March 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!
Sharing Data at the Mariculture Conference of Alaska
Earlier this month, the Pacific Kelp Co. team was in Anchorage to present initial findings from our AMC-funded research project at the Mariculture Conference of Alaska.
PKC founder John shared data from our research with Cornell University, with one major takeaway being the positive effects on soil-health metrics found in kelp-treated turfgrass plots when compared to the untreated control plots.
John presented exciting findings from the research that Dr. Bhaskar Bondada of Washington State University is conducting on vineyards, showing the positive effects kelp can have on wine-grape quality, especially on drought-stressed and virus-infected vines. More on that below.
John also sat for a panel to discuss the commercialization of Alaskan kelp with members of Alaska's mariculture and agricultural communities. Kelp-based biostimulants were a hot topic on the panel, and many panelists discussed ways they are working to increase biostimulant market adoption.
At Pacific Kelp Company, we’re pushing market adoption of our biostimulant, KelpEdge™, through rigorous third-party research and efficacy trials—and we’re seeing results. Stay tuned for more updates on our commercialization efforts.
Increases to Wine-Grape Quality on Drought-Stressed and Virus-Infected Vines
As part of our AMC-funded research with Washington State University, we're exploring how Alaskan kelp can benefit wine-grape quality and vineyard outcomes.
In addition to the data that we shared in January from our work in Napa Valley, we've been conducting research on vines experiencing more stressful conditions in eastern Washington State.
We saw significant improvements to primary metabolites—glucose, fructose, and malic acid—in vines that experienced drought conditions during the summer of 2025. Primary metabolites are responsible for driving plant growth and largely determine the quality of wine that can be made from the grapes.
Glucose and fructose are sugars that are crucial for fermentation into alcohol, while malic acid plays a major role in determining taste balance and mouthfeel in wine.
We were pleased to see improvements in the levels of glucose, fructose, and malic acid in the grapes treated with KelpEdge™, especially under drought conditions.
Normally, drought impedes the vine's ability to perform photosynthesis and often leads to lower yields and lower-quality grapes, as measured by levels of primary and secondary metabolites.
Here, we found that KelpEdge™-treated grapes had higher levels of glucose, fructose, and malic acid than the untreated grapes, suggesting that some of the effects of drought stress can be ameliorated with foliar applications of KelpEdge™.
This gives vineyards a tool to use when encountering drought stress, something that can be a major issue for vineyards and an environmental challenge that we've seen increase in frequency and severity over the last few years.
In addition to the positive effects that KelpEdge™ applications can have on primary metabolites, we also looked at the impact on secondary metabolites—the compounds responsible for the vine's stress response to, among other things, viruses.
Viruses, especially leafroll virus, are a major issue plaguing vineyards around the world. Up to 50 percent of vineyards globally experience leafroll virus, causing lower productivity and grape quality, which significantly impacts vineyard profitability.
We were excited to see that applications of KelpEdge™ to leafroll-infected vines showed significant improvements in tannins and quercetin, two key secondary metabolites.
Improvements to tannins and quercetin versus the untreated control group not only show that the treated vines are more aggressively responding to the virus, but also help improve the quality of the wine produced.
Tannins are crucial for the body of the wine, along with its color, while quercetin plays a major role in determining the dryness of the wine.
Taken together, the improvements that we've seen to both primary and secondary metabolites are promising indicators that KelpEdge™ can significantly benefit vine health, grape quality, and overall vineyard profitability.
Stay tuned for more updates on this exciting research as we repeat these experiments and expand into new research areas in 2026.
