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Eelgrass
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Posted by josko 7 MA (My Page) on Sat, Nov 21, 09 at 9:06
Here on Cape Cod we have a huge free supply of eelgrass (Zostera Marina), and I'd appreciate any insight into its utility as compost ingredient, mulch, or direct soil ammendment.
As far as I know, it's a reasonable ingredient for all three, if it's allowed to sit through a couple rainstorms to leach the salt out. It takes a lot longer to decompose then any other seaweed, but does eventually.
Any insights would be appreciated. |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Eelgrass
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| head over to the Winter Sowing forum and check out the thread Fall garden prep. You'll see a nice picture of eel grass and how that person uses it. Alberta |
RE: Eelgrass
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| Yep... Donn's the expert on this one! Head over tto the Winter Sowing Forum as Alberta recommends. :O) |
RE: Eelgrass
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- Posted by paulns NS zone 6a (My Page) on
Sat, Nov 21, 09 at 13:45
| One of our most useful local harvests. We haul three or four truckloads of dead, washed up eelgrass from local harbour beaches every year. Not really a seaweed but a fresh or brackish-water plant, so it doesn't dissolve the way seaweed will. It can be stubborn to break down, like you said, and that can be a good thing or a challenge, depending on what you want it for. If you can find some that's more like shredded cassette tapes, rather than tape straight out of the cassette, it breaks down beautifully in the compost pile, otherwise it can seem almost unchanged even after a couple months of heat, especially if it's been layered with quick to rot or watery nitrogen materials like fish scraps or pumpkins. We still use it in compost piles but give it time. Eelgrass works really well as a summer mulch around tomato-family plants and between corn rows, retaining soil moisture and stopping weeds, with the added bonus of collecting heat thanks to its dark colour. I till it in the following summer. In the past I used it to cover whole beds over the winter but it got bundled up in the tiller tines the following June so I quit. My wife and I have the same debate every year, whether eelgrass breaks down more quickly if it's fresher/still green, or dead and grey-black... Friends of ours bank their house with eelgrass every year - it catches the snow and serves as insulation. This is a traditional use for eelgrass around here. I should point out that we live in a cool maritime climate. Eelgrass may break down more quickly where you are. Hey Tiffy! |
RE: Eelgrass
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- Posted by paulns NS zone 6a (My Page) on
Sat, Nov 21, 09 at 14:59
| I should have said that in our area (northern Nova Scotia), eelgrass is found only in harbours, not on the coast. My reading tells me it does grow in shallow coastal places elsewhere and is a salty water plant. |
RE: Eelgrass
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| Wish I had eelgrass. :O( But I do have the stuff with little ballons on it. :O) Great stuff for the gardens once the beach fleas get out of it. |
RE: Eelgrass
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Thanks for the post.
--------- |
Here is a link that might be useful: dvdshop88
RE: Eelgrass
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| Thalassa Cruso wrote in 1975 that I didn't need to wash the salt off seaweed, so I don't. |
RE: Eelgrass
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- Posted by josko Cape Cod (My Page) on
Mon, Nov 30, 09 at 9:36
| I got 3 pickup loads of mostly eelgrass, piled it up in a corner and poured in a 5 gal bucket of hot water with a pound of urea dissolved in it. It kicked off just fine, and's been running at 120-130F for the past 10 days or so. I'm kind of curious what the pile insides will look like come spring. |
RE: Eelgrass
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- Posted by paulns NS zone 6a (My Page) on
Mon, Nov 30, 09 at 11:19
You must have been stockpiling urine for a long time to get a pound of urea. How did you dry it?
Or do you mean urea produced from synthetic ammonia and carbon dioxide, where large quantities of carbon dioxide are produced during the manufacture of ammonia from coal or from hydrocarbons such as natural gas and petroleum-derived raw materials? If the latter, I withdraw my post, above.
Tiffy, that sounds like knotweed or bladderwrack, which is one of my favourite seaweeds as well. The beach fleas are harmless, the maggots they make are 'greens'. |
RE: Eelgrass
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RE: Eelgrass
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- Posted by pt03 3 Southern Manitoba (My Page) on
Mon, Nov 30, 09 at 14:40
| I was just going to jump in and advise josko not to swing at that pitch but alas, I was too late. :-( Lloyd |
RE: Eelgrass
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- Posted by paulns NS zone 6a (My Page) on
Mon, Nov 30, 09 at 15:36
| Rockweed, not knotweed. Have you ever noticed how it sometimes makes heart-shaped bladders? Chouette! |
RE: Eelgrass
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RE: Eelgrass
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- Posted by josko Cape Cod (My Page) on
Tue, Dec 8, 09 at 9:38
I went to gather some eelgrass (for mulch in advance of our first frost) from around the edges of the eelgrass pile and was astonded by the number of earthworms in it. It looks like every worm on our lot made a beeline for the eelgrass. I wonder if some of it's due to the heat it's giving off, but still, it was a very surprising and pleasant find. It's more than I typically find when turning compost.
What is it that attracts worms to the eelgrass pile? There's a leaf pile nearby with not nearly the same density. |
RE: Eelgrass
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| I don't know why that would be, especially as worms seem to avoid salt, even small amounts...Is the eelgrass mixed with any dirt or rotting organic matter? Is it rotting, itself? Are they earthworms or red wigglers/redworms? One of the natural habitats of the latter is dead leaves so maybe they've migrated from the leaves...There must be some green eelgrass in there, or other rotting stuff, if it's warm. |
RE: Eelgrass
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I picked up the 3 pickup loads right after a 5" rainstorm, and am pretty sure it's low in salt. I pikled it as high as i could and kicked it off with ~1 lb of urea (see post above). It's been well over 100F ever since then. I haven't been poking around the middle, but it must be decomposing somehow, if pile temperature is that high.
The worms look like regular earthworms, not nightcrawlers, but I'm no expert there. |
RE: Eelgrass
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Oh right, I forgot about the urea...must have blocked it out :)
Red wigglers (Eisenia fetida) are shorter - 2-4" - thinner and busier than earthworms/nightcrawlers, and do not live in the soil but in rotting organic matter. |
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