June 2026 Updates
Hello from Ketchikan, Alaska! We have some great updates from Pacific Kelp Company to share with you this month, but first, make sure you're signed up for our emails by clicking here.
Exciting KelpEdge™ Results on Potatoes and Onions
We're excited to share some data from a greenhouse trial that we've been conducting with Collins Agricultural Consultants over the last few months.
While this is a smaller trial than the 300-acre trial on onions and potatoes that we'll wrap up in the fall, we are still happy to see KelpEdge™ driving improvements in key areas versus both the control and competitor products.
For both crops, the control treatment represented a standard fertility program, while the competitor treatment included the standard fertility program with the addition of a biostimulant product.
For potatoes, we saw the largest improvements in tuber weight versus both the control—82%—and the competitor product at a rate of four quarts per acre. Notably, all three KelpEdge™ treatments produced higher tuber weights than both the control and the competitor product.
Tuber weight is a major factor in yield, and large increases in tuber weight can drive significantly higher yields and profitability for farmers.
For onions, we were happy to see improvements in bulb size versus both the control—36%—and the competitor product at a rate of just one quart per acre, half the rate of the competitor product.
Given the increased bulb size, we also saw improvements in bulb weight of more than 10% versus the control and 11% versus the competitor product. Increasing onion bulb size and weight drives higher yields for farmers and can provide a major boost to profitability.
Stay tuned for more results this fall from our much larger field trial on onions and potatoes, where we expect to see similar results on a much larger scale.
Pacific Kelp Company Featured in Alaska Business Magazine
Check out our feature in the June 2026 issue of Alaska Business magazine, “Holding Fast.”
As our industry faces the winding down of major grant programs, this piece highlights important innovation happening across Alaska’s kelp sector. At Pacific Kelp Company, we’re proud to be driving some of that innovation with products like our KelpEdge™ biostimulant.
We believe kelp has tremendous potential in multiple industries, especially agriculture, and the results we’re seeing with KelpEdge™ continue to validate that belief.
By helping crops manage stress and improve performance, we’re turning Alaska-grown kelp into a powerful tool for farmers. This creates a flywheel effect for us and Alaska's kelp industry: growing sales allow us to purchase more kelp and expand our production capabilities, lowering production costs and supporting further investment in our business and the industry.
Thank you to Alaska Business for shining a light on the work we're doing and on Alaska's kelp industry.
New Data from Our Summer Intern
Our intern, Ayobami Akinnawo, is working this summer to help us improve our processes for identifying and quantifying compounds of interest within our KelpEdge™ product.
This week, Ayobami successfully performed a ¹H Nuclear Magnetic Resonance analysis on a sample of KelpEdge™. The analysis revealed a cluster of peaks between 3.45 and 3.71 ppm, confirming the presence of mannitol, a key bioactive sugar alcohol in seaweed-based biostimulants.
Mannitol is a natural osmolyte and antioxidant that helps crops withstand drought and heat stress, enhancing productivity for farmers.
Later this summer, Ayobami will perform High-Performance Liquid Chromatography analysis to help us identify and quantify the various amino acids present within KelpEdge™. We're looking forward to seeing the data and can't wait to share it.
