Kelpak / KelpMax Usage

[Ray]

Originally Posted by Shadeflower

If you look at this supermarket phal the latest root it is producing is twice as thick as the previous roots



I might attribute it to kelpmax but like most supplements I use it very sparingly.

I am sure I have killed seedlings using it at full dose and now you are recommending even stronger Ray?

ok whatever you say 1:100, I use a rate of 1:25,000

You end up with roots like the one above and the kelpmax lasts 250 times longer. Some would argue that the tiny amounts I use then have no effect, well, that's fine too, then you don't need the stuff to get good roots growing. But if it does have an effect at the dosage I use then why use more than x100 times more of it.

Maybe we should be moving this to a dedicated kelpmax thread again if that becomes the new topic. I know this will result in 10 people claiming they have had excellent results using the full dose and that is not what I am disputing (although I think the full concentration can actually harm seedlings).
I just want to add what I do using the product as with most products. I check what is safe for tomatoes and I divide it by 10.

Thats standard procedure at mine and it has worked great so far.

I don't actually buy the kelpmax, I buy the kelpak european alternative and it says the dosage for a tree would be 4ml/l

I know it says the same on most seaweed bottles but I actually measured the ppm of my generic seaweed extract and kelpmax. Kelpmax has a much higher ppm content than other regular seaweed extracts.

That's good but then not much of it is needed to get great results with orchids.

When you check youtube channels using seaweed does anyone use the full dose of 40ml per bucket? No they go a little lower. Now kelpmax is at least 4 times stronger.
I believe that's what makes it good value for money but not if you use 100ml per bucket. It would need replacing in no time

The only difference between Kelpak and KelpMax is the bottle and label. At the request of Kelp Products when I first got the stuff for resale, I purchase Kelpak and repackage and relabel it s KelpMax for retail distribution.

When I first acquired a sample, I went back to the manufacturer and asked advice about using it on orchids. While they have reams of data on its use on other crops - mostly foods, nuts, fruit, grains and landscaping & turf - at the time, they had none relating to orchids. They gave me some experimental guidance, and I ended up with the 1:250 mixing ratio.

I have used that concentration regularly since late 2011 on all of my plants - orchids, bromeliads, nepenthes, miscellaneous tropical houseplants, plus lawns, outdoor plants like palms and cycads (which produce pups like wildfire with that treatment), impatiens, tomatoes, figs and herbs.

I have a hard time accepting that you have killed plants
at that mixing ratio. I have occasionally doubled that, and I recently tried an experiment in which I irrigated with the undiluted products, and nothing has suffered a bit.

About two years ago, Kelp Products got a new technical director who is an orchid grower, and we have been comparing notes. Just this last spring (about a year ago, Southern hemisphere-wise), he told me that he and several in his local orchid society treated their collections with a 1% solution (10ml/L) to "kick start" growth, and they were very impressed with the results.

I am convinced that at a 1:25000 dilution, you're getting no benefit from using the product at all. The manufacturer told me that below about 1:500, it has little-, to no effect.

DO NOT equate "seaweed extracts" with Kelpak. What people do with other brands has absolutely no bearing on how you should use Kelpak. Do a search specifically for Kelpak on Youtube, and you'll see practical recommendations based upon years of field experience.