12/21/2023 0 Comments Seaweed fertiliser![]() ![]() It’s typically used straight up, as a compost addition, or as a brewed seaweed tea. Seaweed contains ALL the elements (wow!) but most only in trace amounts – it does however typically contain useful amounts of: iodine, copper, manganese, potassium, phosphorus, iron and zinc. Collecting beach cast seaweed seaweed makes for healthy veggies Why use Seaweed in your garden Generally we don’t wash our seaweed unless it’s going into seaweed tea. Which method you use will depend on your garden, and you. Once you’ve got your seaweed home, there’s several ways you can use it in your garden. Some people consider the older seaweed stinky or dirty, but to me, it’s just organic material that’s decomposing – and it smells a lot better than plenty of other decomposing organics I’ve worked with! We’ve used everything from shopping bags to a pull-behind trolley to harvest beach-cast seaweed. ![]() Once you’ve got the all-clear, always remember to practice responsible foraging and harvest lightly from within the tidal zone – there’s lots of animals, birds, insects and other organisms who also consider that beach cast seaweed valuable, so leave enough to go around. ![]() Collection is fine in some places, and not so fine in others – this post has links to the regulations in Australia. There’s lots of easy ways to use it to increase the health of your soil, and your veggies and flowers too.įirst of all, check the local regulations where you live around collecting beach-cast seaweed. In Scotland, it is used as fertiliser in lazybeds.If you live near the coast, seaweed can be a fantastic resource to forage for fertilizing your garden. In the Channel Islands, such seaweed fertiliser is known as vraic in their dialects of Norman, a word that has also entered Channel Island English, the activity of collecting vraic being termed vraicking. For those who cannot gather fresh seaweed, it is available commercially in a dried 'meal' form, which can be applied at a rate of 60-100g per square metre, or as a concentrated liquid feed which should be diluted 1 part to 15 with water, and can be applied either as a foliar feed or to the root zone. In terms of soil structure it does not add a great deal of bulk, but its jelly like alginate content helps to bind soil crumbs together, and it contains all soil nutrients (0.3% N, 0.1% P, 1.0% K, plus a full range of trace elements). Seaweed, particularly bladderwrack, kelp or laminaria, can be either applied to the soil as a mulch (although it will tend to break down very quickly) or can be added to the compost heap, where it is an excellent activator. It can be hosed down before adding to the soil to reduce the salt content, or left to be desalinated by rainwater. While it is unlikely that you will add sufficient seaweed to seriously upset the balances of salt in your soil, it is not liked by worms, who will not live in it. However, caution should be observed when collecting seaweed, particularly from areas that are liable to pollution, such as downriver (including estuaries) of industrial activities as seaweed is susceptible to contamination.Ī perhaps less serious potential problem with seaweed is its salt content. Seaweed fertiliser, also spelt seaweed fertilizer, is a valuable addition to the organic garden, and is abundantly available for free for those living near the coast. ![]()
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