Making your own seaweed fertiliser

I am interested in learning how to use fresh collected seaweed to benefit my organic vege garden. I have seacrched through past threads and read about the benefits of using seaweed and fish emulsion, but couldnt find much on using fresh seaweed.

I have heard that you can compost it, use it as mulch, or make it into a tea by soaking it in a barrell of water for some time. And I think you need to rinse it first to remove the salt. Id like to reap the benefits as soon as possible, so Id rather make a liquid fertilizer than wait for it to compost into the soil.

I live near the ocean (Tasman Sea) but have never used self collected seaweed. Does anyone have any experience with this? I would greatly appreciate some input.

Some questions are:

1. Is it best to collect the fresh wet plants, or the dry older stuff?
2. How long does the tea need to be brewed?
3. Can you get more than one brew out of a single barrell of seaweed?
4. How much should it be diluted before applying (by watering can) ?

We are doing a trip to the coast tomorrow, so I will collect as much as my partner will allow me to put in the car!

Thanks in advance for any ideas.
Lena

Hi Lena - I . have used Linda Woodrow's method described in The Permaculture home garden. I love this book and you should probably be able to get it in the library in NZ as it is an Australian book. She steeps hers for about a fortnight then uses it to water her compost. She keeps topping it up with water & lets it brew again. She sometimes adds other ingredients to it especially herbs. I remember reading somewhere that if you shake off the sand that gets rid of most of the salt - but don't quote me on that one .

I was contemplating buying a rainwater wheelie bin thing from the hardware shopwhich has a tap at the bottom - just don't know if I can justify spending the money! Cheers June

Thanks June, I will keep an eye out for the book.

I ended up just spreading the seaweed on my lawn for a week to rinse the salt off with hose and rain, then spread it sraight on the garden. Its a bit of a nuisance, get caught in the fork, but my tomatoes are loving it!

The wheelie bin with the tap sounds great. I have used an old iron barrel for manure tea in the past, had to use a siphon hose or bucket to get it out. Messy messy.

Lena

Hi folks. One year when I was living in coastal North Carolina USA, there was a wash up on the beaches of humongous amounts of seeweed (bladderwrack, I believe was the kind we had)

I had heard about collecting washed up seaweed as a garden soil amendment and also had heard that t here really was no need to worry about washing off salt......... so I collected as much as I could and just put it in the compost pile. There was no negative result at all, and like your tomatoes, LenaBean, my garden seemed to thrive on the stuff.

IMO we often make things more complicated than they need to be. Or, I sure do! ;-)

Yes! LOL Kylaluaz, and your right. I do make things more complicated than they need to be. I just like knowing EXACTLY what Im doing before I launch into it. Change my mind a million times and fuss around unecesarily. Drives my SO mad.
There was a lot of sand in some of the weed. Good for my previously clay soil, but not good for the car. Now I need to convince him to let me fill the car up with seaweed again. My habit of dragging home manure and compost and straw and seaweed etc drives him mad too ;-)

Lena

That made me smile about making things more complicated . Simplify is my motto - why is it so hard to do? I just wrapped some fruit trees with seaweed mulch and they said a big thank you. I just realised I added a photo -is that poor netiquette? For people with dial up? Just a newbie .

Photos are great, that's a lovely one! I don't know about how folks with dial up handle it here, but photos abound, so long as it's yours, post it!

Our poor cars, Lena! My old one I swear had a whole ecosystem in the trunk by the time I had to get rid of it, LOL!

Nice picture June. It looks like NZ Ponga tree ferns. I suppose they would grow in Australia too wouldnt they. I saw them for sale in a German garden centre while on holiday last year, 500€ each! If only they were worth that here.

I think pictures only slow things down if you actually click on it for enlargement. So keep them coming!

LOL LOL LOL!!! Whole ecosystem in the car! Im still laughing to myself, getting funny looks from my unimpressed partner. He agrees with you too.

Lena

hee hee

The tree ferns are all self planted - we have native ones in Oz as well. If I was a "proper" gardener I'd thin them out - but I just can't bear to - I figure they will work it out in the end. Don't know if I've got a whole ecosystem in the back of my car but the chooks sure love it.

hahahahaHAHAHAHA very nice. LOL.....

CUTE! I love chickens! I will get a small flock of my own one day when we move out of town. And a trailer to get seaweed and manure for my even bigger garden :-)