Woot woot ! Welcome back @lotus710 glad to have ya back!
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hey dude thanks a lot!
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Is there any benefit to your refrigerated method as opposed to mixing as needed?
I have on my list of shit to grab:
- kelp meal
- water soluable kelp powder
- silica
- maxibloom
- in the process of grabbing 20 pounds of ewc from a local worm farm
Can someone shed some light on the difference and benefits of the kelp meal and water soluable?..nutes available immediately vs. Nutes released over time? Is that it?
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As I understand it, the hydrated kelp (refrigerated) is more of an āinstant kelp meal teaā that you can mix into water and use right away, either as drench or a Foliar. But if you wanna make a tea using kelp from a bag, you need to let it soak in your water for 24-48 hours. You can bubble it if you want, but itās not necessary.
Also, if you have kelp meal, I donāt think youād need water soluble kelp. Thatās kind of pretty much what that hydrated kelp meal is.
Also, for silica you can get a bag of Agsil and make your own silica solution. Youāll save a ton of money over buying bottled silica solutions.
I donāt know what maxibloom is.
What are you using the twenty pounds of EWC for?
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Silica is 12$ a bottleā¦maxi 18$ a bag
Maxibloom only is a Lucas formulaā¦has enough N for low veg, enough P for high
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To answer an old question asked before, hereās the analysis and specs for the organic kelp meal that BuildASoil sells with the full amino acid profile:
THORVIN_Kelp-T4P-ANALYSIS.pdf (919.1 KB)
and
THORVIN_Kelp-T4A-Spec-TA-2page.pdf (188.0 KB)
I use it both for my plants and for an off-label addition to my DIY dog food, since it has the naturally occurring iodine and B vitamins that my recipe was lacking, as well as the aforementioned aminos + micronutes. I buy it by the 25lb bucket because itās so cheap and the highest quality.
The silica in my soil comes from rice hulls. If they get plenty of wind in veg, thereās neāer a floppy stem to be seen. Well, hardly. 
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I sometimes mulch with rice hulls. Should I just mix some into the soil also in place of perlite? Or is watering through the mulch providing silica? I am adding it now with Silica Blast. And what say you sir about adding silica in flower? Peace.
Blessingsā¦
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Hey friend, Happy New Year! 
I donāt know if rice hulls release silica unless theyāre being composted by bacteria in a living soil. Iād say keep doing whatever your doing cuz it seems to be working great! If it aināt broke, donāt fix it. 
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Thank you brother! Iām blushing! Youāre very kind.
Letās get up in 2021 and put 2020 away never to return!
Itās all love my friend.
Blessingsā¦
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Just grabbed a bag of this. Should last awhile.
Iāll def be trying the refrig/hydrate kelp teas. I was also curious about organic silica and seen someone post about agisil.?
For now indoors Iām using silica blast. Cheers
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A quart of Silica Blast costs like 16 bucks. A one pound bag of Agsil potassium silicate costs 20 dollars (at buildasoil, you may be able to find it for even cheaper elsewhere) and makes three quarts of the same thing. I donāt use silica very often, but Iāve had my bag of Agsil for like two years and am nowhere even close to needing to get more.
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Wow. Thanks for that! How much per gallon do you use? I am using Silica Blast now. Do you ad silica during flower? Just curious. Take care @minitiger.
Blessingsā¦
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Hereās the link to buildasoil: https://buildasoil.com/products/agsil16h-potassium-silicate?_pos=1&_sid=b3a3ac232&_ss=r&variant=562916325
Look at the āhow to useā section and itāll tell you how to make your own āSilica Blast.ā
I have used it in flower, yeah. But honestly, not much. Not because I think itās bad or anything, from everything Iāve read, itās great. Really strengthens branches and improves yields. I just donāt really add very much of anything to my water, in veg or flower. But itās fine to use at any time during a plantās life.
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Out here in SoCal I wouldnāt say we have the cleanest of ocean water but grabbing kelp off the beach is definitely intriguing.
I was thinking about grabbing some, spraying off with a hose, and then dunking in a tote with some water and h202ā¦
Anyone think this is ok?
Are there microbes with it weād want or is it just the nutrient make up of it?
I would then blend it fresh with some water to get that sludge as OP mentioned and store in the fridge for later use, foliar and/or soil drench?
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I mean, that sounds like a lot more trouble than itās worth, especially considering the fact that you can get five pounds of kelp meal for like fifteen bucks.
I dunno that simply rinsing it off and then letting it soak would be enough to get all of the salt out. Maybe if you let it soak, drain, re-soak, drain etc etc a bunch of times, that might be enough.
I donāt think Iād blend it fresh, either. Itād be pretty gnarly and nasty. Better to let it dry out and then use it like you would kelp meal, either in a tea or as a top dress or soil amendment. Still, Iād just buy some kelp meal haha.
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Found a recipe to make your own
Supplies
- Seaweed
- Water
- Lidded, airtight container (a bucket is perfect)
Instructions
- Head down to the seashore and collect a big bunch - or small if you prefer - of seaweed and bring it home.
- Rinse it off to remove excess salt, sand/debris, and anything else that may have hitched a ride home from the beach with you.
- Place the rinsed seaweed in the container, cover it completely with water, and then firmly snap the lid on.
- Stick it out of the way and let it sit for a couple of weeks, or months if the temperature is cooler.
- To use it, dilute one part to 10 parts water and then spray on plants in a fine mist or apply with a watering can until the liquid drips off the leaves.
Storage
Because of the nature of the product, the shelf life is shorter than granular, inorganic products. To get the longest life out of your seaweed fertilizer store the concentrated product in a tightly closed container at room temperature, out of direct sunlight. Under these conditions, it will stay stable for a year.
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This sounds more like a fermented kelp extract. Or a kelp botanical, whatever you wanna call it. Never heard of anybody doing that with kelp before, usually itās plants like comfrey etc. Itād probably end up being extremely powerful, so Iād dilute it way more than 10:1. Maybe like 40:1. Anyway, if somebody sees this and wants to try it, hereās some info on making botanicals that might come in handy, courtesy of chunk at grasscity:
āThe basic method of fermentation is simple enough, which is not to say anything goes. First you need a container made of a nonreactive material. A 50-gallon plastic garbage can works fine. You need to cover your container during fermentation, but not tightly, or it might explode! Either punch some holes in your garbage can lid or cover the can with a piece of burlap or other cloth. While you can use smaller containers, 50 gallons is an optimal homeowner-scale size that is big enough to help moderate temperature extremes during fermentation.An unheated garage or outbuilding is a good place to conduct the fermentation, the speed of which is temperature dependent. The higher the temperatureāup to a pointāthe faster the fermentation.
The water you use is very important. The ideal source of water is rain, being free of calcareous minerals or additives such as chlorine which can retard or stop fermentation. If you must use hard well water, add a bit of vinegar to it to lower the pH. City water should be allowed to stand several days to allow the chlorine to evaporate before you use it for your extracts.
The duration of fermentation can range from a few days to a couple of weeks. When the mixture stops bubbling when you stir or otherwise move the contents, fermentation is complete. Check your brew daily.
It is imperative that you filter your extract. Doing so stops the fermentation from going too far, and also prevents globs of stuff from plugging up your sprayer or watering can when you apply the brew. Use a very fine strainer lined with cheesecloth, an old clean teeshirt, anything short of a coffee filter or other filter paper, which filters out too much.
Store your extract in stainless steel or plastic containers in a cool place, around 40-50 degrees F being ideal. French folks like to use 5-gallon plastic wine containers, appropriately enough. While a wine cellar is also an excellent place to store your extracts, make sure to label carefully!
Once you have your made your extract or infusion, you of course need to apply it. Most often, you spray it on, just as you would a conventional pesticide or foliar fertilizer, taking care to cover the undersides of leaves. But some remedies are applied as a soil drench. This is best accomplished with a good old-fashioned watering can.ā
Iāve never messed with botanicals myself, but I know that a lot of people have and really like them. It always seemed like way more work than I wanted to do. Honestly, just add some kelp to your soil. Or top dress with it. Make a tea by just soaking some kelp meal in water for a day or two (two days max). Itās really easy. All of this āGoing down to the beach and grabbing a shitload of kelpā and whatever all else sounds like a lot of work for something thatās cheap and readily available. But maybe thatās just meā¦
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If you look - Kelp Meal and Fish Emulsion ferts come from un-ethical farm practices.
So best take urself to the beach and gather some kelp and shells! For the planet if not for anything else!
I have been slowly turning from these things and moving toward whatās called cricket frass.
But now I am going to try DWC soonā¦ oops!@
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There is different kinds on our beaches over here. Make sure u grab teh good stuff ~
A fisherman on the shore will be able 2 let you know
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