Home-grown veg ruined by toxic fertiliser

reply to post by forsakenwayfarer


I thought the same thing, until I read the source, where you find out that the herbicide was used on silage that the cattle ate, and thus the manure was sold without disclosure that it was tainted.

You know what the next repercussions is, right? Yah. What effect did this have on the meat of the cattle that ingested the silage that contaminated their manure that broke the back of the crops that were grown on the Isle where the problem was found [who lives in the house that Jack built]. Dang, that's almost a rap.

Okay. Well the following doesn't help the large-scale farmers, but those of you that are near the sea, and are farming/gardening on your own....... the perfectly balanced fertilizer is seaweed. Almost any seaweed. I've had tests run at analytical labs on the west coast to test qualatively and quantatively what is in seaweed. I sent seven different seaweed samples to a lab I once worked closely with, and they returned results that blew my mind.

I guess I knew that seaweed was good stuff for plants, but all of the samples submitted had all the stuff most plants needed in the right proportions, even the trace elements, such as boron and molebdemum. [I have a degree in chemistry...... I'm certain I once knew how to spell molebdemum, but that jest doan look right].

Aaaaaanyway, the big three were the highest value, followed by all the other elements and compounds, all in the correct proportion. It's almost as if seaweed was ordained by nature to be the perfect fertilizer. I used to wash the salt off..... not any longer. Now I just let it bake in the sun until it's crispy, then use a doubled-up dumbell to grind it into a powder. I then put about 30 lbs. of the powder in a 55-gallon drum of water, and the infusion becomes homemade Miracle Grow. Now, the only thing that limits my ability to grow food-producing plants is the heat. Some things just don't make it here.

Good post OP. Thanks!

[edit to create a few much-needed paragraphs]

[edit on 16-7-2008 by argentus]

sea weed is the bomb. especially bull kelp. scientists are finding all these enzymes that other plants don't have that are like plant steroids -in a good way.

just make sure to rinse all the sea salt off of it first. dry it out and then mash it up and infuse into soil or make a nice tea.

also in addition i'd agree. micronutrients= mass importante.

yeah it's hard to fight the heat. mycrorrhiza can help out a lot from keeping plants out of shock, some b1 formulas work well too.

If you are growing hydroponically or in an enclosed space. thinking tomatoes here don't get any funny ideas. than increasing the ppm (more than 1500) of CO2 will allow plants to grow safely into the 125 degree range. not the best situation, and heat is hard to surmount.

[edit on 16-7-2008 by BASSPLYR]

reply to post by BASSPLYR


Good, informative post BASSPLYR. Thank you for taking the time. As I said in my previous post, I rely 100% on seaweed, but your post is applicable for everyone, seafarers or not. Thanks!

reply to post by BASSPLYR


Thanks for your compliment. I love talking about growing things.

Remember, "salt" is a chemistry term. Table salt (NaCl) is a salt. So is 2, 4-D( a herbicide). It's the salt index that is important. Manure has a VERY high salt index. Synthetic ferts can have a very high salt index also, that's why applying them at the proper rate is very important. High salts effect the osmotic potential between the root and surrounding soil solute.

Superthrive is a great product. I've seen it used alot in greenhouses and in the tree nursery business, when transplanting trees. Yes, it's a B1 product..which is basically a plant biostimulant. Biostimulants (and there's hundreds of them)...have an effect on plant auxins ( a growth regulator). Any newly transplanted, or damaged root system can benefit from a shot of superthrive.

ps...i don't work for superthrive

reply to post by forsakenwayfarer


Please see my post to you. It clears everything up. You didn't read the original news item, that much is clear. Trust me on this...... just read it. Then read my response to you. It's all good.

We're all human. I've wandered into threads with preconceived notions, and felt like an idiot afterwards. I hold those lessons close to me, as they make me better.

So what do you think about seaweed as a growth medium?

I could say a lot of great things bout super thrive as well.

I'm referring to salts that create reverse osmosis and nutrient lockup. not all salts are bad. heck the human body would fail to function without salts, plants are the same.

Growing things is so theraputic to me.

reply to post by BASSPLYR


y'know, I used to wash the salt off, but I don't any longer. It's sort of like........ we live on a small island, and it is a salt environment. Now, a certain percentage of the plants won't be able to handle the salt, and so I let that attrition be established at the beginning of the growth, rather than in the middle. So, I don't wash the seaweed, and about 1/4 of the plants die. Those that don't die, are almost always STRONG and productive.

Well, that's my theory anyway haha!

reply to post by BASSPLYR


Being in the midwest USA, seaweed isn't readily available for home brew.

Seaweed extracts are commercially available, and are used extensively, especially in the fine turfgrass industry (ie, golf courses and sod farms). University studies do back up field experience and healthier plants result. Most plant scientists will admit they have no idea why though. I would think it's the multiple biostimulants, amino acid complexes inherent in seaweed. But, who knows..and it's inexpensive.

reply to post by starcraft


I've never heard of superthrive. There are about 1300 people on this island. We don't get out much

I understand about the salts. manganese, magnesium, all contained in the right proportion in seaweed. I don't segregate the different types any longer. They all (at least here) contain about the same elements and compounds.

Tomatoes. Current successful experiment has been in growing them upside-down in 5-gallon buckets. It takes a bit of working things out to get them started, but dang, do they every grow, and not having to prop them up is a real plus. If the storms come, I bring them inside and hang them in the closets, on the shower rod. Currently only growing plum and cherry tomatoes this way.

heh! I love to talk about growing things too.

holy crap I was just talking to a landscaper who works on a list celebrity homes in LA, and we were talking exactly about growing tomatoes upside down and how he wanted to try it. saying that he has heard some good things about it. one things for sure you won't need to stake the tomatoes up!!!

Super thrive is a b-1 root stimulant with some other biostimulants thrown in. it works grate, but it's not a miracle product. nothing makes up for a green thumb.

I guess if the soil is naturally really salty than theres no point to wash the salt off the seaweed. You are probably growing cultivars that have adapted to the local condition. might not work if you imported plants from a different environment.

Other than a little burning on the tips of leaves, have any of you guys seen any negative effects from the chlorine thats added in the water? I have found that it really doesn't piss off the plants too much. any thoughts.

reply to post by starcraft


biostimulants. I don't have an awareness of these products, and would like to learn more if you'd care to share your ideas, BASSPLYR. I do know that coconut fluff, the husk part, has a growth hormone in it that stimulates plants, or at least those that tend toward the acidic spectrum. I use it as a soil amendment, as we are short on soil here. The only true soil I have is humus that has rotted from leaves in depressions in the rock over the millenia. We have an orange clay loam on top of the bluff, but I don't fancy it much...... overrich in copper. I use a mixture of soil, sand, seaweed meal and coconut fluff for most of our plants. I use the infusion to water them. Most everything we grow is either in keystone raised beds, upside-down, or in homemade rolling carts.

Hurricane season. Gotta be ready to save the growies.

Have enjoyed talking with you, and appreciate the OP for giving us all the space.

Cheers!

reply to post by BASSPLYR


!!! small world huh? I cut a hole in the bucket bottom with a paddle bit, about 3/4 inch, and ease a peat pot with a tomato seedling in it from the inside. Then, I just fill the whole thing up with my soil mixture and hang it, keeping it fairly moist. Seems to work well, and I don't have to weed the dang thing

Most of what we plant are open-pollinated seeds. Sometimes I will re-seed from things that have been successful.

No mushrooms, no cry. Wellllll....... we get watery chantrells when it rains for weeks, but that's it.


p.s. I chlorinate our rainwater to .3 ppm, but no, haven't seen any evidence of that being adverse to the plants. As of last month, we're now using our well exclusively for plant watering, and the toilet (it's a tiny bit brackish).

Thanks again for all your wonderful information. Time well spent.

Cheers


[edit on 16-7-2008 by argentus]

reply to post by argentus



I really have no opinion on excess chlorine and its' effect on plants. I've never seen any deleterious effects myself. I would just mention that "city water"...as we call it, tends to be TOO pure. A porous soil with little cation exchange capacity could be quickly depleted of nutrients if all that was used was "city water".

If I recall from college hort...chlorine is actually a micronutrient, and small quantities are actually required for certain cellular functions.

Never heard about the coconut fluff. very cool I will look into that.

acidic soil you say, you must be from the tropics. I bet if you got a cool spot with some decent indirect light you could grow some real colorful hydrangeas. the flowrrs colors change based on the acidity of the soil.

Smart move to use humus thats already broken down. green humus will actually suck the nitrogen out of the soil while it's breaking down.

curious where you're from. I want to go back and visit someplace tropical. haven't been in a long time. It's my favorite environment. manely cause I like to sit outside and drink beer in the tropical heat, but thats a different story. I like the flora too.

Wish I had a good place to grow frangipani. It grows in LA. but everywhere I have lived just didn't have a place where i could make the right microclimate for it's roots. Weird I can grow anything but that plant. then I'll go over to a friends house who knows nothing about growing, and he'll have a 8 foot tall tree covered in plumeria flowers. Grrrrrrrr!!!!! life is not fair!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hi all,

Kudos to the op for posting this thread and I will make sure I do not use the product, but then again I am growing organically and the only fertiliser I use is compost, which is produced in a composter from plant waste, the sloworms do a good job.

This year has been good as the cougettes/zucchini are nice sauteed. I have not had problems with the potatoes as they have not been blighted. One thing concerns me is the lack of pollenator insects, I have some in the garden, but not at the level of previous years.

I have found the information on using seaweed as a fertiliser interesting and will try it for next years crop as it is abundant as I live near the coastline.

All the best

Djaybeetoo

Originally posted by starcraft
The growers are at fault, not Dow.

Wow. If you've ever needed proof he will defend something before reading it this is it. It's not Dow Ag's fault because the FDA approved it. But there are still substandard legal practices surrounding these chemicals and because of them thousands of gardeners are losing their home grown vegetables across the UK. This isn't the gardeners fault for using historically safe manure for fertilizer that happened to contain a dangerous by-product that wasn't labeled in the first place. This is the FDA and the UK's fault for not providing us with safe legal standards when it comes to these potentially hazardous products, not the gardeners.

*edit* I should have posted this when I found it two weeks ago.

[edit on 16-7-2008 by beaverg]

go for the seaweed, especially large kelp varieties. you will not be sorry. In fact you might just switch over to using it forever. it's that great of a fertilizer. and it does more than fertilize it give the plant these enzymes that act like growth hormone and steroids, but they aren't. scientists aren't really sure how they work except that it's completely safe and it's sure does wonders. They think it might be responsible for the reason that bull kelp can grow a meter in 24 hours.

try it you'll love it. you won't regret it.

Whoops* accidental post*

I've never tried kelp fertilizer but no matter where I go I've been recommended it. When I amend my soil for the spring I just till under the winter legumes. Works well for me since I can't find the kelp stuff. I've heard oxygenated water helps too; But I've also heard it's a huge fraud. Have you heard anything about it?

[edit on 16-7-2008 by beaverg]

don't know about oxigenated water. as long as the leguems are brown and dead and not green when you till them under you're good. when they are green and breaking down they tend to suck up the natural nitrogen in the soil.

try the sea weed. wood ash is good too. or just toss old banana peels into the compost lots of potassium.

but if whatever you are doing is working than why change? if it ain't broke don't fix it.

but you would probably see some difference if you try kelpmeal.

Originally posted by BASSPLYR


but if whatever you are doing is working than why change? if it ain't broke don't fix it.

but you would probably see some difference if you try kelpmeal.

I'll check the local co-op but I know wal-mart, lowes, and home depot don't have it. I can change what I'm doing because I'll have more room and more vegetables next year. I've only got 3 types of tomatoes this year but next year I'll have 10-20 in addition to anything else I can afford to fit in there. Just got to figure out whether I like white, yellow, orange, or red tomatoes first. Here are the ones I'm growing this year LINK.