i’ve been using seaweed/kelp extract for a while now but kinda worried about the origin and the composition of the material and the destruction of marine ecosystem due to kelp harvest. i know it contains growth regulators and micro and trace elements but it also contains a serious amount of sodium as far as i know. some of the research i read suggests this sodium can inhibit plant growth with heavy applications so i had some spirulina sitting around the house in pill form and some stressed plants in flower so i though why don’t i just try if spirulina works as a bioactivator/stress reducer.
i know its a rich source of nutrition for humans and has very high amounts of protein/amino acids and doesn’t have much sodium or arsenic or other heavy metals which somewhat causes concern with kelp for me. it should also be easily digestible source for the soil microbiota.
well anyway i have stressed/yellowing plants mostly 2 clones of the same 2 strains and 1 other gal. so 5 plants in total 3 of them will get spirulina and the 2 others will get standart feeding which is mostly liquid wormcastings and some biobizz bloom etc. either way they will all get the same feed but 3 of them will get additional spirulina and i’ll try to asses if it had any positive effects on them.
now i did my first drench today with 2 plants 1 of 2 destroyers (which were on their way to recovery already) and a caribe which is yellowing very fast since i lowered the lights on it. the other plant was not ready to be watered yet.
i dropped 2 tablets into water and let them dissolve a bit. not much dissolved in the 20-30 minutes i waited and stirred, maybe half of them. so i guess half of 2 3g tablets is 3g. 3g of spirulina diluted in 6-7lt of water. didn’t want to go heavy on them as i don’t know how they’ll respond yet.
anyway i also took pics of the plants and i’ll update this thread with before/after photos if i see any difference.
- do you guys ever fiddled with spirulina as a plant fertilizer?
- how did it work out for you?
- to your knowledge, is there anything that is especially beneficial or detrimental to plant growth on these nutritional info i shared?
here’s some nutritional info on spirulina i found online
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this is the analysis of the actual product i have
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this is the color of the diluted final solution. looks so cool and beautiful.
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but definitely algae seems to be a viable option and with spirulina my understanding is that because it lacks a thick cell wall everything offered by this algae should be pretty available from the get go i mean you can do specific extractions for increased ratio of one beneficial compound probably but even with dry powder (which most products offer them cell walls already broken) those aminos and stuff should be pretty available as it is. tho maybe hydrolyzation helps with stabilization for liquid suspensions for longer shelf-life or something i’m not sure.
