Sunday, May 22, 2011

Seaweed/Nori fertilizer experiment

I'm very sad to report that my nori seaweed fertilizer experiment will come to an end with inconclusive results. As I suspected, the quality of the non-fertilized soil that the seedlings in this soil is stunted. The clear winner is the MG soil, but again the difference is not due to the type of fertilizer that was used but rather the soil quality. I could keep going, but I feel like the poor seedlings are screaming at me to get transferred to a better home. I still have the huge container of seaweed fertilizer and wish there was a way to test its effectiveness. I probably will only use it (if shown effective) if I had a plot in an isolated location because it just smells really really REALLY bad. I would not want this on my balcony. Following are the before after photos (before 5/3 - top, after 5/22 - bottom).
Clear winner is MG potting soil
Regular soil, no fertilizer
RS + liquid MG
RS + nori fertilizer
RS + compost tea (one of the basil is completely burnt from the sun)
I feel like the seaweed fertilizer treatment and liquid miracle gro looks a little better than the other two. A little greener and healthier looking. But it may just be my imagination. Here is a side-by-side of all the seedlings in the non-fertilized thing they called "soil".
From left to right, Regular soil (RS), RS + liquid MG, RS + nori fertilizer, RS + compost tea
I may keep the seedlings in the same container for a while until I find a new home for them. I don't really expect to see improvements or differences between the treatments. I hope that someone else with the correct non-fertilized soil/potting mix can test the effectiveness of homemade nori-seaweed fertilizer (and also figure out a way for it not to be so stinky)! Two posting in one day...too bad the results aren't more exciting.

3 comments:

  1. Oh my, it couldn't be any stinkier than the concoction I mixed up with composted manure, alfalfa pellets, corn meal, fish emulsion and molasses! It wasn't so bad after sitting for three days, but I strained it into a gallon jug and capped it. I opened it a couple weeks later and darned near passed out!!!

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  2. Granny, you are probably right! That does smell nasty. Basically the seaweed compost smelled like someone had not brushed their teeth in a really long time and breathed on your face. Nasty!

    Holly - yeah, I was hoping for more definitive results...

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