I use it to pour directly into the root ball of new plants but I often mix it with humic acid, molasses, fish fertilizer, etc. The idea behind it is to try and get the soil biology closer to what it'd be in the native forest more quickly. I'm trying a couple new things such as biozome and actinovate for the fun of it since they're cheap. My shantung maples that I planted last fall/winter are growing like weeds in limestone rocky soil. I'm going to give japanese maple that I grew from a seed a try and see how it does with that method. I finally have decent shade from shantung maples to try japanese maples. Google for soil food web to understand how soil biology works and learn what you need to do to mimic soil in the native forest. That's the goal to get trees thriving with minimal watering.

I forget to tell you that my soil was horrible to begin with after the house was built in 2005. The soil was completely razed after and was severely compacted so I had to restore the soil back to healthy soil biology but I'm afraid that will take a while but at least I have a lot of earthworms to improve the soil in the meanwhile. I can't do a thing about large limestone rocks lurking somewhere underneath. If you only have clay soil without any large rocks then you're lucky. They are very easy to amend but you gotta understand soil food web to be able to do something about it.

Thanks. I was thinking of spraying our entire landscape with seaweed but had read that maples don't like anything sprayed on their leaves so was worried. So wonder if I should mix a batch and pour it on root ball instead of spraying. They are all smaller right now so its not a problem to spray.

I wouldn't spray on the leaves. It seemed to do funky things to my shantung maples. Best to work the soil instead.

Is your house new or old? If it's old, you probably have earthworms but some of pesticides like Sevin can kill 90-95% of earthworm population and many other beneficial bugs. Fungicide can kill benefical fungi as well. So... best to reduce as much synthetic chemicals as possible to restore healthy soil biology. Slow release fertilizer is probably fine though but anything that ends with -icide, be cautious...

http://www.soilfoodweb.com/sfi_approach1.html

http://soils.usda.gov/sqi/concepts/soil_biology/soil_food_web.html

House is only 3 years old. The soil was bad and have been working with compost/mulch in the beds for the 3 years and finally am seeing earthworms. Now I have to treat for grubs. Will spray the soil and see how that does. Thanks guys.

I have grubs but I've never really found them to be problematic. Supposedly in healthy soil, grubs are not big problem. In yards where it is heavily dependent on chemical products seem to have grub problems so who knows...

Interesting. Well haven't seen any signs of problems other than armadillo holes in my planters. They are in them looking for the grubs nightly. Guess it gets aerated for free that way!

I've been spraying my trees with seaweed for the past year and have seen dramatic results. It's actually a premix that I buy at a few stores in Austin. Here's the recipe.

* 2 Tbs. Fish Emulsion
* 1 Tb. Medina Soil Activator
* 1 Tb. Maxicrop Seaweed
* 1 Tb. G-V Blackstrap Molasses
* 1 Gal. Water

BTW, the recipe is called John's Recipe from LadyBug Brands

Whenever you are applying nutrients you are fertilizing. The success of this fertilizing depends entirely on what minerals are already present on your particular growing site (and in your irrigation water).

If you cause an excess of any one nutrient to build up, the fertilization then becomes counterproductive. Phosphorus, for instance is often over-applied and can produce a toxicity that cannot be removed without excavating and replacing the beds.

Here is a link that might be useful: The Myth of Curative Kelp