Ask Erik

Thanks for your question Jack.

I have mentioned the benefits of spraying kelp in several of my articles, particularly for applications one time per week for the first three weeks of flowering. This helps build lots of flowering sites, and prevents common micronutrient deficiencies, which may appear as yellowing tops in the first few weeks of flowering. Although I am not certain, you might be thinking of an article I wrote titled The Benefits of Coco Coir in the March/April 2006 issue of Maximum Yield USA.

Good quality kelp extracts are full of bioactive growth co-factors and often contain significant levels of potassium and a full spectrum of micronutrients including zinc and iron. In natural conditions the growth rate of kelp is prolific, so a lot of the good stuff that helps grow so quickly and vigorously can be made available to your favorite plants.

A lot of the vitamins, amino acids, nutrients and hormones that naturally occur are in a soluble and plant available form in premium quality kelp extracts. Even lesser quality kelp extracts will contain some levels of these. However, a lot of the difference between premium quality and lesser quality kelp extracts is in what you are not getting.

Poor quality kelp solutions often contain significant levels of sodium. Remember that because kelp comes from salt water, it is only natural that some of this will wind up in the products you are using. Premium quality kelps tend to be better rinsed of their salts and, therefore, will have a lower salt content when applied to your plants. Sodium can harm your plants. The leaves are especially sensitive to it, so this is a factor in your foliar applications.

Foliar spraying kelp will certainly help to boost growth rates, green-up your plants and tend to promote bushier and better branched plants. Plants that have received kelp in their diets also tend to show better colorations; purple basil is an excellent example of this. Kelp extracts can be applied with your nutrients, in fact a lot of nutrient additives use kelp extracts as a base, so a lot of people may already be using kelp in their crop feeding programs.

Personally, my favorite kelp solutions are cold water extracted. Most kelp solutions and concentrates have been extracted in a chemical process. While they are effective, they often kill off a lot of the bioactivity. Cold water kelp extracts tend to be a beautiful light green color, similar to a margarita and smell great. The chemically extracted kelp solutions tend to take on more of a brown color and do not smell as pleasant.

Cheers, Erik Biksa