using seaweed for indoor grow

[freshhops]

hi all

i live on a beach and theres heaps of seaweed washed up every day , im aloud to take 20lts a day per person , so i was woundering if anybody has used seaweed as a medium or as a nute for indoor growing ?

or does anyone know of any reasons why i shouldnt ?

thanks in advance

[WantDaChronic]

alot of nutes have seaweed extracts in them, but using it for a medium would be a bit stinky after a while when it starts to break down

[MongyMan]

Add it to your compost, it would be great stuff. As far as using it for hydroponics, not a chance imo.

 

Peace MongyMan

[Innocent criminal]

I'll agree with WDC and MM, good for outdoors if composted, not for indoors though

THC

[Closet Grower]

A lot of salt in it as well

[danoz]

An interesting thing about seaweed extracts the most famous of which is seasol is that they have been proven (when used at the recommended dose) to do absolutely nothing. An Australian scientist produced an excellent review of about 160 trials conducted world wide with seaweed extracts. He concluded that at the recommended dose soil or foliar applications do not affect plant growth or reproduction or vigor. However, at around 20 times the recommended does they have a small affect. Most the claims on the bottle are claims based on potassium nutrition, increases PS yutta yutta, increased drought tolerence blah blah all the things potassium is supposed to do. Unfortunitly, seasol contains like 14% mass as potas, then dilute is at one cap to 4 lts water and u got next to no potassium. In addition, the "growth promoters" from seaweed are also not effective for plants. One experiment showed that it can increase microbial growth, awesome i recon if i pissed on soil after a couple of beers that would also increase microbial growth as they broke down the urea.

I love natural fertilisers it just pisses me off that alot of companies out there are peddling natural ferts that dont do anything.

Notice how seasol calls itself a "plant tonic" there are legal reasons why.

 

RRRR breath good to get that off my chest.

 

Yeah make a compost pile of your seaweed man it would be awesome (im being serious after i what i just said you might think this is sarcastic) if the seaweed is free and you add alot of it then sweet.

Edited October 25, 2008 by danoz

[Frazz]

Yer thanks for that danoz, i just realised the seasol is more or less brown coloured water , yet i still persevere with bull kelp extract that is black and thick like consistency of oil cause i reckon it provides the plant with things that hydro nutes cant .. i only use it to foliar-feed, while plants are listening to music such as Bolero in particular as it seems to promote large open stomata ..

and in soil outdoors i dunno if it does much good but i still use it anyway ..

 

its really crazy cause i think it helps , but i dont really know for sure whether it does or not!!

 

[MongyMan]

As far as directly feeding the plants I'd agree, it does little. It does promote microbial growth in the soil which in turn feeds them though as you said danoz. Pissing on the compost heap is fine, I'd recomend it but I think I'll pass pissing on my plants

 

Peace MongyMan