I’ve heard of people doing this before, but I don’t know how it works in practice. The salt on them might be an issue?
Any_Gain_9251
If you can legally and safely procure kelp then absolutely do it. It makes a fantastic soil conditioner. Those of us too far from the sea have to rely on Seasol.
Dry-Cod-1645
We spread it on the beds in spring and fall. Great stuff!
FuddFucker5000
I used river kelp in mine. Bring a bucket to put it in.
Goblin_Supermarket
My dad used to harvest early in the year, lay it out to get rained on all summer, and turn it in to the soil in the fall.
MightyKittenEmpire2
Years ago I read a uni study on composting seaweed that was beached, specifically looking at salt. Their conclusion was the pros outweigh the cons by a wide margin. Lots of minerals.
I can’t remember if they did anything to wash or otherwise prep the input. Suggest you go to a coastal state’s Ag school and search for info. Oregon and Florida have good sites, IIRC.
Professional-Key-863
Doesn’t it have a lot of salt?
brooknut
I live on the coast of a New England state, and collecting seaweed – more often rockweed, not kelp – is a practice that has existed long before Europeans arrived here. For my purposes, I can go to the shore after a storm and easily get a truckload of seaweed in an hour. I spread it thinly in an area where it can be leached of salt by a few rains, then let it dry and put it through my chipper/shredder, which pulverizes it into small particles – wet, it just get tangled around the impeller and stalls the machine. I add the result directly to my compost piles, but if the timing and application are appropriate, directly to my beds. Some vegetable crops are quite tolerant of salt – asparagus being the most notable example – and can be mulched with seaweed, but the disadvantage is that when it is wet it is smelly and slippery, so shredding it is an advantage. The reason it smells is because it harbors LOTS of small crustaceans and invertebrates that die and decompose after a few days exposed to sun and fresh water. Most coastal states now have regulations regarding the harvesting of seaweed, with good reason, because it’s a necessary element in supporting marine and coastal ecosystems. For gardeners, it supplies an enormous array of micronutrients as well as an abundance of NPK – those tiny crustaceans make excellent fertilizer. You can get very similar results by harvesting aquatic plants from freshwater sources – if it’s allowed – and it is a great way to use invasive plants like Eurasian watermilfoil or hydrilla if you are able to collect and transport them legally.
8 Comments
I’ve heard of people doing this before, but I don’t know how it works in practice. The salt on them might be an issue?
If you can legally and safely procure kelp then absolutely do it. It makes a fantastic soil conditioner. Those of us too far from the sea have to rely on Seasol.
We spread it on the beds in spring and fall. Great stuff!
I used river kelp in mine. Bring a bucket to put it in.
My dad used to harvest early in the year, lay it out to get rained on all summer, and turn it in to the soil in the fall.
Years ago I read a uni study on composting seaweed that was beached, specifically looking at salt. Their conclusion was the pros outweigh the cons by a wide margin. Lots of minerals.
I can’t remember if they did anything to wash or otherwise prep the input. Suggest you go to a coastal state’s Ag school and search for info. Oregon and Florida have good sites, IIRC.
Doesn’t it have a lot of salt?
I live on the coast of a New England state, and collecting seaweed – more often rockweed, not kelp – is a practice that has existed long before Europeans arrived here. For my purposes, I can go to the shore after a storm and easily get a truckload of seaweed in an hour. I spread it thinly in an area where it can be leached of salt by a few rains, then let it dry and put it through my chipper/shredder, which pulverizes it into small particles – wet, it just get tangled around the impeller and stalls the machine. I add the result directly to my compost piles, but if the timing and application are appropriate, directly to my beds. Some vegetable crops are quite tolerant of salt – asparagus being the most notable example – and can be mulched with seaweed, but the disadvantage is that when it is wet it is smelly and slippery, so shredding it is an advantage. The reason it smells is because it harbors LOTS of small crustaceans and invertebrates that die and decompose after a few days exposed to sun and fresh water. Most coastal states now have regulations regarding the harvesting of seaweed, with good reason, because it’s a necessary element in supporting marine and coastal ecosystems. For gardeners, it supplies an enormous array of micronutrients as well as an abundance of NPK – those tiny crustaceans make excellent fertilizer. You can get very similar results by harvesting aquatic plants from freshwater sources – if it’s allowed – and it is a great way to use invasive plants like Eurasian watermilfoil or hydrilla if you are able to collect and transport them legally.