4CD2XX0

I've always heard about seaweed extracts made from Ascophyllum nodosum, there are a ton of nutrients with it including General Organics "bio weed" made 100% from this seaweed. Which sells for bout $20/Qt.
I've seen studies saying its good for everything from roots, leaves, buds, flowers, fruits, and vegetables to immune systems and weight loss. Until today, I've never really knew much about the actual plant though. I searched it up on wikipedia and come to find out I've been swimming with this stuff my whole life! Its rare to find a beach out here that isn't covered in the stuff.

My question is, Could I make my own extraction for my plants?
I was thinking of taking a bunch of it, cleaning, blending, and making it into a tea. Or maybe drying it out, grinding it up and mixing with my soil before planting?

What do you guys think?

eleaf

You'll need to make sure that 100% of the salt has been washed off, then you will want to slow dry it until fully dry. You can then grind it up and use at your leisure.

If the salt has not been removed, you can say goodbye to your girls.

And this particular seaweed isn't the same old seaweed found on most beaches. It is a north Atlantic variety (it's also known as Norwegian Kelp) from Maine to Scandinavia.

You can certainly make your own, if indeed what you have is Norwegian Kelp, but the processing work/time (it's more work than you would think, and takes a lot more seaweed than you would think to make small amounts of finished kelp) may not be worth the hassle.

My advice: Buy it. All of the work has been done, and even modest amounts (10 lbs) will last you for quite some time unless you use it in a full sized outdoor garden. The cheapest kelp meal I've seen is at pure growth organics, and you get a bucket to boot. Mine has lasted me for a while and has worked great. I use it in both indoor and outdoor gardens.

toshiba

you could,

but, I would just buy acadians seaplants seaweed, if you can't find there are alot of other quality dry seaweed, for $15 bucks it will last you a very very long time..

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all i'm saying is if some tribe out in africa knew a stars density and orbit rotation thousands of years ago, im gonna have to believe them on herb .. me

aussie grow

Hydroponic Generations Cornucopia has kelp extracts for indoor use, also for outdoors there is an Australian product called seasol (100% organic kelp extract), cant praise them enough.

4CD2XX0

Thank you all for your thoughts, I will probably buy a bucket since I will spend at least as much on a day at the beach. But from next summer on there is no way I'll be paying for this stuff.

According to this site on the harvesting of ascophyllum we are getting raped price-wise.

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Ascophyllum nodosum and its harvesting in Eastern Canada
Near the bottom of the page it states a 12-15% moisture content and 3-4% sodium content so they are able to sell about 80% of what they harvest if they take out 100% of the water and salt...
2000lb x 80% = 1600 / 10lb bucket = 160 x $30 USD = $4,800 USD... Washing, drying, grinding, and packing 160 items couldn't cost the $4,760 they have left over.....
Damn, I need to get into that business!

eleaf

But you have to take in to account that the harvesters have invested a hell of a lot of money in the machinery to actually do the harvesting/drying/grinding, etc. It's the overhead and initial cost that drives prices up, not necessarily the process once the equipment has already been purchased. And they spend much less money per unit of weight (in this case per ton) because they harvest/dry/grind etc by the ton (or more I'm sure).