Advantages of using Liquid Seaweed Fertilizer:
1) It promotes additional buds when applied as the plants are beginning to bud.
2) It extends the shelf life of fruits and vegetables if applied 10 days before harvesting.
3) It lengthens the life of cut flowers if they are sprayed with Liquid Seaweed a da yor two before cutting.
4) Treating seeds or seed pieces with Liquid Seaweed prior to planting will improve seed germination, root growth and early seedling vigor.
5) Liquid Seaweed also can be used as a rooting solution. Place cuttings in a solution of Liquid Seaweed and water until roots develop, then plant. When planting, water in with Liquid Seaweed solution.
6) Liquid Seaweed applied to pasture crops increases the nutrient uptake, the protein content and overall quality of the crop.
7) Seaweed organic fertilizers can be used as a soil treatment to grow healthier, stronger and more disease-resistant plants.
8) A wide range of benefical effects have been reported from the use of liquid seaweed extracts including increased crop yields, resistance of plants to frost, increased uptake of inorganic constituents from the soil, more resistance to stress conditions and reductions in storage losses of fruit.
9) Promotes vigorous growth and helps deter pests and diseases on fruit, flowers, vegetables, lawns etc.
10) Seaweed has more than 70 minerals, vitamins and enzymes.
11) Seaweed fertilizers are especially useful in organic gardening. They contain almost every micro-nutrient in a fully chelated (immediately available) form. They deliver a healthy dose of natural plant hormones. Seaweed is full of carbohydrates, which the plants use as a building block and which large populations of benefical micro-organisms use as a food source.
12) Alginates, (sponge-like starches found in seaweed), hold water droplets near the plant roots, making moisture available to them without drowning them; they also help enrich the soil by feeding myriad benefical microorganisms such as bacteria and tiny fungi necessary to composting.
13) Research at major universities has shown that seeds soaked in seaweed extract germinate more rapidly, have larger root mass, stronger plant growth and higher survival rate. Soaking plant roots in seaweed extract reduces transplant shock and speeds root growth.
14) Several university studies have shown that seaweed can produce dramatic results in plants: geraniums produced more flowers per plant; grapes were sweeter, gladiolus corms grew larger and cucumber yields increased 40 percent and the fruits suffered less often from softening and rooting. Improved yields after seaweed treatments were measured in potatoes, sweet corn, peppers, tomatoes, apples, strawberries, okra and oranges. Better frost tolerance, increased seed germination and greater capacity to absorb trace elements were other documented benefits for plants.
15) Seaweed fertilizers have many benefits. They provide natural hormones and many nutrients not found in other forms of fertilizer. Since most plants absorb their nutrients through the leaves, applying this with a foliar method will benefit the plant even more. Foliar simply means placing the fertilizer on the leaf itself, as the plant absorbs the sunlight it needs, it will also be absorbing the nutrients found in the fertilizer.
16) Another major component in liquid seaweed fertilizers are the hormones. The main hormones in seaweed are auxins, gibbelerins, cytokinins and betaines. The roles of these hormones are essential to plant health. Most of these are only required in very small proportions. There are many different auxins and they all have their specific roles. Their main functions are the balanced control of speed of growth. They have both growth stimulating as well as delaying functions. They stimulate root-growth, prevent bud-forming or opening at the wrong times.
17) Seaweed can play an important role in the production of the plant’s own auxins, because the enzymes formed with the help of trace elements from the liquid seaweed fertilizer play an importnat role in the formation of these auxins.
18) Cytokinins are another group of important plant hormones. They initiate and activate basic growth processes. The cykotinins available in liquid seaweed extract stimulate growth with greater vigour, because they mobilise nutrients in the leaves. They also provide protection from marginal frost (to -3 C). Cytokinins also retard the senescence (aging process) in the plant.
19) Betaines play an essential role in the osmotic process in plants. They help to increase the water uptake in plants and are extremely helpful in dry conditions. Betaines are particularly helpful to plants under stress.
20) Liquid seaweed fertilizers, (especially the alginates in the seaweed) act as soil conditioners. The alginates react with metals in the soil and form long and cross-linked polymers in the soil. These polymers improve the crumbing in the soil and swelll up when they get wet and retain moisture for a long period.