Kelps are large brown algae seaweeds that make up the order of Laminariales. There are about 30 different genera. Despite its appearance, kelp is not a plant – it is a heterokont[1], a completely unrelated group of organisms.
Kelp grows as large coastal seaweeds in colder seas. They provide critical habitat and are an important food source for a wide range of coastal organisms, including many fish and invertebrates. Until early in the 19th century, the ash of such seaweeds was an important source of potash and iodine.
Kelp! I need somebody
Kelp! Not just anybody
Kelp! You know I need someone
Kelp!
Many kelps produce algin, a complex carbohydrate (polysaccharide) useful in various industrial processes, including tire manufacture. Algin is added to ice cream before freezing to prevent ice crystallization and is also used as a suspending and emulsifying agent in other food products.
In most kelp, the body consists of flat or leaf-like structures known as blades. Blades originate from elongated stem-like structures, the stipes. The holdfast, a root-like structure, anchors the kelp to the substrate of the ocean. Gas-filled bladders (pneumatocysts) form at the base of blades of American species to hold the kelp blades close to the surface.
Kelp ash is rich in iodine and alkali. In great amounts, kelp ash can be used in soap and glass production. Until the Leblanc process[2] was commercialized in the early 19th century, the burning of kelp in Scotland was one of the principal industrial sources of soda ash (predominantly sodium carbonate).
Alginate, a kelp-derived carbohydrate, is used to thicken products such as ice cream, jelly, salad dressing, and toothpaste, as well as an ingredient in exotic dog food and in manufactured goods. Alginate powder is also used frequently in general dentistry and orthodontics for making impressions of the upper and lower arches. Kelp polysaccharides are used in skin care as gelling ingredients because of the benefits provided by fucoidan[3].
Oh I get by with a little kelp from my friends
Mm I get high with a little kelp from my friends
Mm gonna try with a little kelp from my friends
Kombu, several Pacific species of kelp, is a very important ingredient in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean cuisines. Kombu is used to flavor broths and stews (especially dashi), as a savory garnish for rice and other dishes, as a vegetable, and as a primary ingredient in popular snacks.
Transparent sheets of kelp are used as an edible decorative wrapping for rice and other foods. Kombu can be used to soften beans during cooking, and to help convert indigestible sugars and thus reduce flatulence.
Giant kelps of the genus Macrocystis are the largest known kelp species, reaching up to 215 feet long. The genus is limited in distribution because it reproduces only at temperatures below 64.4–68 °F.
Need Kelp? Dial 911
Kelp fertilizer in meal or liquid form is an organic alternative to chemical fertilizers in the garden. Of your choices in organic fertilizers, kelp seaweed meal is one of the best and most popular options available.
- Liquid Seaweed Fertilizer– best for plants grown in containers since it soaks through easily and plants get nutrients faster.
- Seaweed Extract Powder– this is a very potent fertilizer and is obtained by drying out all the water from seaweed.
- It is extracted from brown seaweed such as Ascophyllum Nodosum, Laminaria, etc.
- Seaweed/ Kelp Meal– this is essentially dried and crushed seaweed.
- Calcified Seaweed– this one isn’t kelp fertilizer.
- It is a mix of calcified coral and algae (with around 50% calcium content).
Fertilizers made from seaweed are a great source of nutrients and trace elements (absorbed from the sea) for plants grown in containers or even those grown on the ground. They’re eco-friendly and sustainable and contain micronutrients to enrich your soil and increase crop yields. Seaweed may be used whole, as a liquid or it may be composted and crushed before it is added to the soil as fertilizer.
Kelp me make it though the night
Footnotes
- Heterokonts are a group of protists ( an organism whose cells contain a cell nucleus) that is not an animal, plant, or fungus.). The group is a major line of eukaryotes (organisms whose cells have a nucleus enclosed within a nuclear envelope.). Most are algae, ranging from the giant multicellular kelp to the unicellular diatoms, which are a primary component of plankton. Other notable members of the Stramenopiles include the (generally) parasitic oomycetes, including Phytophthora, which caused the Great Famine of Ireland, and Pythium, which causes seed rot and damping off. [Back]
- The Leblanc process was an early industrial process for making soda ash (sodium carbonate) used throughout the 19th century, named after its inventor, Nicolas Leblanc. It involved two stages: making sodium sulfate from sodium chloride, followed by reacting the sodium sulfate with coal and calcium carbonate to make sodium carbonate. The process gradually became obsolete after the development of the Solvay process. [Back]
- Fucoidan occurs in the cell walls of the seaweed plant and serves to protect it from external stresses. The same protective benefits that are of value to the seaweed plant have also been found to be of potential benefit for both human and animal health. Fucoidan extracts are utilized in a range of therapeutic healthcare preparations, being incorporated as high-value ingredients in nutritional, medical devices, skincare, and dermatological products. [Back]
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