I bought some kind of sampler kit from boogie brew, and one bag
is the SEA-90. I'm going to try it on half of my tomatoes. I also have
Azomite which I'm going to put in all my raised bed.

roper2008 please post about your results.

* I am not saying any product is better than the other - from what I have read about Azomite is a good product. Can't get here (have tried) and the shipping is getting to high to ship it in. So began looking at alternative sources for re-mineralization and found Sea-90, Sea-Crop and Ocean Solution. As I don't understand Na that much been researching about it and weather or not it builds up in the soil or if the plants (like tomatoes) use it up so that each year you use it doesn't build up in the soil - and what the different of the Na in these products compared to table salt. And I don't think that question has been really answered or if it has I can't find it.

If the 35% sodium is right then it's 89% sodium chloride. The rest of the stuff listed amount to about 1% from in my head additions of the bigger amounts. Some of the difference between 90% and 100% is the other elements that are a associated with the metals listed. Mostly chlorine and oxygen would be my guess.

Here's what I do know. In New York State they spread 500,000 tones of salt on the roads every year. That amounts to 16.6 tons for every lane-mile of road in the state. A lane-mile is one lane one mile long. In other words they spread 33 tons of salt on every mile of road every year.
[URL]http://www.newyorkwater.org/downloadedarticles/environmentanimpact.cfm[/URL]

Now all that salt ends up of the side of the roads. In the ditches and lawns and so forth. Here is what I don't see. I don't see lawns growing better near the road. Ok that might be too much salt, but that should mean that you should see a better growing lawn somewhere between the road and the back and you don't. It's also not being covered up by fertilizing our lawns because none one has ever fertilized the lawns here ever as far as I know.
You also don't see it in corn fields which many time come as close to the road as you can plow. In fact you will see the opposite. Corn near the road doesn't do as well sometimes as that which is farther back.

Other things that I see there that really make me wonder. It's common to feed cattle and sheep free choice salt with trace minerals. It's usually put out in a block form. Where I see it's miss leading is that they say two to three ounce per day for hogs. Hogs need salt at a similar rate that we do. I've been around hogs that where being fed things like surplus bread and stuff. You have to make sure to don't feed stuff like breads stuffing mix because it has too much salt in it.

In conclusion they are trying to down play or hide the fact that this salt with whatever minerals are in it. They are claiming that the ocean mix of minerals is the correct one, which might be correct for a salt water aquarium but I'd want to see why that is so for a land based plant where there is alread many things in the soil. Adding salt with minerals in it doesn't seem to show up in a positive way along northeast roads where a lot of salt is put down.

This is just my opinion, but when I see someone change units in the middle of a headed column like that, I really question everything else they have to say. I personally detest any company that I feel I have to continuously keep my eyes on.

Doug9345
I found a few articles on road salt list below.
Yea getting what looks like to me different figures on the Na from both Sea-90 and Sea-Crop. Is confusing to me. Thanks for your opinion

I thought this was an interesting article-
[B][FONT=&quot]Ancient Irrigation[/FONT][/B]
[URL]http://mygeologypage.ucdavis.edu/cowen/~GEL115/115CH17oldirrigation.html[/URL]

Here's a few articles some seem to use Na sodium
[FONT=&quot]chlorine[/FONT] and some other salts as interchangeable.


Salt research Na sodium chlorine

[URL]http://soilplantlab.missouri.edu/soil/waterirrigation.aspx[/URL]
[URL]http://www.thesoilguy.com/SG/SaltsInSoil-DirtAndCompost[/URL]
[URL]http://www.growflow.com.au/soil-salinity-reduction/[/URL]

[B]Roadside vegetation[/B]
[URL]http://www.saltinstitute.org/Issues-in-focus/Road-salt/Road-salt-our-environment/Natural-environment[/URL]
[URL]http://www.caryinstitute.org/sites/default/files/public/reprints/report_road_salt_2010.pdf[/URL]
[URL]http://www.gardening.cornell.edu/woodies/pdfs/saltinjury.pdf[/URL]
[URL]http://www.extension.purdue.edu/extmedia/id/id-412-w.pdf[/URL]
[url]http://onlinepubs.trb.org/onlinepubs/sr/sr235/069-082.pdf[/url]
[url]http://images.library.wisc.edu/EcoNatRes/EFacs/NAPC/NAPC13/reference/econatres.napc13.jharrington.pdf[/url]
[url]http://www.umaine.edu/waterresearch/mwc/presentations_08/F_Keith_Taylor.pdf[/url]


pdfs
[URL]http://soiltesting.tamu.edu/publications/E-60.pdf[/URL]
[URL]http://jhbiotech.com/docs/Article-Salt-Buildup.pdf[/URL]
[URL]http://naldc.nal.usda.gov/download/CAT87209914/PDF[/URL]
[URL="http://biogro.com/resources/CFSM/BG%20CFS%2011%20-%20Alkaline,%20Saline%20and%20Sodic%20Soils.pdf"]http://biogro.com/resources/CFSM/BG%20CFS%2011%20-%20Alkaline,%20Saline%20and%20Sodic%20Soils.pdf[/URL]
[URL]http://asktheplant.com/PDFs/SALTY-SOIL-MANAGEMENT-and-CEC.pdf[/URL]
[URL]http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/crops/00503.pdf[/URL]
[URL]http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprdb1044788.pdf[/URL]
[URL]http://tgaa.asn.au/states/vic/pdf/AdditionofGypsumandotherCalciumProductstosoiltosolvesecondclasswaterproblems.pdf[/URL]

[QUOTE=John3;335421]For an experiment you hinted you might try sea water in one Earthtainer with a tomato plant. I think the vermiculite (coarse) if soaked in a solution, of say sea water (or Sea-Crop solution), that the vermiculite would hold the sea water (Sea-Crop) and then could be mixed into the mix. I don't know how you make your mix but instead of the perlite amount add the soaked coarse vermiculite. My understanding is that vermiculite is the opposite of perlite in that it absorbs and the perlite reflects water/liquids from itself.
[/QUOTE]

John,
You are right about vermiculite being water retentive. I like the soak idea but I don't use vermiculite for the very reason that it makes the mix run too wet.

If I do try the seawater treatment, I would just follow the article guideline of a one time treatment - [FONT=helvetica][SIZE=2]"650 ml (or 0.172 gallons) of sea water contains about 23 grams of salt which is enough to treat one tomato plant.”[/SIZE][/FONT]

SEA-90 Explained
 

I'm the founder of SeaAgri and tomatoes are my passion. The tomato is unique because it can supply us with 60 or more elements if they are made available to the plant in the soil matrix or as a foliar spray. When full spectrum elements including NaCl are included in your fertility program in the proper ratios your tomatoes will grow beautiful and taste amazing. SeaAgri's most recent analysis shows Na at 28% and Cl at 50%. Yes, this represents 78% NaCl but it also represents 22% additional minerals and trace elements because every drop of sea water contains between 85-92 periodic table elements. However SEA-90 is not table salt, although it is safe to ingest. It is the highest quality sea mineral solids on earth. Do not use it to remineralize your soil if you fear sodium. Dissolve 1 tsp per gallon of water and apply foliar to the leaf surface or water the root zone with the solution once every 10 days throughout the growing season. SEA-90 is safe to use if you follow our simple directions. We have been in business 10 years and no one has reported anything but outstanding results. SeaAgri's goal is to provide education with regard to the technology of Sea Energy Agriculture and a reasonably priced natural OMRI listed product that will enable our customers to grow high quality nutrient dense food. Whether you use SEA-90, Sea-Crop, sea water or any of the other sea water based fertilizers on the market today you are adding vital minerals and trace elements to your food. When you ingest these nutrient dense foods we believe your health will improve. That is the essence of Dr. Murray's research and the reason SeaAgri is in business.

I've researched very briefly the concept of salt increasing brix levels in tomatoes, but hadn't moved towards applying the idea to my plants, mainly because the results seemed mixed and very variety dependent.

I do have a bag of Redmond mineral sea salt that's not being used. I wonder if adding a teaspoon per gallon of water would be beneficial or melt my plants? It's about 98% salt, compared to SeaAgri's 78%. If I'm reading things right.

Wonder if those trace minerals/salts are what's reportedly lacking from the taste of container grown tomatoes? I think I'll experiment with a couple of identical Romas I have in pots. I was hoping they'd die anyway so I could reuse the pots. :D

[url]http://www.columbiapublications.com/tomatomagazine/august2005/northcarolinastudy.htm[/url]
[url]http://www.newenglandvfc.org/pdf_proceedings/2009/PHTRFBC.pdf[/url]

Since I read this thread I have been putting 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt into the tube of my earthboxes every 2 weeks, and I don't know if its the salt, or just end of season usually equals better tasting tomatoes, but the flavor is markedly improved over the blandness I was getting in some container tomatoes earlier. I just did it as an experiment.
Marsha

Interesting, just plain old kosher salt? What variety of tomato? The study I read indicated some varieties do better than others, but I hadn't heard of the ones they used.

TL

Ok, I added a teaspoon to one of the Romas. They're in MG,which I think already has trace elements, so not the best test. I think I'll set up a soilless test in a few weeks, just because I'm curious. And have extra seedlings. Unless someone already has experience with adding sea salts?


Tl