Posted by Michael Hogan on February 20, 2009 at 8:08am
After these stormy periods (in New Zealand this weekend, but relevant anywhere) is a GREAT time to collect kelp and seaweed from the seashore, which makes excellent mulch (full of nutrients) or additions to the compost heap. I just hook up the trailer and head down to the local beach at low tide and spot fellow gardeners collecting the valuable bounty. I have had the best compost in years this year, due to great amounts of kelp added this winter to the compost pile. Don't miss out. Be sure to dry it out and rinse the salt off for a few days before adding to garden or compost. Cheers
Seaweed is the most wonderful ingredient in any composting , foliar feeding or direct home garden application .... it has EVERY element and micro available in it .... and obviously carries NO earth borne disorders or diseases .... just one thing Peeps ... please be sure and see that you 'rinse' your 'stormthrown' seaweed in the sea before making off with it .... this will allow the billions of micro-orgs and other critters that have made the beached weed their 'home' another chance .... tis the right thing to do . Scored about 40m of Bull Kelp today on our beach ... quite rare to see it as StormThrow here ... and strangely no Ecklonia ...yet.
I went to Cornwallis and trawled the whole beach for an hour, and came back with a bag of sea weed, mostly the litttle black one, but i did manage to score a huge lump of dried kelp at the high tide mark, which seems to be rotting into my barrell rather nicely, the little black one is still dry looking even in the barrel, has anyone used this type of sea weed before? also i saw some crumbly sea corals that had washed up, would they be good to improve calcium in the soil?
I would only harvest seaweed that is washed up on the beach, i.e. not still living :), which is why we quite like stormy weather every so often!
Merren said:
I presume it's ok to harvest seaweed? Not treading on iwi rights or some obscure law ? We didn't have a mulcher some years ago so just used the lawnmower against the garage door (and cleaned out the garage later !) The chomped product helped make a great above ground no-dig garden in our rental home - 'spose you could bag the soil and take it with you when you moved ?
I presume it's ok to harvest seaweed? Not treading on iwi rights or some obscure law ?
We didn't have a mulcher some years ago so just used the lawnmower against the garage door (and cleaned out the garage later !) The chomped product helped make a great above ground no-dig garden in our rental home - 'spose you could bag the soil and take it with you when you moved ?
Ooh, thanks for the reminder - I should really get down to the waterfront and get myself some seaweed. I've got some soaking to make liquid fertiliser (smelling revolting, so it must be good!) and could do with adding some to the compost heap.
Great to hear salt causes no problems. With a "hot" enough compost, almost anything can be added, and it surely makes it easier. No right or wrong here, if it works without causing any salt toxicity, go for it! I dry mine a bit just so it can be shredded and decompose quicker. Kelp "tea" is a fantastic fertliser; although I use it as just one ingredient making up my compost tea. Thanks for sharing!
i don't bother with washing off the salt either - it just adds to the rich supply of nutrients. As well as a mulch i keep a bucket of kelp going with rainwater and use a cup of this mixture to one watering can or a bucket of water to feed my palnts regularly. It works wonderfully! I have also tried drying kelp, and ground it in my blender. Sometimes i add a spoonful of this dried mixture to a bucket of water and use on plants also. Its good to experiment with different things.
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Merren said:
We didn't have a mulcher some years ago so just used the lawnmower against the garage door (and cleaned out the garage later !) The chomped product helped make a great above ground no-dig garden in our rental home - 'spose you could bag the soil and take it with you when you moved ?