Compost and Seaweed

[chrisParticipant]

Hey Charles – I live in a coastal area and in your books you talk about composting seaweed. I have good access to it and have started to collect some for composting over winter. I’m on the East Coast of the US.

Have you composted seaweed? Any ideas on the ratio of brown to green? Do you follow the same green to brown ratios?

My ingredients consist of:

Tree Leaves
Chicken Manure (Bedded on Sand)
Seaweed
Garden Waste
Spent brewing grains (from my homebrew)

We compost our food scraps in a closed bin with worms to detract rodents from our chickens, so these aren’t an option for my bins.

I use three Geobins for my compost bins which are 4ftx3ftx3ft – Attached is the seaweed just harvest – its a mix of eel grass (black) and a sea lettuce (green and white)

Thanks.

[StringfellowParticipant]

Bit of a blurry photo but some fantastic ingredients there Seegull. Some straw could be a good addition to balance up the greens with some browns.

How is the new shredder going Charles? Your composting system must be turning out some lovely varied material now.

[charlesModerator]

Yes I should love some seaweed like that.
Seagull, I do not have experience of composting seaweed, think its more green than brown so adding some dry. older material seems a good plan, straw as above. Or you can mulch soil with it, especially asparagus and seakale.

Tris, yes its going well, early days for assessing the shredded results but the quantity of compost is more than last year.

[chrisParticipant]

Thanks Stringfellow – I was able to get some straw-like beachgrass that was up on a marsh dried out – really browned out and will layer that in as well.

Thanks Charles – I have seen a farmer in my area use the Eel Grass (Black) around their lettuce plants as a mulch but we don’t have slug problems. I’m mostly interested in just working it into compost but may do some trials with the Eel grass as a mulch.

I’ll update with progress as it goes – I’m creating two piles right now and will monitor temps.

[ClareParticipant]

Hi Charles I am resurrecting an old thread.
I live in Brittany and have trouble getting manure, so I have started following old local tradition and mulching with seaweed. I also make a liquid fertiliser and this yr the results seem very good. I know it is good for crops like asparagus, leeks and potatoes, but is there any crops that might get harmed. I am about to sow broad beans and plant garlic and would like to mulch with seaweed and add a bit of compost.
I have started to go to talks around the subject of permaculture here partly to improve my French and I then stumbled across your u tube videos and discovered that you are all talking the same language. Many of your tips make sense of methods used by my neighbour particularly in relation to timing of sowing and planting.
Thank you for deepening my knowledge with your simple and effective advice.

[charlesModerator]

I do not know of any veg that dislike a seaweed mulch Clare, but it would be awkward to sow small seeds like carrot, more a practical thing.
I would mulch beans and garlic with seaweed and compost.
Your mulches sound great and I am happy you found my videos and site, keep us posted on progress.

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