Liquid sea weed fertilizer for starting seeds!

[Bobberman]

It sems like sea weed has everything a plant needs like a vitamine pill for new plants! I will try this with some of my seed starting boxes this year.! Can this also be used in a compost at a stronger dosage? Here is a link to one I am looking at!
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http://gardeningzone.com/product_info.p ... 8827a3cff9

[DoubleDogFarm]

Bob,

I wait until true leaves before applying any nutrients. I use mostly the hydrolyzed fish, but sometimes fish and kelp.

Hydrolyzed fish fertilizer

http://www.doityourself.com/stry/what-i ... fertilizer


Eric

[gixxerific]

Yeah you should wait until the first true leave show up before fertilizing than only go half strength or less.

The cotyledons are actually the food source in the beginning, early fertilizing can burn the plant so be careful.

[lorax]

I swear by liquid seaweed, but only once the seedlings are up and have true leaves. Then it goes into the watering regime at 1 tbsp to the gallon of water used.

Incidentally, it's also what I use on my bananas and tomatoes, and they've never grown better or been healthier. The bananas are fed daily.

The brand I use is called Ibermar Plus, which is simple liquified Ascophyllum nodosum. I have no idea whether it's available outside of Latin America, though.

[filmnet]

This fish/sewed fertilizer stays in the ground for a few years i was told, not like MC. Neptune's harvest is very good, its organic, HD has an Alaskan fish fertilizer which is not organic. If you can find any Kepl fertilizer its wonderful also.

[rainbowgardener]

It's good for plants, but why would you want to put it in compost?

I never add fertilizers to my compost pile, which is full of nutrients from all the stuff I put in it to break down. Save the fertilizers for the plants (when I use them at all, which is mainly for plants that live in pots year around).

[Bobberman]

After much research I think sea weed fertilizer is the best of the best for my seedlings!. Although I like blood meal sea weed gives all the elements that the oceans hold and will make the plants jump out of the ground with the greenest of leaves!

[Hieron]

1st of all - Sry if people don't like old threads being resurrected, but I figured it was better than starting a new one.

The first of my broccoli seedlings has its first true leaf, so I need to start thinking about liquid fertilizer (I planted in a homemade mix of 1 quart peat moss and 2 cups each vermiculite and compost...the goal was disease prevention more than providing nutrition).

Anyway, I happen to have some liquid seaweed I bought for a homemade spray I was using on my crabapple tree last year. The rating on it says "0-0-1"...is that really sufficient for seedlings? They don't need N or K? I know the posts above imply the answers to these questions but I'd appreciate if someone could humor me and spell it out; I really need my garden to go well this year lest I lose funding, lol, so I'm being extra careful. Thanks!

[Dillbert]

a 0-0-1 doesn't seem it would do much for a seedling.

if you are using compost in the starting mix, there a high likelihood you don't need to provide any additional fertilizer for 4-6 weeks.

too warm, too well fed, too much water leads to too much too fast growth and typically, contrary to the desired TLC outcome, results in weak plants at the point of setting out.

if you insist, use a fertilizer at not more than 1/2 the label strength - or less - it's really easy to "fertilize again" but burning off the roots of seedlings means starting over. labels directions/strengths are usually meant for established plants, not seedlings.

[rainbowgardener]

I agree that you don't want to over fertilize, but 1/4 compost is not a very rich mix and 0-0-1 is not adding much.

I think in a little while you will need to find other nitrogen sources to add. It could be things like adding coffee grounds or alfalfa pellets to the water.

[Hieron]

Thanks for the insights everyone! If you look around online people rave about the liquid seaweed for everything, including seedlings, but I figured they would have to have more than just potassium.

Anyway this one seedling seems to be ahead of the pack quite a bit, so I'll wait a while longer and then add a weak liquid fertilizer to my bottom-watering every couple weeks or something. Maybe in addition to the seaweed I could steep some coffee grounds and some natural source of phosphorus in the water for a bit before using it.

@RG - I'm assuming you mean used grounds right? I'm guessing caffeine isn't particularly great for plants, lol, but just making sure.

@Dill - Thanks for the thoughts about over-fertilizing...I'll use half of whatever it says on the seaweed bottle!

[rainbowgardener]

yes, used. I don't know if the caffeine would be good or bad for the plants, but unused coffee would be kind of acidic and anyway it would be wasteful of expensive coffee!

[Bobberman]

Half of anything is better than too much or none at all!