Hi, I'm Steven from Alberta Urban Garden dot CA. If you're an organic gardener, you've probably seen kelp-based fertilizer products in your local greenhouse. They come in fertilizers, kelp meals, and kelp powders. But really, what are these kelp products and what benefits do they bring to your garden? Let's take a look. First, let's talk about the macro nutrients that are required for plant growth: nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. These are often the first things to be depleted. The highest reported NPK (nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium) of a kelp product that I could find was 1:04 from the Colorado State Extensions website. Most other kelp-based products have negligible NPKs. If they do have an NPK, it's often because they've been combined with fish products or fish waste to give the product an NPK value. Now, let's focus on the trace elements. There are 18 trace elements that are required or beneficial for plant growth. An absence or presence of these elements will have implications on the plant's growth cycle and ability to produce. Out of these 18 elements, silicon and chlorine are not commonly tested for since they are abundantly available across the earth. There are many varieties of kelp used in agriculture to add these essential and beneficial elements to the soil. When one of these varieties of kelp was tested for trace elemental analysis, results showed milligrams per liter of copper, magnesium, zinc, iron, potassium, manganese, cobalt, and sodium. These results accounted for eight of the sixteen commonly tested elements for plant growth. Kelp is also marketed for its concentrations of plant growth hormones. These hormones can impact the vigor and vitality of plants. One of the notable effects of plant growth hormones is stimulating root growth, resulting in a larger root system. A larger root system can help...
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