The Rise And Development Of Seaweed Fertilizer

While providing nutrients for crop growth, seaweed fertilizer can also improve crop yields and the quality of fruits and vegetables by improving soil, triggering seed germination, promoting rooting and crop growth, and preserving flowers and fruits. It has high application value in agricultural production.

 

Seaweed is distributed in the vast oceans around the world. Based on the large amount of biologically active substances contained, marine macroalgae such as Sargassum, Ascophyllum, Giant Kelp, Kelp, etc. have long been used in agricultural production around the world.

 

It contains more than 40 mineral elements such as Mg, Zn, Ca, Fe, etc. that terrestrial plants cannot match, as well as rich plant growth regulators such as seaweed polysaccharides, proteins, polyphenol amino acids, highly unsaturated fatty acids, vitamins, etc.

 

In addition, seaweed fertilizer can regulate the balance of endogenous hormones in plants, stimulate the production of non-specific active factors in plants, and promote crop growth. Not only that, it can also improve fertilizer utilization and enhance crop photosynthesis. Enhance crop resistance to drought, cold and disease, promote early maturity of crops, increase flowering and fruiting rates, improve quality and increase yield.

 

 

Early stage

Since the ancient Roman era, seaweed has been used in agricultural production, added directly to the soil or used as compost to improve the soil.

The ancient British also added seaweed to the soil as fertilizer, mixing seaweed directly with the soil, and some mixed seaweed with straw, peat or other organic matter to make fertilizer.

 

Medium stage

In the middle of the 12th century, European coastal countries such as Britain, France, and Norway began to widely use seaweed as fertilizer.

In the 16th century, people in Canada, France, Japan and other places collected seaweed to make compost. Some areas in South Wales, England and Germany used rotten seaweed or seaweed ash from the coast to grow various crops, with good results.

In the 17th century, the French government recognized the value of seaweed in fertilizers, clearly stipulated the harvesting time and collection conditions of seaweed in coastal areas, and vigorously promoted seaweed as soil fertilizer.

 

Nowdays

In 1949, Dr. Milton, a British, invented the technology of liquefying seaweed to prepare fertilizer. This is where Maxicrop seaweed fertilizer was born. As a new product of seaweed fertilizer, seaweed liquid fertilizer was launched in the UK, opening a new chapter in seaweed fertilizer.

 

According to Dr. Milton's report, if seaweed is applied directly to the soil, its inhibitory effect on plant growth will last for 15 weeks even if the seaweed is finely ground. In addition to the Maxicrop brand of seaweed liquid fertilizer, some other companies also began to commercially produce seaweed fertilizer.

 

Around 1962, Algea (now Valagro) in Norway used an alkaline process similar to Maxicrop to prepare seaweed fertilizer from Ascophyllum nodosum. France developed a unique method of cryogenically freezing seaweed in the early 1970s, which was later commercialized by Goemar.

 

Australia also began producing and applying seaweed fertilizer in the 1970s.

 

In the 1980s and 1990s, seaweed fertilizer, as a natural fertilizer, received unprecedented attention and development in developed countries in Europe and the United States. Canadian company Acadian Seaplants began commercial production of seaweed extract from Ascophyllum nodosum in the 1990s.

 

 

At present, the global seaweed fertilizer market is expected to reach US$17.1 million in 2025. After more than half a century of innovative development, the variety of seaweed fertilizer products has continued to increase, and the quality has been increasingly improved, and it has attracted much attention in agricultural production.

 

The research, development and application of seaweed fertilizers have gradually become a hot topic. The application of seaweed extracts in agricultural production has been recognized by many countries and international organizations. The US OMIR certification and the EU ECOCERT certification clearly allow seaweed biological products to be used as soil improvement materials and fertilizers, and are allowed to be used to prevent and control crop diseases and pests.

 

With the popularization of seaweed and seaweed extracts in agricultural production and the expansion of the market scale, the production and application technology of seaweed fertilizers has also been improved, while improving production efficiency and application effects.

 

 

Dora Agri has been committed to producing products that comply with organic agriculture, using pollution-free deep-sea seaweed as raw materials and low-temperature enzymatic extraction or other organic extraction method.