GS Plants - "Fish & Kelp" liquid fert

DrDukePHD

DrDukePHD

Well-Known Member
Have you tried this Fish & Kelp from GS Plants?

Just picked up a gallon for $35. A guy on here suggested it & said feed 1tbsp/gallon once per week during flower. So far so good, day #7 of flower & I've done 2 applications so far to my lady. Not really sure about the NPK value of it.

How often do you use it & how much? Share your experiences :-)

Thanks!
 
PJ Diaz

PJ Diaz

Well-Known Member
farmerfischer said:
Ive used neptunes harvest fish & kelp .. it was ok.. i perferd using kelp powder instead of the liquid fish and kelp..
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I don't like kelp powders, they always seems to have particulates which settle out and can clog drip emitters. I switched to this stuff an couple of years ago, and love it. It's super clean, as the name implies. It comes out more green than the typical brown you get with powders, and is made from 7 different species of kelp.

Screenshot 2022-09-06 9.31.05 AM.png
 
farmerfischer

farmerfischer

Well-Known Member
PJ Diaz said:
I don't like kelp powders, they always seems to have particulates which settle out and can clog drip emitters. I switched to this stuff an couple of years ago, and love it. It's super clean, as the name implies. It comes out more green than the typical brown you get with powders, and is made from 7 different species of kelp.

View attachment 5193542
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The kelp powder i used came out purple after mixing and had no particulates.. i forget the brand.. thanks for the info on this brand.. i may have to try it out..
 
PJ Diaz

PJ Diaz

Well-Known Member
farmerfischer said:
The kelp powder i used came out purple after mixing and had no particulates.. i forget the brand.. thanks for the info on this brand.. i may have to try it out..
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I've been using kelp for close to 30-years now. I used to collect it washed up on the beach and compost it. Back in the day, there was only maxi-crop powder, now we have a lot more choices. The Bloom City Clean-Kelp is definitely the best I've ever used. I don't see them mentioned often in grow forums, and I sometimes worry about their business and hope that they continue for a long time, so that I can continue to get their kelp product. At the same time I want them to stay under the radar, so they aren't bought up by Scotts or Hawthorne, and then I'd be ethically forced to add them to my boycott list like I did with Botanicare.
 
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youraveragehorticulturist

Well-Known Member
I like fish and kelp, only I use Neptune's Harvest too.

Anyway, fish and kelp hydrolysate is good. It's got NPK and micronutrients of course. But also enzymes and amino acids that help your plants take up those nutrients. Plus help to break down and take up nutrients from other amendments in your soil.

The fish guts are also great food for microbes in your soil. So using the hydrolysate can help you get more out of your soil and any other fertilizers by increasing beneficials, to break stuff down too.

Like you, I just use a couple teaspoons, once a week or so.
 
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youraveragehorticulturist

Well-Known Member
Some experiences I had with Fish and Kelp.

I added Fulvic Acid to fish and kelp fertilizer and bubbled it for awhile, thinking maybe I could increase absorption or something. It made the fish guts come out of suspension and form into gross brown globs floating in my bucket. I decided not to do that again.

I added "Earth Juice: Catalyst" (molasses, yeast, malted barley) to fish and kelp fertilizer. 3 tsp of fish/kelp and 3 tsp of Catalyst in 5 gallons of water. That shit worked so well together that it burned my tips a little! I had to back off to 2tps of each.

I was following a feeding schedule from Neptune's Harvest. They said to stop with fish/kelp and go with just kelp extract during the last few weeks. I tried Kelp + Catalyst but it caused some yellow leaves. The following week I went back to fish/kelp and things greened back up.
 
Y

youraveragehorticulturist

Well-Known Member
The last thing I'm trying to get my head around is the Bio Stimulant effect of fish hydrolysate.

The way I understand it, the nitrogen in the fish fertilizer is in the form of amino acids. These amino acids are easily absorbable by plants. In the root zone these amino acids "grab" less mobile nutrients and carry them right into the roots.

But the inside the plants, amino acids also stimulate the plant to take up more nutrients. So (in theory) you can foliar spray fish hydrolysate and the glutamic acid will get into the leaves, then stimulate your plant to take up more nutrients through the roots. I heard Harley Smith say that aminos make the plant take up 1000 times more calcium. I know this seems like Voodoo, but if you look around, California bros have been spraying their vegging plants with hydrolysate since like the 90s.

So maybe think about a weekly foliar in veg.
 
DrDukePHD

DrDukePHD

Well-Known Member
youraveragehorticulturist said:
I like fish and kelp, only I use Neptune's Harvest too.

Anyway, fish and kelp hydrolysate is good. It's got NPK and micronutrients of course. But also enzymes and amino acids that help your plants take up those nutrients. Plus help to break down and take up nutrients from other amendments in your soil.

The fish guts are also great food for microbes in your soil. So using the hydrolysate can help you get more out of your soil and any other fertilizers by increasing beneficials, to break stuff down too.

Like you, I just use a couple teaspoons, once a week or so.
Click to expand...
Excellent, i feel like I have a much better understanding now. I have been adding 1 tablespoon per gallon, per week though. Think that's way more than your couple teaspoons, too much?
youraveragehorticulturist said:
The last thing I'm trying to get my head around is the Bio Stimulant effect of fish hydrolysate.

The way I understand it, the nitrogen in the fish fertilizer is in the form of amino acids. These amino acids are easily absorbable by plants. In the root zone these amino acids "grab" less mobile nutrients and carry them right into the roots.

But the inside the plants, amino acids also stimulate the plant to take up more nutrients. So (in theory) you can foliar spray fish hydrolysate and the glutamic acid will get into the leaves, then stimulate your plant to take up more nutrients through the roots. I heard Harley Smith say that aminos make the plant take up 1000 times more calcium. I know this seems like Voodoo, but if you look around, California bros have been spraying their vegging plants with hydrolysate since like the 90s.

So maybe think about a weekly foliar in veg.
Click to expand...
Awesome thanks, I really appreciate it when people on the forum go into great detail & take time to explain the science/background concepts. Really good information here!
 
Y

youraveragehorticulturist

Well-Known Member
DrDukePHD said:
Excellent, i feel like I have a much better understanding now. I have been adding 1 tablespoon per gallon, per week though. Think that's way more than your couple teaspoons, too much?

Awesome thanks, I really appreciate it when people on the forum go into great detail & take time to explain the science/background concepts. Really good information here!
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I'm glad you were able to get something useful out of those ramblings.

I guess I read your first post wrong. You said Tablespoons not Teaspoons. I see the bigger dose (tbs not tsp) recommended pretty often. If you're not burning things up, I guess it's OK.
 
Blue brother

Blue brother

Well-Known Member
PJ Diaz said:
I've been using kelp for close to 30-years now. I used to collect it washed up on the beach and compost it. Back in the day, there was only maxi-crop powder, now we have a lot more choices. The Bloom City Clean-Kelp is definitely the best I've ever used. I don't see them mentioned often in grow forums, and I sometimes worry about their business and hope that they continue for a long time, so that I can continue to get their kelp product. At the same time I want them to stay under the radar, so they aren't bought up by Scotts or Hawthorne, and then I'd be ethically forced to add them to my boycott list like I did with Botanicare.
Click to expand...
What a nice thing to say, deffo agree, there’s some hidden gems that often go bust cos they were too hidden.
 
DrDukePHD

DrDukePHD

Well-Known Member
youraveragehorticulturist said:
I'm glad you were able to get something useful out of those ramblings.

I guess I read your first post wrong. You said Tablespoons not Teaspoons. I see the bigger dose (tbs not tsp) recommended pretty often. If you're not burning things up, I guess it's OK.
Click to expand...
OK so maybe switch to 2 teaspoons just incase?
 
Week4@inCharge

Week4@inCharge

Well-Known Member
PJ Diaz said:
I don't like kelp powders, they always seems to have particulates which settle out and can clog drip emitters. I switched to this stuff an couple of years ago, and love it. It's super clean, as the name implies. It comes out more green than the typical brown you get with powders, and is made from 7 different species of kelp.

View attachment 5193542
Click to expand...
Just got a bottle of this (Organic Clean Kelp) and added a little aloe (surfactant) and foliar sprayed the ladies today. I have very little experience with foliar spraying and read that it's (nutrients) are absorbed almost twice as much (fast?) as the root system. something like that,
 
PJ Diaz

PJ Diaz

Well-Known Member
Week4@inCharge said:
Just got a bottle of this (Organic Clean Kelp) and added a little aloe (surfactant) and foliar sprayed the ladies today. I have very little experience with foliar spraying and read that it's (nuriens) absorbed almost twice as much (fast?) as the root system. something like that,
Click to expand...
Most of the stomata are on the bottom of the leaves, so be sure that you get the underside.
 
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