Brewing Up A Tea Of Sea Kelp For Your Plants' Potassium Needs

You may be saying to yourself "Sea kelp! Where the heck am I going to find that?!" The thought of going for a swim in the cold pacific doesn't sound too great simply to be dragging in all the sea kelp you can get your hands on, fortunately it's a lot easier to find than that. Going to your nearest asian market should do the trick, most asian markets will carry all different kinds of brands and bags of this stuff. Usually sold dried, sea kelp looks like (pictured above).

There's two ways to dole out this potassium rich stuff, brew it up as tea or simply crush it and add it straight to the ground. For one reason or other I like to brew up a batch of sea kelp tea, I suppose my subconscious is telling me that liquid source of nutrients for plants get through faster, much like our own bodies, of course I haven't the slightest clue whether this is true. But this is how I do it.

I take three pieces of dried sea kelp and put it in a glass jar and fill it up with boiling water. The sea kelp hydrates and gets rather large so don't be fooled by your small shriveled pieces. Let the brewing sea kelp tea sit for a few hours to a day to fully cool down and when ready you can pour it straight into the ground or load a spray bottle with the home made tea and spritz it on the foliage of your plants.

Potassium in plants help to regulate photosynthesis and the intake of nutrients through-out the plant, it can also help plants through bouts of stress. Usually potassium deficient plants produce thin skinned, small fruit and the plant itself can exhibit a thin and weak appearance. What's more, sea kelp also contains iron (plus other minerals and vitamins!) which is needed for plants' chlorophyll production, iron-deficient plants' exhibit the production of new leaves that are yellow when they should be green.

A Source Of Nitrogen From Your Daily Coffee

The benefit of coffee grounds doesn't stop at warding away those slime-ball slugs but also has a great nutritional value to your plants, nitrogen!  Plants need nitrogen in order to grow lush and happy leaves, should you find that your plant is stunted in growth or exhibits sallow, yellow leaves when they obviously should be green, nitrogen just may be the thing that you need, and what do you know?!  You really want to make yourself a cup of coffee right now, what a coincidence.  So it's awesome that you can add nitrogen right into the ground so easily but be careful not to over-do it.  A sprinkle once in a while should be okay but coffee grounds which is highly acidic can do more harm than good if sprinkled too often, the acidity of the coffee grounds can burn the leaves and probably other vital parts of your growing plant.  

If you find that your plants are tall, lanky and weak under its own weight you may have a case of excess nitrogen.  Excess nitrogen causes plants to be so focused on building up their leaves that they forget to flower, fruit and grow strong in other areas where they should be, *ahem, for example the stem, hence the tall, lanky and weak characteristics of over-nitrogen'd plants.  But if you absolutely love the fact that you can use your coffee ground for your plants (like me) and find yourself debating whether or not to use the coffee grounds... again (also like me), simply toss the filter and grounds into the compost, in almost no time at all you'll be able to use it all over your garden without it be too acid-harmful to your plants.

Epsom Salt, A Great Magnesium Solution

If it's magnesium they want, it's magnesium they'll get!  A good solution to adding magnesium to plants that need it is an easy-to-make-at-home liquid solution that consists of water and epsom salt, in a spray bottle mix 1tsp of epsom salt for every 1qt. of water, yes, it's that easy.  Lack of magnesium can result in stunted growth and can be spotted when mature (older) leaves of plants are turning yellow while their veins continuously stay dark green, when this occurs spray this magnesium solution straight into the soil or even on the leaves of the plant.  Another great way to use this magnesium solution is to spray it onto plants that are having a hard time fruiting, simply give the blooms a spritz.  But be careful not to be too heavy-handed with the magnesium, an over-dose on magnesium can prohibit the plant from taking in other much needed nutrients, so use sparingly.