Kelp Help / Soil Conditioner Question For Small Lawn

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Casutherland
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Kelp Help / Soil Conditioner Question For Small Lawn

Post by Casutherland » April 13th, 2017, 4:52 pm

Hey guys,

So I have been reading some other articles on this topic, and it seems like 1lb of Kelp extract and Humic Acid extract makes a ton of product. I am thinking about going in with a couple of neighbors on something like this, because my yard is only 2500 sq ft.

Really want to start applying these, but is it logical to purchase with a yard as small as mine? Also, what do you guys mix this in? Gallon milk jugs?

Also, after mixing up the product, you only need a small amount of the extract mixture to mixture with water. So a Gallon size jug of product would last me for years. I read that the shelf life on this stuff is only maybe a year or 2 right?

Any suggestions for this program on a smaller yard?

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Re: Kelp Help / Soil Conditioner Question For Small Lawn

Post by MorpheusPA » April 13th, 2017, 7:24 pm

It's not economical to get less than a pound, so I'd either get the pound and store it (it stores well) or split it with neighbors.

Gallon milk jugs work perfectly. Or, in your case, 2 quart or 1 quart soda bottles. Leave the tops ever so slightly loose on the kelp to allow out-gassing, nobody likes to clean up exploded kelp off the garage floor.

Shelf life...it does seem to be about 2 years for the kelp. You can simply use it up by distributing it on the lawn and gardens. There's no real expiration on the soil conditioner, so that you can keep around for ages.

I do find I use the kelp in drips and drabs everywhere, even for watering indoor plants.

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Re: Kelp Help / Soil Conditioner Question For Small Lawn

Post by Casutherland » April 13th, 2017, 11:15 pm

MorpheusPA wrote:
April 13th, 2017, 7:24 pm
It's not economical to get less than a pound, so I'd either get the pound and store it (it stores well) or split it with neighbors.

Gallon milk jugs work perfectly. Or, in your case, 2 quart or 1 quart soda bottles. Leave the tops ever so slightly loose on the kelp to allow out-gassing, nobody likes to clean up exploded kelp off the garage floor.

Shelf life...it does seem to be about 2 years for the kelp. You can simply use it up by distributing it on the lawn and gardens. There's no real expiration on the soil conditioner, so that you can keep around for ages.

I do find I use the kelp in drips and drabs everywhere, even for watering indoor plants.
Thanks brother..I am about to place an order for some. Hope this lasts me for a while.

Is the soil conditioner as necessary as the Kelp?

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Re: Kelp Help / Soil Conditioner Question For Small Lawn

Post by MorpheusPA » April 14th, 2017, 10:54 am

Casutherland wrote:
April 13th, 2017, 11:15 pm
Is the soil conditioner as necessary as the Kelp?
It depends on whether you need it or not. I've stepped down usage in my own lawn and gardens because the soil's now extremely soft.

Really, you can just use baby shampoo as a 1:1 substitute. That stuff keeps forever...although powdered SLS is also immortal.

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Re: Kelp Help / Soil Conditioner Question For Small Lawn

Post by Casutherland » April 14th, 2017, 2:36 pm

MorpheusPA wrote:
April 14th, 2017, 10:54 am
Casutherland wrote:
April 13th, 2017, 11:15 pm
Is the soil conditioner as necessary as the Kelp?
It depends on whether you need it or not. I've stepped down usage in my own lawn and gardens because the soil's now extremely soft.

Really, you can just use baby shampoo as a 1:1 substitute. That stuff keeps forever...although powdered SLS is also immortal.
Sounds good. Id say that my soil is pretty soft. I am probably just going to put out the Kelp/Humic Acid mixture for now. In conjunction with my biofungicide regimen. My yard should be a living creature after that LOL.


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Re: Kelp Help / Soil Conditioner Question For Small Lawn

Post by Casutherland » April 19th, 2017, 9:30 am

MorpheusPA wrote:
April 14th, 2017, 10:54 am
Casutherland wrote:
April 13th, 2017, 11:15 pm
Is the soil conditioner as necessary as the Kelp?
It depends on whether you need it or not. I've stepped down usage in my own lawn and gardens because the soil's now extremely soft.

Really, you can just use baby shampoo as a 1:1 substitute. That stuff keeps forever...although powdered SLS is also immortal.
Well I found something out yesterday. I guess my ground wasn't as soft as I thought. Looks like that one of my issues is a draining issue from the builders infill clay that I have from new construction. I spoke to a Companion rep and he said that I need to mechanically aerate my yard with a spike aerator. So I have them scheduled to come out early next week.

Anyway, I was going to ask how often I should apply the kelp/soil conditioner? I purchased enough product to last me a few years.

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Re: Kelp Help / Soil Conditioner Question For Small Lawn

Post by g-man » April 19th, 2017, 9:45 am

^ If you have a draining issue, then you should look into a french drain or some type of way to channel the water away from the area that it is not draining from.

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Re: Kelp Help / Soil Conditioner Question For Small Lawn

Post by Casutherland » April 19th, 2017, 10:08 am

g-man wrote:
April 19th, 2017, 9:45 am
^ If you have a draining issue, then you should look into a french drain or some type of way to channel the water away from the area that it is not draining from.
Well, its an issue with the soil not percolating like it should, aka clay. I have pop up drains in the yard, so its not that. All my drains are routed away from the house and yard, other than the pop ups.

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Re: Kelp Help / Soil Conditioner Question For Small Lawn

Post by bpgreen » April 19th, 2017, 12:00 pm

I wouldn't use a spike aerator. If you really feel that you need to aerate, use a plug/core aerator. These pull little plugs out of the soil. A spike aerator makes holes by putting a spike down into the ground, so they actually make the soil more compacted around that hole.

I had my lawn aerated once about 20 years ago, but have had better results by increasing the organic content of the soil and watering properly. When I first bought the house, water would start to puddle when I ran the sprinklers for about 20 minutes. So I ran the sprinklers in cycles, letting the water drain deeper before the next cycle. This gave it a chance to slowly make its way deeper into the soil. As the water went deeper, so did the roots of the grass.

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Re: Kelp Help / Soil Conditioner Question For Small Lawn

Post by Casutherland » April 19th, 2017, 12:05 pm

bpgreen wrote:
April 19th, 2017, 12:00 pm
I wouldn't use a spike aerator. If you really feel that you need to aerate, use a plug/core aerator. These pull little plugs out of the soil. A spike aerator makes holes by putting a spike down into the ground, so they actually make the soil more compacted around that hole.

I had my lawn aerated once about 20 years ago, but have had better results by increasing the organic content of the soil and watering properly. When I first bought the house, water would start to puddle when I ran the sprinklers for about 20 minutes. So I ran the sprinklers in cycles, letting the water drain deeper before the next cycle. This gave it a chance to slowly make its way deeper into the soil. As the water went deeper, so did the roots of the grass.
Well another issue is that we have been getting some very HEAVY rainfall here lately. We received almost 4 inches in 48 hours. Downpours so heavy that they have been washing out my mulch beds. By the time everything drys out, another massive pour down comes through.

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Re: Kelp Help / Soil Conditioner Question For Small Lawn

Post by Casutherland » April 19th, 2017, 12:09 pm

bpgreen wrote:
April 19th, 2017, 12:00 pm
I wouldn't use a spike aerator. If you really feel that you need to aerate, use a plug/core aerator. These pull little plugs out of the soil. A spike aerator makes holes by putting a spike down into the ground, so they actually make the soil more compacted around that hole.

I had my lawn aerated once about 20 years ago, but have had better results by increasing the organic content of the soil and watering properly. When I first bought the house, water would start to puddle when I ran the sprinklers for about 20 minutes. So I ran the sprinklers in cycles, letting the water drain deeper before the next cycle. This gave it a chance to slowly make its way deeper into the soil. As the water went deeper, so did the roots of the grass.
Also, as you can see from my soil sample results, my soil looks great about 2-4 inches down. Its just that there is clay at about the 4 inch mark and doesn't percolate like it should. It is rotting out the roots. The grass also doesn't grow evenly. I have composted the yard, only put down milorganite for fertilizer, and have been doing the cracked corn/companion/actinovate/serenade apps. So I do not know what else I can even do to the yard. Its only 2500 sq ft. So it shouldn't be this difficult.

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Re: Kelp Help / Soil Conditioner Question For Small Lawn

Post by Casutherland » April 23rd, 2017, 4:09 pm

MorpheusPA wrote:
April 13th, 2017, 7:24 pm
It's not economical to get less than a pound, so I'd either get the pound and store it (it stores well) or split it with neighbors.

Gallon milk jugs work perfectly. Or, in your case, 2 quart or 1 quart soda bottles. Leave the tops ever so slightly loose on the kelp to allow out-gassing, nobody likes to clean up exploded kelp off the garage floor.

Shelf life...it does seem to be about 2 years for the kelp. You can simply use it up by distributing it on the lawn and gardens. There's no real expiration on the soil conditioner, so that you can keep around for ages.

I do find I use the kelp in drips and drabs everywhere, even for watering indoor plants.
So I purchased the humic acid and kelp extract from the kelp4less eBay store. It comes granular. How much of each do I need to mix in a 2 quart milk jug?

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Re: Kelp Help / Soil Conditioner Question For Small Lawn

Post by Casutherland » April 23rd, 2017, 5:43 pm

Heres my math. For a 2 quart (half gallon) milk jug, I need 1 dry ounce of Kelp, and 2 dry ounces of humic acid. Correct?

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Re: Kelp Help / Soil Conditioner Question For Small Lawn

Post by Casutherland » April 23rd, 2017, 7:04 pm

Ok just to clarify more. Really not trying to spam, but trying to figure this out. Here is what I have now.

1 gallon of SLS in liquid form.
1 pint of yucca extract without preservatives

1lb of water soluable kelp
1lb of water soluable humic acid

Here is my question to whomever can answer it.

In order to mix this solution into a half gallon jug, I need 1 ounce of kelp extract and 2 ounces of HA. I am assuming that is not based off of dry ounces. So in order to get that, can I weight out the dry ounces, and mixed together in my half gallon jug to create the concentrate?

Also for the soil conditioner, so I not need to mix the Liquid SLS and yucca until I'm ready to put it out?

Thanks!

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Re: Kelp Help / Soil Conditioner Question For Small Lawn

Post by MorpheusPA » April 23rd, 2017, 11:26 pm

From the video, it should be 1 oz/qt of kelp, 2 oz/qt of HA. So for you, in half gallon jugs, 2 oz of kelp in one and 4 oz of HA in the other.

You can mix the SLS and yucca any time you like--it stores well, and it doesn't require any rest time, so you can also mix it just before you put it down if you'd rather do that instead. When using solid SLS powder, I do suggest letting it sit for a while to fully dissolve if you can. A day or so is more than enough for that.

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Re: Kelp Help / Soil Conditioner Question For Small Lawn

Post by Casutherland » April 24th, 2017, 9:11 am

MorpheusPA wrote:
April 23rd, 2017, 11:26 pm
From the video, it should be 1 oz/qt of kelp, 2 oz/qt of HA. So for you, in half gallon jugs, 2 oz of kelp in one and 4 oz of HA in the other.

You can mix the SLS and yucca any time you like--it stores well, and it doesn't require any rest time, so you can also mix it just before you put it down if you'd rather do that instead. When using solid SLS powder, I do suggest letting it sit for a while to fully dissolve if you can. A day or so is more than enough for that.
Thanks Morpheus!

So just to verify. Since I have the dry ounces, I need to weigh out the ounces using a kitchen scale, correct?

I really appreciate the help!

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Re: Kelp Help / Soil Conditioner Question For Small Lawn

Post by MorpheusPA » April 24th, 2017, 11:46 am

Yep. I use an electronic scale that's the same one I use for my soap making and whatnot, but I'll let you in on a secret.

You don't have to be very exact. A little more, a little less, won't hurt. Half the time, knowing what 4 oz looks like, I wing it to get "about a quarter of that pound" into the gallon container. :-)

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Re: Kelp Help / Soil Conditioner Question For Small Lawn

Post by Casutherland » April 24th, 2017, 12:13 pm

MorpheusPA wrote:
April 24th, 2017, 11:46 am
Yep. I use an electronic scale that's the same one I use for my soap making and whatnot, but I'll let you in on a secret.

You don't have to be very exact. A little more, a little less, won't hurt. Half the time, knowing what 4 oz looks like, I wing it to get "about a quarter of that pound" into the gallon container. :-)
Thanks man, I really appreciate it. I know you have probably answered these questions 30 times, but I was having a difficult time finding what I needed here.

I appreciate you taking the time out to respond.

Going to mix up a batch of the BLKH and BSSC tonight! Excited to start applying it. I am as dedicated as anyone on here hah. I am super OCD about this stuff, and really enjoy it!

Hope that the BSSC will help to aerate my clay lawn some. My soil test returned good organic results, but I am convinced that 4-6 inches down, I am sitting of super thick builders infill clay that is not draining the way it should.

One other question..Does this need to be watered in?

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Re: Kelp Help / Soil Conditioner Question For Small Lawn

Post by MorpheusPA » April 24th, 2017, 10:23 pm

You can water it in if you want, but I tend to just let nature do it. Kelp works well as a foliar application to the plants anyway, so most people will say that it absolutely shouldn't be watered in.

I can't say I've noticed a difference.

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Re: Kelp Help / Soil Conditioner Question For Small Lawn

Post by andy10917 » April 24th, 2017, 10:37 pm

The more I study and play with Yucca as a wetting agent, the more impressed I become. I like to apply it (in BLSC) after a steady light-to-moderate rain of 6 hrs or more.

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