How to tell if your seaweed extract is working

[ALToronto]

Originally Posted by lotis146

Glad i ran into this thread, ironically today I watered with KelpMax. I've not been so consistent with it which leads me to ask how often most of you use it? Do you use in conjunction with fertilizer/food alternate or...? My use is new this summer so I can't yet say for certain or what results I'm seeing.

---------- Post added at 11:32 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:30 PM ----------

And btw, AlToronto what are your general culture methods in addition to using seaweed? Those plants look super happy!

General culture? Humidity at least 60% year round, up to 80% in the summer. No air conditioning unless the temperature is pushing 30 degrees.

For plants in pots, I use RO water with K-lite fertiliser at 20 ppm N at every watering, no pre-wetting. Fish/seaweed fertiliser once a month, same N concentration, or sometimes KelpMax at 5 ml/L. Mostly inorganic media. Watering daily in the summer, every 2 or 3 days once the temperature drops below 20. Windowsill, shaded south facing window with supplementary lights.

For plants on living walls, I use PlantProd 25-10-10 at about 10 ppm N, every other day, with K-lite every other day. Fish or KelpMax once a month. 100% LED lights, homemade.

I think most people use way too much fertiliser. I'm getting good growth at about 1/20th of the label recommended concentration.

[lotis146]

Originally Posted by ALToronto

General culture? Humidity at least 60% year round, up to 80% in the summer. No air conditioning unless the temperature is pushing 30 degrees.

For plants in pots, I use RO water with K-lite fertiliser at 20 ppm N at every watering, no pre-wetting. Fish/seaweed fertiliser once a month, same N concentration, or sometimes KelpMax at 5 ml/L. Mostly inorganic media. Watering daily in the summer, every 2 or 3 days once the temperature drops below 20. Windowsill, shaded south facing window with supplementary lights.

For plants on living walls, I use PlantProd 25-10-10 at about 10 ppm N, every other day, with K-lite every other day. Fish or KelpMax once a month. 100% LED lights, homemade.

I think most people use way too much fertiliser. I'm getting good growth at about 1/20th of the label recommended concentration.

Interesting. So if you don't mind my asking, do you have an RO system in your house? Ray from First Rays recommended using RO as well but at this rate that just seems to be an endeavor I'm not at a point to delve into, though it's not that i'm uninterested.

And you only use KelpMax once a month (or something similar)? I've wondered about that. When you use Fish or KelpMax do you also fertilize or does that sort of serve as such?

In terms of fertilizer I've been alternating between Monty's Root & Bloom (2-15-15, suggested 1/2 tsp/gal weekly, bi-weekly) & Miracle-Gro Orchid Food (20-20-20, suggested use monthly so I dilute). I've been diluting both of these however I realized I wasn't really paying attention to the fact that Monty's was already formulated to be used weekly or bi-weekly so last time I upped the concentration. I'm more of a newbie than my inventory of plants may suggest so I don't have a whole lot to compare to. However I have successfully rebloomed plants and bloomed several for first time. Also I don't fertilize at every watering or weekly for that matter but only because I'm still working out my methods and as you well know it tends to be easier to just use water when you're in a crunch (especially considering watering takes me a few hours) versus mixing up fertilizer. Heck my problem isn't so much my lack of feeding schedule as it is not watering enough! Which brings me to my next comment...

Seems you water quite often; what orchids do you grow? Is it fairly warm where you are?

Thanks for sharing!