Seaweed and Fish Fertilizer Recipes

FOOD POWER FROM THE SEA
By Lee Fryer and Dick Simmons
(Seaweed and Fish Fertilizers)

RECIPES AND HOW-TO-DO-ITS
Wine-makers, cooks, lovers, and fertilizer people have traits in common: as artists, they help Nature, then unashamedly take credit for Nature's work. As liars, they believe their own stories; therefore, are the world's most honest people. With that warning, we shall share recipes with you.

Liquid Sunshine: Bud Builder and Plant Hardener
The sugar-based "liquid sunshine" is a bit difficult for lay people to make and use in its fully technical formulation; however, a simplified version can be made by any gardener or nursery person. Based on seaweed, it provides nutrients that help plants to harden their tissues, set flower buds, resist frost damage, increase yields, and repel insects. The recipe is as follows for 1 quart quantities. Farmers and nurserymen can multiply the amounts by 10, 100, or 1,000 depending on the sizes of their operations.
1 pint Corn syrup, such as Karo (contains 500 grams sugar)
2 ounces Liquid seaweed extract
1 pint Water
1 teaspoon Boric acid
1 quart (approx.) Total
Mix well.
Directions: Dilute 4 tablespoons of "liquid sunshine" per gallon of water. Spray on foliage of plants until wet. For tomatoes, spray 3 times at weekly intervals, beginning in July or as tomatoes begin to form on plants. For rhododendrons, azaleas, and other broad-leaf evergreens, spray three times at weekly intervals, beginning in late August. To harden roses and other plants and prevent frost damage, spray three times, at weekly intervals, commencing one month before expected first killing frost.
Good luck. You are a pioneer, and on your own! We don't carry malpractice insurance.

"Dry" Liquid Sunshine: Bud Builder and Plant Hardener
Based on similar principles, this special dry fertilizer also has capabilities for helping plants to harden their tissues, build buds, resist frost, increase yields, and repel pests. In this formulation seaweed acts as a sugar-maker and supplier, along with the other ingredients. The carrageenen in seaweed is a carbohydrate ... a sugar of the sea . . . acting in place of corn syrup in the liquid formulation. And, both seaweed and FTE are boron-suppliers. Here is the recipe:
10 lbs. Dry compost and/or peat moss, or other organic base material
20 lbs. Dry seaweed meal
5 lbs. Bone meal or single superphosphate
10 lbs. Sulphate of potash-magnesia (Sul-po-mag—see Appendix), or, 5 lbs. sulphate of potash
1 lb. Fritted trace elements (FTE—see Appendix)
4 lbs. Agricultural gypsum or lime
50 lbs. Total
Put ingredients in a pile and mist thoroughly. If you use 5 lbs. of sulphate of potash instead of 10 lbs. of Sul-po-mag, just add another 5 lbs. of compost to make up the difference. If you cannot get FTE, leave it out and add compost. Be practical, use your imagination. Don't get frustrated.
Apply the bud builder broadcast over the root feeding area in late summer or early fall. For shrubs, roses, and small trees, apply one small handful per foot of height of plant. For fruit trees, apply 1 to 5 lbs. per tree, depending on size. For berries and gardens, apply 1 lb. per 100 square feet of area.
Ecological Garden Fertilizer1— Nickname: Deluxe Eco-Grow
' From Ecological Gardening for Home Foods by Lee Fryer and Dick Simmons. New
York: Mason/Charter Publishers, 1975.
To make this all-purpose garden fertilizer, we suggest using any good organic-based fertilizer as a primary ingredient, since many readers would otherwise have difficult)' finding and buying fertilizer materials in their own neighborhoods. Then, seaweed and other special ingredients may be added. Here is the recipe: *
• See Appendix for descriptions of some of these ingredients.
10 lbs. Any good organic-based garden fertilizer, such as 5-10-10 or 6-10-4. Or, a rose fertilizer
5 lbs. Ureaform or "organiform"
5 lbs. Bone meal, or superphosphate if bone meal is unavailable
4 lbs. Sulphate of potash, and
1 lb. Epsom salts, or (5 lbs.) Sulphate of potash magnesia * (Sul-po-mag)
* Sulphate of potash-magnesia contains both sulphate of potash and Epsom sails, therefore may be used in place of these two ingredients. 3 See previous citation
10 lbs. Seaweed meal
15 lbs. Compost or dry manure
50 lbs. Total
Pour the ingredients in a pile and mix thoroughly. If needed to increase bulk or reduce dust, add 5 lbs. of damp peat moss or garden mulch.
Use at rate of 4 lbs. per 100 square feet of garden area, tilled into soil. Also, may be sowed under rows when planting seeds or transplants. For shrubs and bushes, use one small handful per foot of height of plant; for trees, use 1 to 5 lbs. per tree depending on size.

Full Organic Garden Fertilizer2: Nickname: Eco-Organic
To avoid problems finding various materials, this fertilizer, too, is made with any locally available organic fertilizer as a primary ingredient. Here is a recipe:
15 lbs. Any good 100 percent organic garden fertilizer available in your area; such as a 5-8-5 or 5-10-10
10 lbs. Ground rock phosphate or bone meal; or both
15 lbs. Compost or dry manure
10 lbs. Seaweed meal
50 lbs. Total
Mix thoroughly and use as described above for Eco-Grow.

Seaweed and Fish Blend: Dry Ingredients
To make this deluxe fertilizer, we specify more fish and less seaweed, since: (a) fish provides the essential nitrogen, phosphate, and potash, plus other minerals, (b) seaweed supplies hormones and chelates that are effective in lesser amounts, and (c) seaweed's trace minerals, beyond those provided by fish, are required in only tiny quantities, if at all. Therefore, we suggest a ratio of about 2/3 fish and 1/3 seaweed in a straight blend of these materials.
However, since seaweed and fish are concentrated materials and quite costly, we suggest that other locally available materials may be blended with them. The following recipe may be used:
10 lbs. Dry seaweed meal
20 lbs. Feed-grade fish meal
20 lbs. Any lower cost bulk material, such as agricultural lime (dolomite), gypsum, humate, rock phosphate, compost, or dry manure
____________
50 lbs. Total
Pour these ingredients in a pile and mix thoroughly with a shovel or other implement.
If fertilizer-grade fish meal is available, it may already contain a suitable diluent. In that case, simply mix 75 percent fertilizer-grade fish meal and 25 percent seaweed meal.
Use at a rate of ½ to 1 lb. per 100 square feet of soil area (200 to 500 lbs. per acre) to stimulate and nourish soil bacteria, as well as the plants and crops.

Liquid Seaweed and Fish Blend
To make this deluxe liquid fertilizer, the following guides should be observed:
1. Don't mix alkaline fish (pH of 7.0 or higher) with alkaline seaweed. They are incompatible.
2. SM-3 liquid seaweed has an acid reaction (pH below 7.0) and may be mixed with any kind of liquid fish, including fish solubles (fish "emulsion"). Fish solubles are alkaline.
3. Carpole's liquid fish is of acid reaction, and may be blended with all kinds of liquid seaweed, including Maxicrop, Sea Born, Sea Crop, SM-3 and Sea Spraa.

With the above guides, we suggest the following recipe:
75 percent liquid fish
25 percent liquid seaweed
100 percent Total
Mix thoroughly with a paddle, beater, pump, or outboard motor, depending on quantity.
This deluxe liquid fertilizer may be used at the rate of 1 gallon per acre, mixed with 100 gallons of water, or with the amount of water convenient for spray equipment. Spray on foliage of plants until they are thoroughly wet.
Add WEX, TWEEN, Triton, or any other good wetting agent (surfactant), if available, following instructions on the label. It will promote effective action when the seaweed/fish blend is sprayed on the plants.

Seaweed Compost
Seaweed contains insufficient nitrogen for making a good compost, so nitrogenous materials should be added. Remember, a good carbon/nitrogen ratio for composting is 10 to 1; and, as is, seaweed contains less than 1 percent nitrogen. The following guides may be used for making seaweed compost:
600 lbs. Wet seaweed from beach or shore
200 lbs. Manure, compost, fish, feathers, slaughter waste, sludge, or other nitrogenous wastes
100 lbs. Agricultural lime and/or gypsum
100 lbs. Rock phosphate or other phosphate
1,000 lbs. Total
Mix thoroughly, handle and turn as when making any other kind of compost. Loamy soil may be added to the pile, if desired. Adding rock phosphate or other phosphate material is desirable, since seaweed and the nitrogenous wastes are low in this essential food, and compost bacteria need phosphate while doing their work.
The finished compost may be screened and coarser chunks returned to the next compost piles.

Foliage Brightener: A Chlorophyll-Maker
When plants get tired in summertime, they may lose green color (chlorophyll) in their leaves; and photosynthesis (sugarmaking) may therefore decline sharply. Supplies of iron which flowed abundantly in April have dwindled. Magnesium is moving from chlorophyll cells to fruiting sites, to help in making seeds, leaving the leaves wan and pale between their veins (chlorosis), and nitrogen, the always-needed nutrient, is in low supply.
To restore color and vitality in such plants without including soft growth to be damaged by frost, a seaweed-based liquid fertilizer may be used. The recipe is as follows:
4 oz. Iron chelate: ask for Geigy's, KE-MIN, or other good product at your garden store
1 lb. Epsom salts (magnesium sulphate)
8 oz. Liquid seaweed concentrate
4 oz. Potassium nitrate; call a chemical supply company
To mix, fill a gallon jug half fall of warm water and add all the ingredients. Stopper and shake well until all are dissolved. Then fill the jug with more water. This makes 1 gallon of liquid concentrate.
Dilute 1 cup of this concentrate with 1 gallon of water to make the spray material. WEX, Triton, or other wetting agent may he added to assist in application to plants. Spray them once or twice. They will reward you by greening nicely and getting happy again.
In this "leaf brightener," you are using the cytokinin technology of Gerald Blunden and others, who have shown that liquid seaweed improves efficiency of photosynthesis in plants. Also, you are providing iron and magnesium, the chlorophyll makers, along with potash and boron—and a wee bit of nitrogen to sustain the plant in its autumn seed-building operations.
For more information about the materials and ingredients for these recipes see the Appendix A.