Have you ever considered using kelp to strengthen your growing medium or fertilize your plants? If you haven’t, it’s worth looking into. Organic kelp provides essential macronutrients to your plants, including nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. Additional micronutrients, including magnesium, zinc, and copper, can also be found in organic kelp. The best part about using kelp? It’s nearly impossible to oversaturate the growing medium with kelp. Kelp meal slowly breaks down over time, and excess kelp is not harmful to your plants. Because kelp breaks down slowly, we recommend that if you plan on using kelp meal with your crop, it should be mixed into the soil as soon as possible.
Kelptastic is a new kelp-based soil amendment from TNB Naturals. As a soil amendment, it improves soil structure and consistency. Since Kelptastic is derived from hand-harvested Atlantic kelp, it is an organic soil amendment, which means that beneficial nutrients are gradually released into the soil (and eventually the plant itself) as the kelp is broken down by microbes in the soil. Kelptastic can be combined with virtually any soil-based medium and mixes well with a variety of soil conditioners and fertilizers.
So why are microbes so important to healthy plant growth? First, microbes help plants get the nutrients they need, specifically nitrogen. Nitrogen fixation, the process where nitrogen from the air is converted into a form usable by plants, is exclusively done by soil microbes. In many cases, nitrogen is the limiting factor in plant growth. You’ll run out of nitrogen, or more specifically, microbes that can convert nitrogen for plant use, before you run out of light, water, or trace nutrients found in common fertilizers.
There are a variety of additional benefits that healthy, active microbes provide the plants that share their soil. Active microbes ward off bacterial infections in plants by outcompeting invading bacteria for nutrients. Since the disease never gets enough nutrients to multiply and infect the plant, it dies out unnoticed. Microbes are also used as food by plant roots. Mixing kelp meal into your soil will cause soil microbes to multiply, which gives your plant roots easily accessible nutrients.
As Kelptastic is broken down by microbes it releases a variety of beneficial vitamins, minerals, carbohydrates, and amino acids into the soil. These nutrients, alongside the microbes themselves, have been shown to improve plant root development and lateral root growth. Lateral root growth aerates the soil, which in turn forms pores that allow water to reach the plant roots more efficiently.
Kelptastic can be used with plants, trees, vegetables, herbs, flowers, lawns, turf, and in compost teas. It’s a true multi-use product that can speed up composting in addition to promoting plant growth. Mix Kelpastic as a soil amendment or use it as a top dressing.
TNB Naturals is based out of British Columbia, Canada. Their most well-known product is The Enhancer, a CO2 generator for greenhouse and indoor garden use. Click here to learn more about Kelptastic. Learn more about TNB Naturals by visiting their website.
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