the universe!

Problem is.. as I mentioned earlier.. against what or which parameters?.. It is easy to misconstrue things unless they are viewed within context.

Science has never tried to invalidate the use of seaweed or its extracts as a soil conditioner. I’m sure the article was simply pointing out that science is capable of proving that it isn’t Superphosphate or Urea.

exactly!

The seaweed debate is happening on the GA forum.

roughbarked said:

bluegreen said:

pomolo said:

You have just jogged my memory. I read in a mag at the Doctors rooms yesterday that seaweed fertilisers aren’t all they are cracked up to be. Something about they have never been properly tested and proved to do what it is said that they do.

getting back to this statement. I shake my head when I read some about some scientific breakthrough proving something that we have always known anecdotally and by experience, at the cost of millions of dollars. Like proving that water is wet! Why do we need science to validate generations of experience? Just because it hasn’t been “scientifically proven” doesn’t mean it is not true. Frankly quite often I prefer experience to science in these cases. Don’t get me wrong. Science has its place and has provided amazing information and breakthroughs, but it is not the last word on everything in the universe!

Problem is.. as I mentioned earlier.. against what or which parameters?.. It is easy to misconstrue things unless they are viewed within context.

Science has never tried to invalidate the use of seaweed or its extracts as a soil conditioner. I’m sure the article was simply pointing out that science is capable of proving that it isn’t Superphosphate or Urea.

I’m starting to feel pretty silly because I can’t remember where I saw the article. Even D can’t remember either.

bubba louie said:

The seaweed debate is happening on the GA forum.

Goodness. Then I didn’t dream up that article. Someone else must have seen it as well.

pomolo said:

bubba louie said:

The seaweed debate is happening on the GA forum.

Goodness. Then I didn’t dream up that article. Someone else must have seen it as well.

next they’ll be classing foliage sprays under homeotherapy.

bubba louie said:

The seaweed debate is happening on the GA forum.

a typical analysis of the ‘tri-kelp’ i just bought is

Alginic acid 18%
potassium 13.2%
phosphate 0.1%
nitrogen 0.7%
sulphur 3.5%

magnesium 1100ppm
calcium 1600ppm
boron 110ppm
iron 7260ppm
copper 8.7ppm
zinc 19ppm

so it is rich in potash,magnesium, iron and calcium.
it could be very helpful if your soil lacks boron, iron or zinc.

justin said:

bubba louie said:

The seaweed debate is happening on the GA forum.

a typical analysis of the ‘tri-kelp’ i just bought is

Alginic acid 18%
potassium 13.2%
phosphate 0.1%
nitrogen 0.7%
sulphur 3.5%

magnesium 1100ppm
calcium 1600ppm
boron 110ppm
iron 7260ppm
copper 8.7ppm
zinc 19ppm

so it is rich in potash,magnesium, iron and calcium.
it could be very helpful if your soil lacks boron, iron or zinc.

and that’s not all.

roughbarked said:

hortfurball said:

I explain to clients that it is not a fertiliser, but a health tonic. You are not ‘feeding’ the plants, but you are promoting good health.
Seaweed concentrates are not marketed as fertiliser if you read the small print. After using them in tandem with other treatments to revitalise a stagnant garden recently, I’d say they definitely make a marked difference.

It is incorrect though as you are feeding the plants.

Yes but then people think it’s the same as other fertilisers. There has to be some way of distinguishing it from the ‘heavy fertilisers’ and BG’s ‘vitamin vs food’ is exactly the analogy I used to explain it to clients.

pomolo said:

bubba louie said:

The seaweed debate is happening on the GA forum.

Goodness. Then I didn’t dream up that article. Someone else must have seen it as well.

Copied from GA.

This may come as a surprise to many but there is actually no scientific evidence to suggest that seaweed extracts have anywhere near the number of positive effects on plants that it is claimed to. It’s become such a ubiquitous product thanks to intense marketing over the last decade, but it is essentially useless. Have a look at the research of Linda Chalker-Scott from the US into it to get a very plain view of what seaweed extracts will and will not do for plants.

bubba louie said:

pomolo said:

bubba louie said:

The seaweed debate is happening on the GA forum.

Goodness. Then I didn’t dream up that article. Someone else must have seen it as well.

Copied from GA.

This may come as a surprise to many but there is actually no scientific evidence to suggest that seaweed extracts have anywhere near the number of positive effects on plants that it is claimed to. It’s become such a ubiquitous product thanks to intense marketing over the last decade, but it is essentially useless. Have a look at the research of Linda Chalker-Scott from the US into it to get a very plain view of what seaweed extracts will and will not do for plants.

so is all that personal experience bunkum then? Nothing is of any use unless a scientist has proved it?

bubba louie said:

The seaweed debate is happening on the GA forum.

Slowly I’m guessing ;)

bubba louie said:

pomolo said:

bubba louie said:

The seaweed debate is happening on the GA forum.

Goodness. Then I didn’t dream up that article. Someone else must have seen it as well.

Copied from GA.

This may come as a surprise to many but there is actually no scientific evidence to suggest that seaweed extracts have anywhere near the number of positive effects on plants that it is claimed to. It’s become such a ubiquitous product thanks to intense marketing over the last decade, but it is essentially useless. Have a look at the research of Linda Chalker-Scott from the US into it to get a very plain view of what seaweed extracts will and will not do for plants.

whoa that’s strong. i don’t think words will correct such strong beliefs

i think you can garden without seaweed. epsom salts can provide the magnesium etc….. and i just prepared a bed by watering and forking twice and topping with zeolite, pigeon poo and cowdung – such a bed doesn’t need seaweed and seaweed would probably have little effect on it.

however the ‘mineral mixes’ for sale down at the fodder store are virtually all soluble chemical compounds and i don’t like using them for fear of damage to the earthworms etc.
so i have to find softer, more compatible minerals from somewhere.

hortfurball said:

bubba louie said:

The seaweed debate is happening on the GA forum.

Slowly I’m guessing ;)

LOL.

justin said:

hortfurball said:

bubba louie said:

The seaweed debate is happening on the GA forum.

Slowly I’m guessing ;)

LOL.

Not as slow as you might think. The for/against Costa grew into a monster.

bubba louie said:

justin said:

hortfurball said:

Slowly I’m guessing ;)

LOL.

Not as slow as you might think. The for/against Costa grew into a monster.

So which side is Costa on?

seaweed is good shit man :)

maxicrop or searles

trichome said:

seaweed is good shit man :)

maxicrop or searles

Indeed it is.

trichome said:

seaweed is good shit man :)

maxicrop or searles

Mix it with worm wee and you have really good shit that wriggles.

Blame the endone,it’s good stuff too;)

Happy Potter said:

trichome said:

seaweed is good shit man :)

maxicrop or searles

Mix it with worm wee and you have really good shit that wriggles.

Blame the endone,it’s good stuff too;)

It gave me the heebly greeblies, endone that is.

As to seaweed, I’m a long time convert. I first began using it in 1973. I lived on a saltpan. The more maxicrop I put on, the better things went. Not ony did the local farmers and gardeners want to know what I was doing.. The landlady, the Mayor’s wife wanted me to do her a vegetable garden like mine..