What Does Kelp Meal Mean?
Kelp meal is natural fertilizer made from dried seaweed. It is very high in nutrition and can provide organic growers with a high-performance fertilizer option that does not rely on chemicals or chemically processed nutrients.
Kelp meal is considered a good option for growers who subscribe to the veganic method of farming, meaning that they grow plants without using animal byproducts such as bone and blood meal.
It is suitable for use in both soil and hydroponic gardens and is readily available at gardening centers.
Maximum Yield Explains Kelp Meal
Kelp, or seaweed, grows throughout most oceans and is a renewable resource. It has formed part of the human food chain for thousands of years, and is dried and eaten in many traditional cuisines. Kelp is prized for its many benefits, including the high levels of nutrients found in this aquatic plant. Kelp meal allows growers to provide those benefits to their plants.
Kelp meal is an important source of vitamins and minerals necessary for plant growth and health. In fact, it contains over 70 different nutrients, many of them trace nutrients that are scarce in soil. This includes potassium, which can help improve plants’ resistance to disease, boost leaf production, enhance crop size, and more. Other important nutrients include nitrogen and phosphorus.
Kelp is harvested from the ocean, and then dried. This may involve drying in the sun on wooden racks, or drying in a kiln. Kiln drying is faster, allowing manufacturers to produce a higher volume of fertilizer in a shorter amount of time, but sun drying is more traditional. Both processes result in a nutrient-rich fertilizer that can benefit gardeners.
In most instances, kelp meal is available in a dried, ground form. It can be mixed with water and added directly to garden soil, or even sprayed onto plants. It can also be used in hydroponic and aquaponics systems, and can be added directly to the nutrient mix.
Of course, the percentage of kelp meal will depend on the size of the garden in question, as well as the number of plants. A light dressing for an in-ground garden would be roughly one-quarter cup of kelp meal per plant. A heavy dressing would be one-half cup per plant.
