Kelp Crofters

Kelp to crop

Kelp Crofters turns its harvest into biostimulants and soil improvers, drawing on the antioxidants, alginates and natural growth hormones in kelp. Trials have recorded yield improvements of eight to ten per cent in barley and potatoes. One founder, a former ice-climbing guide, has watched Scotland's mountain snow cover shrink over thirty years and sees the same climate pressure showing up as drought and flood on the farms they now supply: the biostimulant, they say, gives crops some resilience against both. True to the farm's name, the founders argue for a network of small, croft-scale kelp farms rather than a few industrial ones, carrying the Highland crofting tradition of stewarding land and sea together into the water.

In Martin Welch's words

From a PEBL interview, March 2026

• “All the small stuff in the sea lives in the kelp forest, that's where they go and survive. The fact that we're growing kelp, it just creates a habitat for other species. We're pretty sure the impact is positive, but this project is what's actually going to let us find out.”
• “I used to be an ice climber, guiding in the winter mountains for thirty years, and there's been an awful change in Scotland's winter mountains. Before, snow cover was there from December through to April; now there's not that much snow at all. With the sea it's less obvious, because you can't see what's happening down there. But turning seaweed into a liquid biostimulant for the farm brings it all back round to the land.”

How it started

Founded by Martin Welch, Dr Kyla Orr and Alex Glasgow, three friends local to Skye and Lochalsh with backgrounds spanning fishing, marine science and landscape architecture. Martin patented KelpRing, a seeding system, after noticing kelp naturally colonising his own fishing gear; the farm now runs its own hatchery in clear, high-status loch water.

Who's behind it

• Martin Welch · Co-founder
• Dr Kyla Orr · Co-founder
• Alex Glasgow · Co-founder