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Seaweed Extract Biostimulants · Hydroponics Daily

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  Hi, welcome back to Hydroponics Daily. Today we're going to talk about a biostimulant
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  that is made from seaweed extracts.
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  So I've made hundreds of thousands of litres of seaweed extract in my time and
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  at Eutrema we have a plant in Scotland where we get fresh seaweed extracts.
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  So I know a lot about seaweed extracts, I've written a lot of papers on it.
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  And the main species worldwide that the biostimulants are made from for crop
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  production is a species called Ascophyllum nodosum.
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  It's got a common name, it's got a few common names, knotted rack,
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  bladder rack, but a lot of species are called bladder rack.
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  Basically, they have these air bladders that keep it floating when it's submerged in the water.
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  It grows in the intertidal regions, which means it's exposed to both the stresses
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  and strains and pests and diseases of being a terrestrial land plant and of being an aquatic plant.
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  It gets fresh water, it gets salt water, and so it's full of chemicals that
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  help it resist stress so hence the reason one of its mode of action is helping
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  plants when you extract those chemicals helping plants resist stress.
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  There are other species that are used in in biostimulants so ecclonia is another
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  one from south africa some species from new zealand and some some microalgae
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  in spain are made they make biostimulants from, but Ascophyllum nodosum is the main one.
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  It's known as the premium one, and Ascophyllum nodosum grows in lots of places
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  around the world, and I like to say it grows anywhere where people hate the English.
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  So it grows on the west coast of Ireland, it grows in the Hebrides in Scotland,
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  it grows in Quebec, in Canada, it grows in northern France, it grows in Norway.
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  They tend to like the English in Norway, but yeah, I don't know what it's doing there.
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  It doesn't grow in england it doesn't grow it grows
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  in north north wales but it won't grow in on
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  like the east coast of england or even like in
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  the irish sea or grows in a bit in cornwall i think as well so that's the sort
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  of distribution of this species and then it's harvested hopefully sustainably
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  although there are people doing unsustainable harvesting and it's extracted
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  so that the juices are extracted.
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  And that could be what we do is a cold extraction to protect the chemicals. However.
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  People who use it want the most concentrated form so
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  they say what's its solids content and everyone this is fight
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  to get the highest solids content so some extracts are
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  like 50 solids content which might sound brilliant but
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  to do that they've heated the seaweed up they've treated
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  it with potassium hydroxide which is the same
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  ingredient in oven cleaner and so you
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  in in my opinion you've degraded
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  the chemistry the biochemicals in there just
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  to increase a parameter that
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  is solid content so i tend to go.
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  For cold processed and that's what we sell here i manufacture here
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  but there are a variety there are different types of seaweed extracts
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  in each one everyone says theirs is the best now you
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  may be using seaweed extracts and you didn't even know it a lot
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  of the really big hydroponic feed fertilizer manufacturers
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  have additives that contain seaweed extracts
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  and they don't label it because they don't need to so they'll
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  have a fancy name you know certain types of
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  tonics for example might be something tonics
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  might be seaweed extracts something to do with
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  roots might be seaweed extracts for example there
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  are lots of people who buy seaweed extracts from
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  companies like ourselves and then relabel them under their
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  own name with their fancy trade names so be on the lookout for that make sure
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  you if you want to use a seaweed extract you can probably get it a lot cheaper
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  if you just by seaweed extract the mode of action for seaweed extracts is they
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  elicit defense responses in the plant so they they when they're applied to the
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  cell wall the cell wall thinks it's under attack.
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  There are better compounds for doing that though things like chitosan is a better
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  option because that's a lock and key mechanism plants have evolved to detect
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  chitin and chitosan as a defense response but the laminarin in seaweed extract
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  is thought to be good against.
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  Septoria so you have a septoria issue which is a fungus
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  disease that's that's actually registered i think
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  as a pesticide laminarin in the eu for control
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  of septoria chelation of micronutrients is very important and really good for
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  seaweed extracts i think that's one of the main areas where it's working they
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  work well boron doesn't move well around the plants especially in the phloem
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  it's a micronutrient however when it's linked to mannitol which is a sugar alcohol Well, it does move.
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  Well around the plant and there are lots lots of
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  mannitol in ascophyl and nodosum if you treat it
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  with respect when you're extracting it they also
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  feed beneficial microbes and beneficial
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  microbes will create things like vitamin b12 which is
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  a cobalt chelate and obviously
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  vitamin b12 is good for human health and so
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  feeding beneficial microbes the fungi and the bacteria on
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  the leaves and in the roots the seaweed
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  extracts are very good for that in fact when i
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  manufacture seaweed extracts you're left with like
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  the meal that's left over when i've been
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  coming back from the factory i filled my car so full of
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  seaweed meal to put on my garden that my car's broken
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  down my old car and i broke down
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  on a very busy road and and so and my
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  car stunk of seaweed extracts whenever i do that and but the reason i do it
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  is because when i put it on my garden the worms go crazy for it so if 24 hours
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  later if you remove the seaweed extra meal then there's just loads of worms
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  they've come up for it so feeding beneficial organisms it's fantastic for it
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  and then it adds that squelchy.
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  Gel in the seaweed extract adds water holding
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  capacity to the soil in a natural way and it stays around
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  for a remarkably long time as well months and even years
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  later you can still find it in the soil and then abiotic stress
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  resistance probably the main one and you'll find a
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  lot of products that are designed you know products that claim
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  to have help your plants resist stress or
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  cold stress particularly they're based around
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  seaweed extracts there's nothing extra special in
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  those products they'll just be a blend containing seaweed extracts
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  so and also a lot
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  of the chemically extracted seaweed extracts are added to base fertilizers
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  a really cheap and cheerful garden-based fertilizers just
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  to add a bit of color because they're brown and dark so you
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  can add color to fertilizers using seaweed extracts or humic
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  acids as well they're really good for adding color to fertilizers
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  we don't add it to gold leaf or in the uk liquid
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  gold because we want to maintain our lovely golden color that comes from the
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  iron in the product but lots of fertilizers do contain seaweed extracts and
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  humic acids so i've been prattling on far too long about seaweed extracts it's
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  my specialist subject i could be on mastermind answering questions about seaweed
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  extracts. I know quite a lot about them.
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  But if you think I've missed something or I've talked absolute nonsense,
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  email me, phone me, leave a comment.
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  I'm more than happy to discuss it with you. That's been hydroponics for today. Thank you very much.