In 2018 Jim McAdam, a member of our GrowIN team, along with AFBI, Queens University Belfast and Falkland Islands Trust carried out a study to look at the response of Cocksfoot grass to liquid seaweed extract applied as a foliar spray.
Given climate changes there is an increasingly strong argument for Cocksfoot and other drought tolerant grasses. Foliar seaweed extract offers a more sustainable fertiliser option.
In this study they looked at:
Short term response of newly reseeded cocksfoot
Effect of seaweed on older established cocksfoot
The seaweed extract resulted in 17mg/tiller/day as opposed to the control which only achieved 7mg/tiller/day. The health assessment on the control was valued at 3.2 but the seaweed treated cocksfoot was valued at 4.5.
On the established lay, the control yielded 1980kg/Dm/ha, and the seaweed yielded 2430kg/Dm/ha. It is worth noting the stubble height following 2 weeks of regrowth in the control was 2.7cm and the seaweed treated plot was a massive 5.1cm.
The reported concluded that cocksfoot has potential in a moisture challenged environment and that it responds to liquid seaweed extract very well.
The use of seaweed has seen considerable uptake since the rise in fertiliser prices. Has anyone had any experience of it?
Share your stories...cost....value.....results.....etc
We used a foliar seaweed spray this spring and are happy with the results There was no scientific measurements done or comparisons made so it’s difficult to claim all the benefits were due to seaweed or was it just the growing conditions this spring We will use it again in 2023 and watch with interest. We thought we had a thicker more lush award and would also be interested to hear other’s experience