Author Topic: Using ocean water have any benefits?  (Read 982 times)

Tortuga

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Using ocean water have any benefits?
« on: May 14, 2023, 09:02:46 PM »
I seen a fertilizer company selling ocean water stating it had benefits for most plants. Does anyone water regularly or use sea water as a fertilizer? I’m a mile from the ocean and could easily get some 5 gallon buckets filled.

spaugh

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Re: Using ocean water have any benefits?
« Reply #1 on: May 14, 2023, 09:27:15 PM »
Salt is bad for plants. 
Brad Spaugh

0hip

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Re: Using ocean water have any benefits?
« Reply #2 on: May 14, 2023, 09:50:48 PM »
it will go great if you want a nice patch of dirt where nothing will ever grow. mangroves maybe?

Jaboticaba45

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Re: Using ocean water have any benefits?
« Reply #3 on: May 14, 2023, 10:06:30 PM »
I read about that too, so I brought some back from FL and threw it on one of my jaboticabas.
Nothing happened...and honestly was surprised why the jaboticaba didn't die. Never again :P

nattyfroootz

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Re: Using ocean water have any benefits?
« Reply #4 on: May 14, 2023, 10:22:15 PM »
I think its used in a diluted form in some Korean Natural Farming practices. Lots of trace minerals and supposedly good for plants in a diluted form.


Grow cooler fruits

www.wildlandsplants.com

Oolie

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Re: Using ocean water have any benefits?
« Reply #5 on: May 14, 2023, 11:11:20 PM »
At the least the chlorine in seawater can cause issues for many plants, but chlorine should be removable using silver. You could then treat the silver with an acid and get most of it back, but you will always lose a little. Seems like an expensive way to go to get minerals that you could find other sources for.

If growing plants that aren't susceptible to chlorine issues, you might be OK.

fruit nerd

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Re: Using ocean water have any benefits?
« Reply #6 on: May 15, 2023, 05:43:06 AM »
Coconuts :) Have thought about giving my coconuts a good drink with sea water.

Enkis

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Re: Using ocean water have any benefits?
« Reply #7 on: May 15, 2023, 05:56:00 AM »
Maybe you can use it as foliar fertilizer, fungicide properties would be a plus. I wouldn't try on a plant i care about anyway
Keep planting and nobody explodes

Finca La Isla

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Re: Using ocean water have any benefits?
« Reply #8 on: May 15, 2023, 02:22:41 PM »
To say that salt is bad for plants is overly simplistic. Many fertilizers have salt in them.
A neighbor uses diluted sea water on vegetables and his project is going well.
When I’m Penang I visited a jakfruit and durian farm that uses sea water at less than 10% for the minerals. This grower is very experienced and very successful.
My wife follows a Korean natural farming program that uses sea water in their ferments.
Seems that seaweed based fertilizers have been appreciated for their mineral content for generations. How you would get minerals cheaper is not clear to me.
I’ve never heard of chlorine in sea water.
Peter

brian

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Re: Using ocean water have any benefits?
« Reply #9 on: May 15, 2023, 02:34:47 PM »
No ocean near me, but I have always wondered if freshwater silt would make a good soil additive.  I have a creek running through my property. 

spaugh

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Re: Using ocean water have any benefits?
« Reply #10 on: May 15, 2023, 04:36:54 PM »
To say that salt is bad for plants is overly simplistic. Many fertilizers have salt in them.
A neighbor uses diluted sea water on vegetables and his project is going well.
When I’m Penang I visited a jakfruit and durian farm that uses sea water at less than 10% for the minerals. This grower is very experienced and very successful.
My wife follows a Korean natural farming program that uses sea water in their ferments.
Seems that seaweed based fertilizers have been appreciated for their mineral content for generations. How you would get minerals cheaper is not clear to me.
I’ve never heard of chlorine in sea water.
Peter

The disolved salt ions are chlorine and sodium. 

Fertilizers are often salt based but not NaCl.  Salt just means 2 bonded ions.  Not necessarily Na+Cl-

It could be potassium nitrate or whatever.  But the table salt NaCl is not good for plants.  They can tolerate some salt but too much is toxic.  And theres a lot more salt in ocean water than there is other trace elements. 

Something like mulch, or volcanic rock, granite, etc that comes from the earth is a better way to get trace elements. 

Heres a pie chart with the disolved solids in sea water

« Last Edit: May 15, 2023, 04:39:47 PM by spaugh »
Brad Spaugh

Tortuga

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Re: Using ocean water have any benefits?
« Reply #11 on: May 18, 2023, 07:32:54 AM »
The reason I ask is because I found it hard to believe one of my gardener friends uses it as his only source of water for his vegetables. He claims theirs many good microbial colonies contained in the water you wouldn’t get otherwise.

After some research, There is 3.5 percent salt in salt water. Which comes down to roughly 1/3 to 1/2 a cup of salt per gallon.

Finca La Isla

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Re: Using ocean water have any benefits?
« Reply #12 on: May 18, 2023, 09:16:15 AM »
I can’t imagine you could use pure sea water on vegetables. The highest I have heard is 25%. A person that sells kale and other greens and lettuce at our farmers market does that. For fruit trees more like 5% is what I have heard. We don’t use sea water but we do harvest seaweed sometimes and no longer bother to rinse it off.
Peter

Vegan Potato Man

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Re: Using ocean water have any benefits?
« Reply #13 on: May 18, 2023, 11:45:56 AM »
There is a product called sea 90 that is basically sea salt.

I've used it at their recommended rates and never had a problem. Haven't experimented too much with it to say much more about it though.

Daintree

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Re: Using ocean water have any benefits?
« Reply #14 on: May 19, 2023, 08:51:20 AM »
Huh. Who'da thunk?
When in doubt, check with your local university!

https://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/oc/freepubs/pdf/sa-9.pdf

Carolyn


pagnr

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Re: Using ocean water have any benefits?
« Reply #15 on: May 19, 2023, 04:07:56 PM »
Huh. Who'da thunk?
When in doubt, check with your local university!

https://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/oc/freepubs/pdf/sa-9.pdf

Carolyn

Thanks for that, the article is a pretty clear explanation of how and why.
I noticed this point in it.

Pour the collected water into a large bowl and allow it to sit, uncovered, for 24 hours. This allows evaporation, aeration, concentration of solids, and the inoculation of airborne microor- ganisms to occur.

Seems like it is not only the minerals involved but also microbe stimulation.
I remember reading info from Japanese version of "Korean natural farming".
The diluted seawater was used there too, along with local microbe cultures and rice microbe brewing.
If I remember OK, they said to collect the seawater offshore where the ocean colour changed to darker ( oxygen ?).
Is that is so " You're going to need a bigger boat "

For those not near the ocean, I am wondering how Marine Aquarium water from changes could be used, or simply the salt for mixing the clean refill water for those without fish.
I get the benefit of the other sea minerals, and also how they are in balance for living cells etc ( we all came from the ocean ).
Still wonder about the Na and Cl in there, but maybe worth investigating.
« Last Edit: May 19, 2023, 09:14:24 PM by pagnr »

spaugh

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Re: Using ocean water have any benefits?
« Reply #16 on: May 19, 2023, 06:27:07 PM »
Human Urine looks better on paper than sea water to me. 

Even easier to get than ocean water.

« Last Edit: May 19, 2023, 06:30:19 PM by spaugh »
Brad Spaugh

pagnr

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Re: Using ocean water have any benefits?
« Reply #17 on: May 19, 2023, 08:24:15 PM »
Human Urine looks better on paper than sea water to me. 

Even easier to get than ocean water.



Well you could double your options by collecting your seawater from a crowded beach, where people pee in the water. Maybe close to the Soda Pop stand ???

Tortuga

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Re: Using ocean water have any benefits?
« Reply #18 on: May 19, 2023, 09:02:48 PM »
Human Urine  looks better on paper than sea water to me. 

Even easier to get than ocean water.



Well you could double your options by collecting your seawater from a crowded beach, where people pee in the water. Maybe close to the Soda Pop stand ???

Lol!

If the water goes from cool to warm you’re in the right spot

spaugh

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Re: Using ocean water have any benefits?
« Reply #19 on: May 19, 2023, 09:05:46 PM »
Screw it, Ill just go down and get the water out of the Tijuana river.... 

Thats where mexico dumps their sewage out into the ocean. 

Should be full of raw "raw elements" and "beneficial microbes". 
Brad Spaugh