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Tue, Oct 26, 10 at 11:54
| Alright, I see all these posts with people adding seaweed to their piles. Where do you get it from? Do most of you live near the coast somewhere? |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| Sorry I don't know but am joining your plea to share the wealth :) I posted in the California gardening section as I live close to Santa Cruz in Cali but am getting no responses! Need to feed our gardens lol! |
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- Posted by billfaith1 (My Page) on Tue, Oct 26, 10 at 16:22
| Well your much closer to the coast than me! At the risk of sounding really dumb about this, I assume they go to the beach and find seaweed and bag it and bring it home. Having never lived anywhere near the coast though, this is just a guess. |
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- Posted by sylviatexas z8a Tx (My Page) on Tue, Oct 26, 10 at 18:00
| When I think of all the times my father went deep-sea fishing with his friends & I didn't know enough to ask him to bring me fish guts & seaweed... |
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- Posted by borderbarb San Diego county (My Page) on Tue, Oct 26, 10 at 19:14
| I get the impression that the same term - 'seaweed' - is used for different things. My 'seeweed' is kelp, which can be picked up on our local beaches. My kids bring me bags full ... which is all coated with sand and salt and must be rinsed off. [the salty, sandy rinse water gets dumped over a pathway] Once rinsed, I usualy add to my compost pile and notice that it composts [disappears]very quickly. Sometimes I put the rinsed kelp right on top of my mulch. It turns brown and crisp and then breaks down.\/// |
Here is a link that might be useful: Seaweed - wikipedia
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| We have several varieties, but the first picture in borderbarb's link looks exactly like what I mainly gather. I generally bag it and haul it to my car, but I've found a great place this year where I am able to drive my car onto a beach and heave the seaweed into my truck bed. After the bed is full, I put filled bags on top of the loose seaweed and tie them on. I believe I just heard that the Great Lakes have a waterweed that looks like seaweed. |
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| I added four bags of seaweed/eelgrass today. I went down to the beach and grabbed it. I'm new to gardening, but it seems to compost well and from what I've heard/read it's dynamite! I picked up a hug plastic drum from a guy I know and plan to use it to make seaweed tea next year. |
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- Posted by tiffy_z5_6_can 5/6 (My Page) on Tue, Oct 26, 10 at 20:48
| I live just one property away from Shad Bay in Nova Scotia, Canada. If you drive up the road to the tip of the peninsula after a tropical storm, the following is likely what you will see within 2 minutes of leaving our driveway.
Those storms bring lose seaweed into the bay and on to my neighbours beaches. They welcome me coming down to gather it as it 'cleans' their beach. There's lots of it all the time. Great stuff for the compost since it contains a lot of micro-nutrients not found in soils on land that are good for plant development. Be careful though. I heard through the grapevine that there are places where gathering seaweed is actually a no-no so check out your area by-laws for this. |
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| Well it seems I am just hitting the wrong beaches, glad to know it is as simple as picking it up though! |
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- Posted by lisascenic 9 (My Page) on Wed, Oct 27, 10 at 19:40
| Some beaches in California have strict "no collecting" policies. The idea is that taking things off the beach disrupts the coastal ecosystem. |
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| I have a ~1/4 mile drive to beaches with all the eelgrass I can pitchfork into the bed. I got 3 pickup loads this month, which is about what I went through last year. I find it works better as a direct soil amendment or mulch than as a compost ingredient. Locally, rockweed is more desirable because it decomposes a lot faster, but it tougher to find than eelgrass. Right now, local beaches have a 1'-2' layer of dead eelgrass at the high tide line. The local DNR loves to see people haul some of that away. |
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- Posted by tiffy_z5_6_can 5/6 (My Page) on Thu, Oct 28, 10 at 20:21
| That's pretty much all we have here is rockweed. I'll throw some on some of the garden beds and cover with shredded leaves and by spring there's no physical trace of it. I also use large quantities in the compost and again it disappears physically quite fast. :O) |
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| The closer you are to a lake, or maybe a pond, where "seaweed" grows the easier it is for you to collect it for use. If there is not a lake or pond with some "seaweeds" growing in them then "seaweed" is not something to use since purchasing the stuff in stores is very expensive and there will be other, much less expensive, materials for you to use. Not all of the algae that grows on lakes and oponds should be used, however, since some are toxic. |
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| A few years ago, we got an unusually high, thick blanket of seaweed all over the beach and about 100 meters out into the water. I'd never seen it before, but the old timers said it "happens now and then". I've been waiting for more ever since!! Grabbed DS and DG and down we went to the beach with garbage bags and buckets and took as much as we could back. Guys from the municipality were using bulldozers to scrape it up and pile it into huge hills, which were destined for the dump. They thought I was starkers (so did my family) but I put it all right onto my piles. No rinsing, just dug it in. Fastest, most beautiful reduction I've ever seen before or since. I wait every year, hoping for more. Can't get anyone to predict it or give me more details, but more, more, give me more....... |
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