Liquid Seaweed Fertilizer

One of the best fertilizers you can use on your hydroponics plants is liquid seaweed. Yet this is probably the last fertilizer people think of buying when they go to their local garden center or shop online. Liquid seaweed fertilizer is not only organic, but comes from a sustainable source and can be harvested without damaging the environment.

Most seaweed-based fertilizers are made from kelp, a variety of seaweed that can grow to lengths of over 50 meters. Trace elements found in organic seaweed fertilizers include magnesium, potassium, zinc, iron and nitrogen—all of which are beneficial to plants not just for hydroponics. Nitrogen, for instance, is essential to the production of nitrate, a key component needed by plants during photosynthesis.

Impressive results have been found when applied to hydroponics and also that this is a natural product harvested in a way that won't have any negative impact on the environment or the sustainability of the seaweed itself. This makes the hydroponics system semi organic for those who think hydroponics is all chemical.

Where to use Liquid Seaweed Fertilizer?

Seaweed has more than 70 minerals, vitamins and enzymes. Some of the benefits are mentioned below:

• Liquid seaweed solution promotes additional budding if applied as the plants are beginning to bud.
• It extends the shelf life of fruits and vegetables if applied 10 days before harvesting.
• The extract lengthens the life of cut flowers if they are sprayed with it a day or two before cutting.
• It can also be used as a rooting solution. Place cuttings in a solution of liquid seaweed and water until roots develop, then plant. When planting seeds or transplanting, water with the solution.
• If applied to pasture crops, the algae increases the nutrient uptake, the protein content and overall quality of the crop.
• Seaweed extract also boosts crop yields, improves resistance of plants to frost and disease, increases uptake of inorganic constituents from the soil, bolsters resistance to stress conditions and reduces storage losses of fruit.
• It promotes vigorous growth and helps deter pests and diseases on fruit, flowers, vegetables, lawns etc.
• Seaweed fertilizers are especially useful in organic gardening. They contain almost every micro-nutrient in a fully chelated (immediately available) form. The algae is also full of carbohydrates, which plants use as a building block. Numerous beneficial microorganisms also use carbohydrates as a food source.
• Liquid seaweed fertilizers (especially the alginates in the seaweed) act as soil conditioners. The alginates react with metals in the soil and form long, cross-linked polymers in the soil. These polymers improve the crumbling in the soil and swell up when they get wet. They also retain moisture for a long time.

Research on the Beneficial Effects of Liquid Seaweed

Numerous studies at major universities around the world have yielded various findings about the positive effects of liquid seaweed as a fertilizer, including:

• Seeds soaked in seaweed extract germinate more rapidly, have larger root mass, stronger plant growth and higher survival rates. Soaking plant roots in the extract also reduces transplant shock and speeds root growth.
• When plants were fertilized with seaweed researchers found that: geraniums produced more flowers per plant; grapes were sweeter; gladiolus corms grew larger; and cucumber yields increased 40 percent (and the fruits suffered less often from softening and rotting).
• Improved yields after seaweed treatments were measured in potatoes, sweet corn, peppers, tomatoes, apples, strawberries, okra and oranges.

Liquid seaweed fertilizer can also be added in a home hydroponics system for replenishing the micro nutrients.