spirulina soil drench

[crimsonecho]

i’ve been using seaweed/kelp extract for a while now but kinda worried about the origin and the composition of the material and the destruction of marine ecosystem due to kelp harvest. i know it contains growth regulators and micro and trace elements but it also contains a serious amount of sodium as far as i know. some of the research i read suggests this sodium can inhibit plant growth with heavy applications so i had some spirulina sitting around the house in pill form and some stressed plants in flower so i though why don’t i just try if spirulina works as a bioactivator/stress reducer.

i know its a rich source of nutrition for humans and has very high amounts of protein/amino acids and doesn’t have much sodium or arsenic or other heavy metals which somewhat causes concern with kelp for me. it should also be easily digestible source for the soil microbiota.

well anyway i have stressed/yellowing plants mostly 2 clones of the same 2 strains and 1 other gal. so 5 plants in total 3 of them will get spirulina and the 2 others will get standart feeding which is mostly liquid wormcastings and some biobizz bloom etc. either way they will all get the same feed but 3 of them will get additional spirulina and i’ll try to asses if it had any positive effects on them.

now i did my first drench today with 2 plants 1 of 2 destroyers (which were on their way to recovery already) and a caribe which is yellowing very fast since i lowered the lights on it. the other plant was not ready to be watered yet.

i dropped 2 tablets into water and let them dissolve a bit. not much dissolved in the 20-30 minutes i waited and stirred, maybe half of them. so i guess half of 2 3g tablets is 3g. 3g of spirulina diluted in 6-7lt of water. didn’t want to go heavy on them as i don’t know how they’ll respond yet.

anyway i also took pics of the plants and i’ll update this thread with before/after photos if i see any difference.

- do you guys ever fiddled with spirulina as a plant fertilizer?
- how did it work out for you?
- to your knowledge, is there anything that is especially beneficial or detrimental to plant growth on these nutritional info i shared?

here’s some nutritional info on spirulina i found online



this is the analysis of the actual product i have


this is the color of the diluted final solution. looks so cool and beautiful.

 

[weedstoner420]

Never thought of using it on plants, but you can get powdered spirulina for putting in juices and smoothies. It might dissolve better than the tablets...

 

[crimsonecho]

it definitely would but i have these tablets sitting in the fridge and trying to use what i have on hand if i see detectable benefits of using it i may order some powder in the future

also i’ve been doing some research on the subject and i stumbled upon various studies on the subject and without getting too technical and scientific the results of those experiments yielded positive results for those researchers.

a yield increase between 15-35% of various plants, root mass increase, foliage increase, dry mass increase, increase in chlorophyll content, increased height with spirulina treated plants was observed in these experiments.

some were field experiments some were done in labs. some were focused on foliar application some were focused on its effect as a dry ammendment. one study used 25g of spirulina per kilogram of medium as dry ammendment, one used total seed weight as a guideline and coated the seeds with 25-50-75-100% spirulina by weight.

the common result in these experiments was that spirulina always provided statistically significant improvements compared to control and even provided better end results than brand name bio-stimulators used in some of these studies.

so lets see how it works out for me

 

[Week4@inCharge]

Update?

 

[crimsonecho]

Update?

oh yeah it hasn’t even been a week yet so in soil not much to update but the tomato seedlings and stuff which i also drenched look greener definitely but i think its gonna take a little longer with big cannabis i have in the tent. though i kinda see them getting greener its early to say anything but from all the research i read i think it’d actually be beneficial, the studies i browsed suggest that all forms of algae is beneficial in plant growth. spirulina is just richer in macros compared to some other.

 

[Milky Weed]

oh yeah it hasn’t even been a week yet so in soil not much to update but the tomato seedlings and stuff which i also drenched look greener definitely but i think its gonna take a little longer with big cannabis i have in the tent. though i kinda see them getting greener its early to say anything but from all the research i read i think it’d actually be beneficial, the studies i browsed suggest that all forms of algae is beneficial in plant growth. spirulina is just richer in macros compared to some other.

Im curious now as to what spirulinas N-P-K value is…

Have abunch of jars around the house with it. Im in soiless dtw so it may be useless for me.

 

[crimsonecho]

Im curious now as to what spirulinas N-P-K value is…

Have abunch of jars around the house with it. Im in soiless dtw so it may be useless for me.

as an organic amendment the actual npk value will differ of course but this is from one study i read and in others i also see higher macro content usually compared to nodosum for example which is the selected algae for biobizz alg-a-mic.

i really wouldnt know if it work on dtw etc i mean in coco there is a substrate which can harbor microbial life safely compared to dwc/rdwc etc but its an unstabilised organic material so it will inevitably decay.

 

[Milky Weed]

as an organic amendment the actual npk value will differ of course but this is from one study i read and in others i also see higher macro content usually compared to nodossum for example which is the selected algae for biobizz alg-a-mic.

i really wouldnt know if it work on dtw etc i mean in coco there is a substrate which can harbor microbial life safely compared to dwc/rdwc etc but its an unstabilised organic material so it will inevitably decay.

View attachment 5090822

Really digging that calcium content… and as i figured it also had some N.

actually its not calcium, does the C stand for chlorophyll?

 

[crimsonecho]

Really digging that calcium content… and as i figured it also had some N.

actually its not calcium, does the C stand for chlorophyll?

nodosum is even better at calcium and even has 4:1 ratio of calcium/magnesium which is why biobizz chose that one as an enhancer i guess so it would really work well as an enhancer but spirulina is more like a bio fertilizer with a ton of aminos and micros and some nice N and P. which is also great.

nodosum really lacks on the macro front compared to spirulina. spirulina looks like an N fertilizer with like 12% N 0.2%P 0.2%Ca 0.2% Mg

what i’d like to do actually would be mix it up and grow one plant with just topdressing and watering with algae but i don’t have nodosum or palmata or digitata

just got some chlorella though i’m gonna try that out too lol

 

[crimsonecho]

actually its not calcium, does the C stand for chlorophyll?

ah i see thats carbon i think

 

[Kayaganja]

If it’s working then you Can get Them in petshops

 

[McShnutz]

Definitely watching this one! I'm all about a variety of organic ammendment, foliar and ferment. Great thread!!

 

[crimsonecho]

If it’s working then you Can get Them in petshops

thanks man i prefer human grade stuff usually because you know who cares about fish that much to provide heavy metal free top grade spirulina lol but its an option i should check out (for lead and stuff)

Definitely watching this one! I'm all about a variety of organic ammendment, foliar and ferment. Great thread!!

this run couldnt contain myself and i fed spirulina to all so side by side is bust i’ll give it another go in my 2x2 to get better results but from what i‘ve read so far no reason to not add it into an organic amendment regimen imo cause in all the studies i read at worst there were no statistical difference with spirulina treatments and most reported increased growth.

 

[McShnutz]

thanks man i prefer human grade stuff usually because you know who cares about fish that much to provide heavy metal free top grade spirulina lol but its an option i should check out (for lead and stuff)



this run couldnt contain myself and i fed spirulina to all so side by side is bust i’ll give it another go in my 2x2 to get better results but from what i‘ve read so far no reason to not add it into an organic amendment regimen imo cause in all the studies i read at worst there were no statistical difference with spirulina treatments and most reported increased growth.

I know what your saying, I have a hard time giving beneficials to some plants and not the rest. I love my garden like I love my children.

Years back before I sold my boat, I had collected a bunch of fresh water lake weeds, didn't rinse them off. Spread them out in the driveway in the sun to dry for about 1 week. Used a weed Wacker in a trash can and Chopped everything up . Ammended one of my outdoor raised bed and overwinter it under a tarp. That next summer my tomatoe fruits and plants were massive. Complete game changer. The only other thing I added was a compost/woodchip mulching. I've been meaning to go back out and get more. Lazy I guess...

 

[crimsonecho]

I know what your saying, I have a hard time giving beneficials to some plants and not the rest. I love my garden like I love my children.

Years back before I sold my boat, I had collected a bunch of fresh water lake weeds, didn't rinse them off. Spread them out in the driveway in the sun to dry for about 1 week. Used a weed Wacker in a trash can and Chopped everything up . Ammended one of my outdoor raised bed and overwinter it under a tarp. That next summer my tomatoe fruits and plants were massive. Complete game changer. The only other thing I added was a compost/woodchip mulching. I've been meaning to go back out and get more. Lazy I guess...

yeah feels like if its beneficial let all my children reap the benefits really hard to stop man lol

and yeah laziness sucks at organics i’m the same way too i kinda know the things that would work but i’m just too lazy to do them sometimes

instead of seaweed fresh water stuff would be better i guess i’m really afraid of adding too much sodium as i’m growing in containers and reuse my soil so if i add a shit ton of seaweed there would be too much sodium i guess but with spirulina sodium content seems low so thats why i kinda wanted to give it a try if i can replace seaweed with algae without losing the benefits whats the harm in that

 

[McShnutz]

yeah feels like if its beneficial let all my children reap the benefits really hard to stop man lol

and yeah laziness sucks at organics i’m the same way too i kinda know the things that would work but i’m just too lazy to do them sometimes

instead of seaweed fresh water stuff would be better i guess i’m really afraid of adding too much sodium as i’m growing in containers and reuse my soil so if i add a shit ton of seaweed there would be too much sodium i guess but with spirulina sodium content seems low so thats why i kinda wanted to give it a try if i can replace seaweed with algae without losing the benefits whats the harm in that

Absolutely agree 100%! Could be a game changer for kelp. I used to go heavy with it in everything. Once a year I'll veg a 4x8 bed of cannabis just to chop them down about 4" high, dry them on the garage floor and make meal for top dressing or in soil ammendment. Worms like it too. Everything organic gets repurposed or recycled around here. I'm going to hit my girls with some spirulina. I have some clones and seedlings in veg.
Flower tent is good to go. I saw the Nitrogen value of spirulia is a bit high for bloom phase.

 

[McShnutz]

But these girls could use a good drench.

 

[crimsonecho]

yeah definitely and post your impressions about its effects if you feel like it. the only reason i hit my gals this late was because they were yellowing its definitely an N heavy fertilizer but i add so little that i don’t think it makes such a difference i mostly went for it for the remaining 88% of the stuff rather than the 12% N

but yeah those girls would probably love it. also liked the idea of growing cannabis for composting maybe something like planting some bag seeds or sub par stuff at random locations while hiking etc and cutting them down at various stages of growth and composting would be a clever way to create cannabis specific compost especially for outdoor crops but lazy lazy lazy lol

i compost everything i don’t smoke too stems leaves some trim some fluff gotta give it back to the soil so it can grow back on some other plant but of course me smoking the most of it creates an imbalance, fucks up the zen of things

 

[Kayaganja]

thanks man i prefer human grade stuff usually because you know who cares about fish that much to provide heavy metal free top grade spirulina lol but its an option i should check out (for lead and stuff)


get what you mean, then again depends on what it is which country you’re in . We have organic animal food, am using mostly that , I even grow alfalfa to make teas and FFJ ,

 

[Rurumo]

There are some interesting studies looking at cyanobacteria as biostimulents. I'm interested.... the dosage required is quite small and since spirulina is grown in freshwater, it's easier to avoid heavy metal contamination that is common in brown seaweeds. Of course, finding clean spirulina can be a challenge, but there are a few reliable suppliers out there. I think I might start experimenting with dosages. I love how water soluble the blue pigment in it is (phycocyanin.) Put a teaspoon of spirulina in a clear glass of water and stir it up really well, then come back 30 min later and it has gone from murky swamp water to crystal clear blue water.