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Midway City, California

I have been collecting kelp from the beach for the last five days. (Please see the picture in the Photo Gallery). It looks like there is alot there but when it dries there is only a small amout left. I will grind the dried kelp with a blender.
Does anyone have a method or formula for making liquid kelp? Any help will be appreciated Thanks WATER

3/3/2004 7:19:44 PM

KENTUCKY

one think for sure, rinse the "heck" out of it to get the salts out. Other than that I can't help on mixing ratio.

3/3/2004 7:47:35 PM

Montoursville, PA

Kelp gathered from the best known beds in the world worked into kelp meal is about .50 cents a pound. I use about fifteen pounds on a 1000 sq. ft. patch for an average yearly cost of about $9.00. for kelp meal. Nearly all organic fertlizer sales outlets have it. Mine comes from Fertrell.

3/4/2004 3:37:49 PM

Montoursville, PA

The material that liquid kelp is reconstituted from is dehydrated. It does not take much. Maybe a tabelspoon full per gallon of water. Again the per gallon cost when the grower reconstitutes it is very low and the kelp comes from the well known high quality beds. Joel Holland lists dehydrated on his web site. His advertising tells you where it comes from and why it is considered of the highest quality.

3/4/2004 3:45:06 PM

mcminnville oregon

im paying $18 gal employee discount?

3/11/2004 12:03:20 AM

Puyallup, WA

I figured, "Why pay for water?" Joel's dehydrated kelp powder seems to work just fine when reconstituted. It helped me grow three 1K fruit last year!

3/15/2004 10:56:53 PM

Indiana

Whats the difference between the kelp meal, and the kelp sprays as far as whats in it?

Tom Beachy

3/15/2004 11:21:46 PM

Mill Creek West by god Virginia

good question tom,i just got 50lbs of kelp meal was wondering if i could just dissolve some of it and use it in foliar spray?keith barrett

3/16/2004 1:08:49 AM

Paradise Mountain, New York

I have been wondering the same thing also. I have been searching the web and i've come up with nothing.This would be interesting to find out. I was wondering if one is grounded very fine vs the other.......

3/16/2004 2:11:27 AM

Montoursville, PA

To the best of my learning, to this point, all meals are cleaned, dried and ground or screened to a grain size called meal. All are very basic whose values are listed in various organic source catalogs and books showing organic ammendments and fertilizers. In order for them to become availble to the plant the biological soil has to break them down into humus and humates for the plant to use.

Dehydrated materials were first made into a slurry or tea. The resulting material disolves in water easily becoming a solutiion easily sprayed or delivered to the soil through various types of irrigation. The dehydrated products, fish, kelp and possibly others can make a few points to prove their superior value. On the other side of the coin the process has removed some of the work that was done by the soil bacteria. A well fed bacteria army is the ultimate goal so we can argue that angle. Like don't work your butt off to build the army and then take away first mess. :)

In either case the meal is more complete and requires a complete biological function building strength with each change within your patch.

The sprays are designed for folilar, provide much of the same values with leaf and plant resistance to pathogen attack. I think this is largely due to tying up leaf space and partly chemistry that prevents pathogen attack. Because of their design for spraying they can usually be delivered in drip irrigation too.

Liquids of the same are teas that have not been dehydrated. I guess they could be reconstituted dehydrated material as well. To me it really does not matter. There appears to be a need and function for both. The differences are slight and certainly not worth argueing down to the nitty git for anyone with a decent humus percentage in their soil.

3/16/2004 10:41:57 AM