Using seaweed to mulch

[NorbertParticipant]

I have a veg plot just 40 meters from the sea, so have more seaweed than I can possibly use right there. So my question is is it any good as a mulch for a no dig veg plot? – and how should prepare it before I spread it?

My plot has been traditionally dug for 4 years and is now consists of beautiful rich dark loam, you could not wish for better. However I like the sound of this no dig thing, so this year I have dug only half (then ran out of energy and invetigated this no dig method, which I will do with the rest.

Last year I heaped up a lot of seaweed by the plot and left it over the winter for the salt to leech out. It is now full of worms and couch grass roots – yes silly me I put it on top of some couch grass – lesson number 1.

Couch grass aside, what does anyone think?

[stuParticipant]

I let mine dry right out then crunch it up and spread it round my veg and use it as a mulch and slug deterrent

[StringfellowParticipant]

You’re a lucky gardener Norbert to have that much potential goodness and fertility on the door step of your plot! If I had seaweed in that kind of quantity I’d add loads to the compost heap and probably direct mulch my asparagus and sea kale beds. Good luck with it.

[HawfinchParticipant]

I agree with Stringfellow, I wish I had unlimited supplies of seaweed close to here. Have you heard about Klaus Laitenberger? He gardens in Ireland and uses seaweed as a thick mulch in autumn and he swears by it, the worms love it and the surface of the soil must be wonderful after a season’s mulching.

[NorbertParticipant]

OK, thanks for the comments so far. Looks like I am in a luck position.

But what about preparation prior to mulching? Right now there are deep drifts of the stuff deposited by the winter storms above the normal high tide. Can I spread this right away on my veg plot, or do I need to de-salt it somehow, naturally by rain or with a hose pipe?

[charlesModerator]

I would use it without worrying about the salt.
Do you remember after the tsunami of 2004, learned agronomists warning of crop failures where the sea had washed over land and left salty deposits? Instead of which there were fantastic crops on that land in 2005. Richard Sandford i Berkshire puts seaweed straight on his soil after collecting it.

[Author]

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