Seaweed product Instead of gran fert

[Welsh sheep man]

Anyone on here ever used a liquid seaweed product on grassland Instead of nitrogen ?
Im told Its a lot cheaper option and still makes the grass grow well ...
your opinions or experience with it would be appreciated

 

[Headless chicken]

Anyone on here ever used a liquid seaweed product on grassland Instead of nitrogen ?
Im told Its a lot cheaper option and still makes the grass grow well ...
your opinions or experience with it would be appreciated

Nitrogen is a growth multiplier nothing more. The issues we have are largely because n has been used at inappropriate times which mean a poor return on investment. All these products ( and I sell them too I should add) work because it focuses your mind as to what your trying to achieve. Ie plenty have gone out with fert already but no ones gone out with the alternatives yet …

 

[Sierra Lama]

I have been tempted to try some on some new leys this spring to give them a push to really get the most out of them. Unsure of a price they don't seem to put that on their website. It also advertises, rich in trace elements which would be another benefit as we hVe many trace element difficentcies with us that we bolus the stock for. I wonder what trace elements they, would be rich in. Iron one would presume.

 

[livestock 1]

We used calcified seaweed in bags at first then by the artic load tipped
The grass was much better as far as the colour and it did grow well but not as well as it would have with regular fertiliser. What was noticeable was the grass grew for a longer period and the stock did much better by far on the land that had it on.
They stopped them dredging it and we didn’t get any more. It was relatively cheap to. The last was £35 a tonne delivered and there was as much or more haulage in at that than product

 

[neilo]

I have been tempted to try some on some new leys this spring to give them a push to really get the most out of them. Unsure of a price they don't seem to put that on their website. It also advertises, rich in trace elements which would be another benefit as we hVe many trace element difficentcies with us that we bolus the stock for. I wonder what trace elements they, would be rich in. Iron one would presume.

Seaweed products have been around for many, many years. Lots of people have trialled them, particularly in arable crops, and very few continue using them. That says all you need to know imo.

They most certainly are not a replacement for N although, as they have always been surrounded by dodgy claims, I’d be surprised if some enterprising salesmen didn’t suggest that right now.

As for iron being a useful trace element in it, your soil is absolutely full of iron already and it’s a common antagonist for other elements. You don’t need to supply more!

I would advise taking the sales patter with a large dose of salt.

 

[bean]

I have been tempted to try some on some new leys this spring to give them a push to really get the most out of them. Unsure of a price they don't seem to put that on their website. It also advertises, rich in trace elements which would be another benefit as we hVe many trace element difficentcies with us that we bolus the stock for. I wonder what trace elements they, would be rich in. Iron one would presume.

I've took a chance and ordered some last week to try cost about £30 a acre, just have to wait and see

 

[mar]

If you are using seaweed as fertiliser you need to put it on thick and heavy the same way as you would with dung. Even at that rate you not see a major response from the grass but there is definitely a difference. Putting on a bag to the acre or a gallon drum of something containing seaweed isn't going to make much of a difference.
A neighbour has half a field coated with seaweed and it will be interesting to see if there is a difference between the two halves later on in the year.

Here is an interesting article I came across

https://www.fas.scot/downloads/cropping-case-study-use-of-seaweed-as-a-fertiliser-for-grassland/

 

[Btexel]

I've took a chance and ordered some last week to try cost about £30 a acre, just have to wait and see

That’s a bag of N even at todays prices. Need to grow some serious grass.

 

[Kiwi Pete]

It's not really a "fertiliser" so much as a biological primer, if your expectations align with that then you'll be OK

It's minerals and gibberellins and amino acids, so it gives pasture 'a wee stretch' if sprayed soon post-grazing or cutting.
Otherwise you don't notice it, until it gets dry or things come under stress

It's probably the opposite of N fertiliser in that respect, as N accelerates growth it accelerates expectation, thus it turns a couple of dry months into a problem

 

[spikeislander]

I’m tasked with growing a crop on a new block ( 200 acres ) without man made fertiliser.
We will be going down the cover crop etc route but at present I have 100 acres drilled with wheat that really needs some n , I’d lined up liquid fert but then had the no man made request dropped on me.
I am desperately trying to find some nitrogen asap , we may have some slurry but this isn’t ideal.
So my question is will copious amounts of sea weed and foliage applied bio stimulants do anything ?
cost is not entirely irrelevant but they are willing to bank roll the trials .
Any other ideas would be handy .
I might put this on another thread as a new question

 

[goldeneagle]

Remember as a boy the council dumping seaweed washed up on the local beach after a storm on grassland. Where it was dumped was visibly thicker for years. Biggest downside was the amount of sand that came in with it and the subsequent salt content.

 

[Cab-over Pete]

What seaweed contains and the resultant yield after application is no different to any other product response, in that it will only produce a response if your land needs what’s contained in it.

That’s why some will swear by it and some won’t see a difference. If your soil doesn’t need it, you won’t see a response.

On the flip side to that, if your soil needs it, get enough on. If you don’t put enough on, don’t complain if there’s no response.

I get that occasionally with lime. “It didn’t seem to make much difference “.
“Well it won’t if you needed 2.5t per acre but you only wanted to put 1t per acre on. I did try and tell you that.”

 

[AminoA]

I’m tasked with growing a crop on a new block ( 200 acres ) without man made fertiliser.
We will be going down the cover crop etc route but at present I have 100 acres drilled with wheat that really needs some n , I’d lined up liquid fert but then had the no man made request dropped on me.
I am desperately trying to find some nitrogen asap , we may have some slurry but this isn’t ideal.
So my question is will copious amounts of sea weed and foliage applied bio stimulants do anything ?
cost is not entirely irrelevant but they are willing to bank roll the trials .
Any other ideas would be handy .
I might put this on another thread as a new question

Our organic WW ,Triticale and OSR plots at the Cereals Event site all looked good. The seeds treated with our seed treatment AminoA STAART, then with organic Biostimulant GRO , N source 60 kg ha from poultry manure. The site was in Rye previous year so we were really pleased with the results. Contact us www.aminoa.co.uk if you are planning similar cropping next year.

 

[Dry Rot]

Seaweed was used as a fertiliser for potato beds year ago by those within reach of the shore. It was the women who carried it up from the beach so a young man insearch of a wife would bear that in mind! Sea weed was also cut for the alginate. Sand off the machair was used by the crofters instead of lime, probably still is. It contains a lot of calcium from sea shells. Not sure if there is still a grant on it to crofters though. Anyone from the west or from the islands know about it? Seaweed will contain a lot of trace elements that land may need and that can give a boost. Not all elements are considered when a soil analysis is done, only the common ones.

 

[Vader]

Our organic WW ,Triticale and OSR plots at the Cereals Event site all looked good. The seeds treated with our seed treatment AminoA STAART, then with organic Biostimulant GRO , N source 60 kg ha from poultry manure. The site was in Rye previous year so we were really pleased with the results. Contact us www.aminoa.co.uk if you are planning similar cropping next year.

Most crops would look good with poultry manure.
Sadly not much about..
All the years i was organic could never find any that transport cost made viable

 

[Happy]

Seaweed products have been around for many, many years. Lots of people have trialled them, particularly in arable crops, and very few continue using them. That says all you need to know imo.

They most certainly are not a replacement for N although, as they have always been surrounded by dodgy claims, I’d be surprised if some enterprising salesmen didn’t suggest that right now.

As for iron being a useful trace element in it, your soil is absolutely full of iron already and it’s a common antagonist for other elements. You don’t need to supply more!

I would advise taking the sales patter with a large dose of salt.

My experience in the 1990’s. Haven’t heard much promotion of it for a good while.

Was the miracle cure for everything according to those selling it.