02.06.08
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Sea Minerals
Let's talk about Sea Minerals for fertility
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Let's talk about Sea Minerals for fertility
Thanks for coming to our blog! Ask questions, post your experience, or just visit.
JOE said,
February 8, 2008 at 8:27 pm
This is a snake oil product!
Administrator said,
February 11, 2008 at 1:19 am
Hmm…What research do you base your comment on?
Travis said,
February 11, 2008 at 8:06 am
In researching this product and others like it on the net, all seem to have the same disperity b/w foliar rates and broadcast rates. Why is it recommended to put on 250+ lbs. of dry product per acre but only 2 lbs. per acre wet via foliar spray? How can the same product give the same results at such different application rates?
Travis said,
February 11, 2008 at 8:25 am
Joe, you posted the comment that “this is a snake oil product”….could you please elaborate? Have you or someone you know used sea minerals? It seems wild to me as well that all these years farmers have had this available to them and it has not seen wide spread use. Kind of leads you to believe that it might be another product that doesn’t deliver as promised. But, we’ve been burning petroleum products in our vehicles for over a hundred years when we could have been burning water all along. I have a feeling that 500+ dollars per ton fertilizer will have us seeking alternate methods just the same way that 3 dollar per gallon gas has. Like most I’m curious but skeptical. Would love to hear from someone that has used this product.
Administrator said,
February 12, 2008 at 4:02 am
There is a constant source of information on organic farming and sustainable agriculture in a monthly magazine called Acres USA. I have been reading it for more than 20 years. About 5 or6 years ago I started seeing article on the use of Sea Minerals as a soil ammentment and as a sourch of minerals for animals. Then in 2003 Dr Maynard Murray’s book “Sea Energy Agriculture” was reprinted. It is only one of several books that are out on the subject. Check them out. You will probably be glad you did. Now I have been using it for 3 years successfully for more than 3 years.
Travis said,
February 13, 2008 at 6:53 am
I recieved my shipment of Sea Minerals today. Thank you for your prompt shipment and customer support. Looking forward to spring green up and being able to spray the fields.
Earl Henry said,
February 24, 2008 at 6:59 pm
Hi, I am unable to get to your seminars in Springfield or Joplin and have a couple of questions. Since this is a foliar spray, how would you use this for new seedings?
Administrator said,
March 4, 2008 at 4:04 pm
There must be enough leaf surface to absorb the material. On hay and pasture ground, we want 4-6 inches of growth. On other seedlings, such as garden plants or flowers, it can be sprayed earlier. Check the website for mixing instructions when using a hand or garden sprayer.
Shawn said,
March 4, 2008 at 11:45 pm
Where are your seminars being held, also what are the dates and times?
Jack said,
March 5, 2008 at 12:46 am
I grow hay for our horsees and I have been reading about Sea Minerals. What other fertilizers and amounts are needed. I know you need a nitrogen sourse; how about others. Will I be able to cut back on chemical fertilizers? How about run off into ponds? Will Sea Minerals promote algae?
Administrator said,
March 5, 2008 at 2:39 am
We don’t have any seminars currently scheduled. Lynn will come and speak if 20 or more interested people will gather.
Administrator said,
March 5, 2008 at 2:44 am
Refering back to Travis’post ” It seems wild to me as well that all these years farmers have had this available to them and it has not seen wide spread use. Kind of leads you to believe that it might be another product that doesn’t deliver as promised.” The product has not been available. That has been the problem. When it was first suggested, it cost more to mine and transport than commercial fertilizer. And we all know about the power of big corporations and their advertising dollars. We did several years of research to learn what might truly remineralize our land. It then took several years to find a source. Check out the articles on the site to learn more about where it came from.
SUE RAMSAY said,
March 6, 2008 at 12:22 am
A friend purchased Fertility From The Ocean Deep by Charles Walters and gave it to me. I was fasinated with the message and could hardly put it down until I was done.
The concept is so logical that it begs one to reconsider the logic of applying traditional fertilizer. Sea Minerals are so much more balanced in the trace elements it provides to the plants and animals that graze these plants.
I am anxious to apply sea minerals to both my irrigated and non irrigated fields. Is there a distributor who provides service to SE Oregon?
Administrator said,
March 7, 2008 at 2:47 am
Good for you! That is one of the books we read and I can certainly agree with your comment that it is logical. And it works! We do not have a supplier in Oregon but we can ship to you.
Administrator said,
March 7, 2008 at 7:12 pm
In response to Jack’s question: Your questions are good ones. It will be helpful to supplement the use of sea minerals fa with other fertilizer the first several years. Try to use as little commercial Nitrogen as you can get away with because it has a negative effect on life forms in the soil. In several years of increasing production you should be able to decrease your dependency on commercial fertilizer to nothing. In any case you should be able to increase your production from your fields this year if you add the use of Sea Minerals FA to your fertility program. There are many people talking to me that just simply cannot or will not use any commercial fertilizer this year due to cost. It will be very interesting to see the results by the end of the year.
Lynn Buhr
Rocky Springs Ranch
Administrator said,
March 8, 2008 at 1:56 am
In regard to the question about pond runoff-It is my opinion that there would be no harm in this material being sprayed along pond banks. It has nothing in it that should promote algae growth.
Cabin Country said,
March 15, 2008 at 2:14 am
Dr. Buhr,
I caught your seminar in Springfield, Mo. last month. I found what you had to say very interesting. I took your advise and decided to try the Sea Mineral. Using the sample packet you gave me, I planted some of my garden seeds, tomatoes, cabage, peppers. I even planted some sweet corn and New Zeland Biologic. I used two of the Jiffy planters with the plastic covers. Planter # 1, I planted tomatoes, cagage and peppers with out using Sea Minerals. Planter # 2, I planted tomatoes, cabage, peppers, corn and Biologic. When the seedlings came up in planter # 2, I applied the Sea Minerals. Both planters are under a grow light with a timer. On day number nine I had to take the cover off of planter # 2, because half of the plants were touching the lid. On day number eleven I transplanted the corn and the wheat seed (biologic). On day number thirteen, the tomatoes, cabage and peppers are at four inches, the clover (biologic) is at three inches and the corn and wheat is at six inches. Planter # 1 still has the lid on it, the plants are at about two and a half inches. I’ll be the first to say when I went to your seminar I was a skeptic and I was telling myself that this won’t work. Well, I was wrong, and for all you other skeptics out there all I can tell you is to just try it.
Mark Lib said,
March 15, 2008 at 4:43 pm
I own and operate an organic lawn care company, and we are distributors of organic fertilizer. We have recently had the opportunity to service the living space around homes on a few farms that typically have 1-3 acres of land that is maintained as lawn space. The cost of our granular fertilizers makes areas this large hard to acommodate at a reasonable price. Can this product be used as a general lawn care fertilizer?
Mark Lib
Mooresville, NC
Scott said,
March 19, 2008 at 6:15 pm
I will be trying your product this spring but wondered if you would like to comment on this article???
Th ere has been a recent increase in calls to MU
Extension wondering about the fertilizer benefi ts of sea
salt. Sea salt, like table salt, is primarily sodium chloride.
It typically contains two percent other minerals but
the content can be higher in some sources. Th e other
minerals can include potassium, calcium, magnesium
and some micro-nutrients with the exact content varying
from source to source.
University of Missouri research has shown limited
response to micro-nutrient fertilizer on Missouri soils
and there are soils in Missouri that require additions of
phosphorus and potassium. Use soil testing to document
soil defi ciencies of phosphorus and potassium and soil
testing and plant tissue testing to evaluate micro-nutrient
defi ciencies in crops. For more information on micro-
nutrient defi ciencies see the University of Missouri IPM
guide 1016, Crop Nutrient Defi ciencies and Toxicities
(http://extension.missouri.edu/explorepdf/agguides/
pests/ipm1016.pdf).
If you document a defi ciency in one of these nutrients
is sea salt a good fertilizer to supply these nutrients? Th e
short answer is no. Th e concentration of benefi cial
nutrients is so low in sea salt it would take high rates to
apply an agronomically signifi cant amount of a benefi cial
nutrient. Potassium is typically less than one percent sea
salt, so a ton would supply less than 20 pounds, less than
is removed in a ton of hay or 100 bushels of corn. Micro-
nutrient concentrations are typically less than 0.01
percent so a ton of salt would provide less than a half
pound of micro-nutrient.
Th ere are potential negative eff ects of applying sea
salt to crops. Too much salt near germinating seeds
can hurt germination. Too much sodium can disperse
soil structure and reduce yields in many crops. Farmers
typically manage the salt content in fertilizers by
avoiding direct contact of fertilizer with seeds and using
higher concentration fertilizers to limit the amount of
salt applied. Sea salt as a fertilizer source would require
special care to avoid salt eff ects on crops because its
low concentration of desirable nutrients would require
higher rates of application to obtain agronomically
relevant of fertilizer nutrients.
When Fertilizing Go Easy on the Sea Salt
By John A. Lory, Plant Science Division and Commercial Agriculture Program
In summary, sea salt does contain nutrients that have
fertilizer value, but there are much more concentrated
and desirable sources of these nutrients that have less
potential for harm to growing crops.
John A. Lory
LoryJ@missouri.edu
Plant Science Division and
Commercial Agriculture Program
Administrator said,
March 21, 2008 at 5:50 pm
Yes, this will work quite well for lawns. You can either use the 2#/20 gallon formula for a monthly application or 1#/20 gallons for application every 2 weeks.
Aaron said,
March 25, 2008 at 6:14 pm
Would this work on Corn and Soybeans?
bryan said,
March 26, 2008 at 7:05 pm
We just bought a bag of SEA-90 and are planning on doing some tests on some of our hayfields. We have not used any fertilizer in the last five years because of outrageous prices. Have there been any studies done on ground that has had no fertilizer put on? I am sure this product can do nothing but help since the soil has not been fertilized in so long.
Administrator said,
April 3, 2008 at 1:24 am
There are several who are planning to use Sea minerals on Corn and Soybeans. We have not personally used it on row crops.
JJ said,
April 3, 2008 at 2:22 am
A friend in Huntsville,Ark., gave us your brochure. We live in Ohio. Most of the comments are from people in warmer states. Will this product work for us and are the methods for spreading any different? We were in such a drought last year and had less than1/2 of our hay crop. Hay is selling for over $200 a ton for just grass hay and commercial fertilizers are out of our price range this year. Will this work on alfalfa mix hay fields and is the ratio the same? Thanks for the info.
Administrator said,
April 3, 2008 at 2:23 am
I do not know of any specific studies done on ground that has not been fertilized. However, we have used it on ground that had no fertilizer of any kind for many years and saw a great increase in the hay crop, both in quantitiy and quality.
Administrator said,
April 3, 2008 at 3:02 pm
The research books describe using the sea minerals in Nebraska so there should be no problem in Ohio. We use it on mixed grass fields successfully. The ratio should be the same.
Allen said,
May 6, 2008 at 9:57 pm
I am going to use sea minerals on my hay field ( burmuda). At 2lbs/20 gal / ac as suggested. Is there any advantage to spraying a second time lets say in 14 days, since there is more green plant growth to take in the mineral spray? This is the first spraying of this year.
Brad said,
May 12, 2008 at 7:55 pm
Has the product been approved by the AR state plant board for fertilizer use?
Administrator said,
May 13, 2008 at 8:30 pm
You can spray as often as every 30 days during the growing season. We usually spray 3 times.
Administrator said,
May 13, 2008 at 8:37 pm
Yes, Sea Minerals has been approved by the Arkansas State Plant Board for fertilizer use.
Administrator said,
May 24, 2008 at 6:40 pm
There have been several questions about the effect of salt and doubts about the positive results of using sea salt on crop land. Check out these references to get more information. They refer to the effect of the tsunami on crop land in Asia:
http://www.usaid.gov/stories/indonesia/pc_id_agriculture2.html
http://environment.newscientist.com/channel/earth/tsunami/mg18725144.200-crop-revival-for-aceh-after-the-tsunami.html
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2005-09-25-tsunami-crops_x.htm
Acai Berry Detox said,
August 24, 2008 at 6:35 pm
I’m always into discussions on anything organic, so this read made me feel at home.
I’ll bookmark the site and subscribe to the feed!
Frontier Farming said,
March 15, 2009 at 3:35 am
Can this be applied to field corn @ 5gtl. per ac. rate along with a herbicide program using a large commercial sprayer?
j horton said,
April 25, 2009 at 1:02 pm
Going green is the big push for the future, I just wondered how this fits into that subject. Also is the government giving any insentives to people who use organic products on fields, garden and lawn care? Is there any tax advantages to using organic instead of chemicals?
Ray said,
September 9, 2009 at 3:06 pm
I have been an organic gardener for 20+ years. A few years ago I realized that organic foods does not necessarily = nutritional foods. The reason is that too much soil has been depleted of the minerals we need and minerals DO = nutrition. Then I began to research what I could do about replacing the minerals and came across the two books listed above.
I have been using sea minerals for two years now. It is very easy to do your own testing on vegetables grown with or without sea minerals to see the difference with the use of a brix refractometer (you can get a pretty decent one on eBay for $30 or so). This measures the density of the juice of the vegetable. More dense = more minerals in the food. This is a good thing.
I sprayed 1/2 of a neighbors 24A coastal bermuda pasture. After the hay had been cut I sent in leaf samples to a laboratory for testing. The sea mineral sprayed hay was higher in every mineral plus the protein was 20% higher. My neighbor was pleased with the results and so were his cattle.
The person who said this is ‘snake oil’ is very misinformed and does not have a clue about plant, animal and human health. I take a liquid sea mineral concentrate daily and have for two years with great results. I just don’t get sick and at 63 that is a real blessing.
Tara Gildart said,
February 23, 2010 at 12:28 am
We don’t know much about seamineral’s. I was wondering how it compares to ammonium nitrate 34,DAP 18-46-0 and pot ash 0-0-60? Does it replace any of these?
Clare said,
March 11, 2010 at 2:09 am
seamineralsfromarkansas.com, how do you do it?
Administrator said,
March 16, 2010 at 9:51 am
Sea Minerals is best used as a foliar spray. Please see the Application page on the website for more specific directions
Administrator said,
March 16, 2010 at 9:55 am
Using Sea Minerals gives the plant the minerals from the ocean. Science tells us that all the minerals in mammal blood are in the sea in the same balance. Our experience of using the minerals for 6 years on 800 acres has proven that we don’t need any other fertilizer. Over that period, we have seen our productivity increase yearly. We are now producing 50% more hay and pasturing more cows to the acre using only Sea Minerals.
Bruce Bushnell said,
April 7, 2010 at 8:53 pm
Considering using on my hay field. Been CRP for the last 10 yrs. Burned off a couple of weeks ago and field is just greening up. The grass is prairie hay. When should I apply. Plan on stripping so I can see if there is any difference.
Administrator said,
April 8, 2010 at 11:07 am
As soon as you have 4-6 inches of growth, you can spray with Sea Minerals. It is a good idea to strip spray. That was how we tested the first year. Amazing change in 10 days.
Bill ReQua said,
March 14, 2011 at 9:51 am
Is this an accepted organic product. Thanks Bill
Administrator said,
March 22, 2011 at 11:44 pm
Yes, this is accepted as organic but we have not yet completed the certification process
Brian said,
April 29, 2011 at 9:23 am
I’m planning on using sea minerals on my Wrangler Bermuda Grass. Have other people had good results on bermuda grass?
Administrator said,
February 2, 2012 at 7:12 am
It works very well on wheat. Due to the unusually warm weather, many farmers are spraying their wheat right now.