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17 December 2024
The Ultimate Guide to Seaweed Fertiliser Benefits
Discover the seaweed fertiliser benefits for your lawn and plants, one of them being that seaweed is a biostimulant. Learn more about the natural nutrients.
Seaweed fertilisers are a fantastic organic option for those wanting to improve the health of their plants or turf. At ProGreen, many of the seaweed fertilisers we stock are created using the sustainably harvested Ascophyllum nodosum cold water seaweed. This is a slow-growing, large, brown macro algae found in the clean, clear waters off the Irish North Atlantic coast.
Seaweed fertiliser benefits: What are they?
When many people think of seaweed, they think of it as being extremely salty; however, this is not the case. Seaweed used in fertilisers is rinsed, so it does not contain a sufficient amount of salt to damage crops or soil. In fact, there’s just enough sodium to actually benefit soils for healthy grass growth.
Discover the seaweed fertiliser benefits for your lawn and plants below.
1. It’s a Natural Biostimulant
To begin with, seaweed is a biostimulant that is rich in trace elements. This helps to promote thicker and longer roots, allowing the plants or turf to have greater access to water and nutrients.
2. Improve Resistance to disease
The use of seaweed can improve resistance to disease, pests, and abiotic plant stress (the effect extreme weather, such as frosts and drought, has on plants), as well as increasing crop yields!
3. Supports healthy Plant growth
The seaweed within these fertilisers contains cytokinins. Cytokinins are a natural plant growth hormone. They draw nutrients into the tissue while stimulating more lateral plant growth, making this vital for new growth.
If you apply seaweed fertiliser at the following stages, the cytokinins will have these effects:
- Rooting formation: stimulates the division of more root cells.
- Vegetative growth stage: causes plants to grow faster with stronger cell walls.
- Fruiting and flowering stage: encourages more buds to develop for better overall fruit and flower production.
Alginates are also present within seaweed fertilisers. Not only do these help to improve the structure of clay soils, they also increase microbial populations. An increase in microbial populations is important as it aids in improving soil health and plant growth.
Which plants like Seaweed Fertiliser?
A variety of plants can benefit from the use of seaweed, including:
- Lawns/turf.
- Vegetable patches, root crops, and herbs—basil, mint, tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, carrots, and salad leaves—respond particularly well to seaweed fertiliser.
- Flowering plants and shrubs, including roses and geraniums.
- Horse paddocks or pastures with grazing livestock.
- Fruit trees, including berries, citrus, and stone fruits.
Is Seaweed Fertiliser high in nitrogen?
The Ascophyllum nodosum seaweed variety is well known for boosting overall plant health due to the micronutrients and macronutrients, including magnesium, potassium, and nitrogen it possesses. ProGreen seaweed fertilisers typically contain less than 2% nitrogen content.
Other nutrient combinations include sodium, copper, zinc, and selenium in the Amvista Trace Elements - a recommended blend for grazing livestock.
How to use Seaweed Fertilisers
As seaweed fertilisers are available in both liquid and granular forms, there are different ways that they should be applied.
If you are using a dried seaweed fertiliser, such as Amvista Seaweed Meal, it can be applied to grass, turf, or grazing paddocks using a granule spreader. It can also be broadcast directly and incorporated into soil around plants or in planting holes.
When using a liquid seaweed fertiliser, such as Amvista L9 or Maxicrop Original, it is important to remember to dilute the product with water following the specific application rates on the product label.
Applied to plants, it is best used as a soil drench on a regular basis to promote soil microbial activity and support the plant's natural defences. Once diluted, the product can be applied using either a knapsack or boom sprayer for an even application.
Find the granular or liquid seaweed fertiliser to help your plants, lawn, and pastures thrive. ProGreen offers expertly formulated products you can trust.
