greennewfie
Active Member
Anyone have any experience using fresh seaweed and kelp because i live on an island out in the Atlantic ocean and have lots of this stuff around, should i use it and how?
Fresh Seaweed and Kelp from the Ocean??
- Thread starter greennewfie
- Start date
watchhowIdoit
New Member
Cannot be used straight from the beach/ocean. Salt content is too high. I do believe to process is a few fresh water rinses. Then composting. Finally drying and grinding for a finished product.
South Texas
Well-Known Member
This is correct. Just rinse lighty. It's has 90 different componets it it. I would third it up. 1. For Mulch. 2. For Composting -add Molasess to acelerate the process, 7 #. Cut, Bite, Hack, slice & beat to a pulp for feeding.
greennewfie
Active Member
Thanks guys!!! is it better if i pull it straight out of the ocean or is the stuff on the beach just as good?
i think i might give it a try on a side by side test to see whats better...
so i can just rinse it off good, with fresh water, then let it dry out in the sun and then grind it up into powder and add to water, or would mulch work as good?
because i do not have a compost set up!!!
i think i might give it a try on a side by side test to see whats better...
so i can just rinse it off good, with fresh water, then let it dry out in the sun and then grind it up into powder and add to water, or would mulch work as good?
because i do not have a compost set up!!!
Waiakeauka
Well-Known Member
greennewfie
Active Member
Awesome Thanks Waiakeauka +rep.. never thought of you tube going to get some seaweed tomorrow!!
greennewfie
Active Member
Here is some info i found on fish/seaweed for fertilizer, hope it helps anyone else interested in seaweed ferts!
Most commercial fish emulsions are rated NPK = 5-1-1.
Most commercial liquid seaweed sprays are rated NPK = 0-0-1.
Even though these NPK ratings to a novice may seem low, there are lots of important trace elements, growth hormones, disease control, and organic matter in these products.
Fish Emulsion is mainly used for its quick high organic nitrogen and available soluble P and K benefits as a foliar feed. Fish Meal is mainly a great soil conditioner and great bacterial food to help feed the soil microherd. Even though there may be 4-5% organic N, 1% soluble P, and 1% soluble K in fish emulsion, there may be up to 6-8% total N, and 2-3% total insoluble P or K in it, that gets broken down later by the soil microherd. Most commercial fish products are made from the trash products of the menhaden fish. This fish is a relative of the herring, sardine, and anchovy fishes. Most commercial fish emulsions contain up to 5% sulfuric acid in order to preserve the fertilizer on the shelf, but also it supplies needed sulfur to the plant and soil. Most economical fish products do not contain any fish oils in it, which supply extra beneficial soil fungi. Most also do not contain much fish bones which supply extra calcium.
Seaweed/Kelp has a low NPK = 0-0-1. However, just like the fish products and all other natural fertilizers, there are more insoluble NPK nutrients and other trace elements in the product than meets the eyes. There may be up to 1-3% total N, 1-2% total insoluble P, 3-5% total insoluble K in seaweed products. The real benefit of seaweed is not in its NPK amounts. Seaweed/kelp can contain 60 trace elements, many growth hormones, and disease control properties in it! Basically every nutrient that any surface plant can ever need! If seaweed products are mixed with high N products like fish, you have an excellent complete natural fertilizer and soil amendment that will supply every NPK and trace element need of the soil and plant. Seaweed and other algae plants are some of the most powerful plants on earth, or should I say in the ocean. Seaweed is also an excellent food source for beneficial fungi in the soil.
[SIZE=+1]WHY MAKE IT HOMEMADE INSTEAD OF BUYING IT COMMERCIALLY?[/SIZE]
A. It's cheaper to make most natural fertilizers and soil amendments in large quantities.
B. There are some nutrients that you get from homemade versions that are not in most commercial brands. For example, commercial fish emulsion since it is processed from trash fish, will have less fish oil, fish bones, and proteins than fresh fish parts or canned fish in a homemade brew.
C. Aerobic bacteria and fungi are essential to hot composting, disease control, and soil health. In commercial fish emulusions there no little to no aerobic bacteria in the containers. If there were any growing and living in the containers, the bottles would explode on the shelves! Homemade brews always will contain more beneficial microherd than most commercial brands.
[SIZE=+1]HOW DO I MAKE A HOMEMADE BATCH OF FISH/SEAWEED EMULSION:[/SIZE]
You can use the following suggestions to the other suggestions in the Organic Gardening forum FAQ's on Compost Tea recipes when you brew these fish/seaweed foliar sprays or soil drenches.
You can use fresh fish parts or any cheap canned fish. The juices, sauces, or oils in the can can be used to breed beneficial microbes and supply extra proteins in the tea, so use it.
(NOTE: If you use canned fish products, you may want to let it decompose mixed with some finished compost, good garden soil, etc. in a separate closeable container for a few days before using. Since most canned meat products contain preservatives, this will guarantee that the good microbes in the tea will not be killed off or harmed in brew making.)
You can use any fresh or dried seaweed. Fresh seaweed has more N in it, but that really isn't important for seaweed teas. You can buy fresh or dried seaweed at most oriental grocery stores. Seaweed decomposes better if chopped up or liquified first in water before brewing.
If you are using fresh fish, you need to compost it separately in a 5 gallon closeable bucket. Fill bucket 1/2 full with extra browns like sawdust, leaves, or straw. You can add molasses to the fishy mixture in order to build up microbes in order to speed up decomposition. The sugars will also help control odors too. Open the bucket and stir the fishy paste daily or every other day in order to get air in the mix for better decomposition and better aerobic microbial growth in the emulsion. Let this paste rot for at least 1-2 weeks. The browns help control offensive odors and absorb organic nitrogen from the fish so that it is not leached out or evaporated.
Since commercial fish emulsions contain sulfur in the form of sulfuric acid, if you like you could add 1-2 tblsp of Epsom salt to the mix for extra magnesium and sulfur. Or to mimic the acidity of sulfuric acid and add extra trace elements you could add 1-2 tblsp of apple cider vinegar to the mix. NOTE: Recent studies have shown that unsulfured molasses or dry molasses powder is best for faster microbial growth in tea brewing.
You can now safely take the decomposed fish paste from the 5 gallon bucket and add it to your regular hot composting piles or add it to your special compost tea recipes. The more vegetable or fruity organic matter that you add to fishy compost the better you remove the offensive smells and the more trace elements you add to your compost and teas. This of course is optional.
You can add molasses or brown sugar to your teas also. Sugars are high carbon substances that not only can cause speedy microbial growth, but also sugars are an excellent natural deodorizer.
At this point you may want to decide whether you want to make a simple tea or an aerobic aerated tea for your needs.
When you make fishy tea, you need to add the seaweed at brewing time. Let it brew for at least 1 week, stirring every few days. If you decide to brew it aerobically with an air pump, try up to 3 days, or until the brew has a "yeasty" smell, or has a foamy top layer on the tea.
You can apply this fish/seaweed emulsion at a dilution rate from 1:1 to 1:5 ratio (5 gallons of tea to 25 gallons of water).
If you like, you can add a few drops of mild liquid soap per gallon as a wetting agent to get better coverage as a foliar feed at application time. (NOTE: If you are concerrned that using soaps may harm the beneficial microbes in your teas, you may want to just use liquid molasses, dry molasses powder, fish oil, or yucca extract as a spreader-sticker.)
You can use this tea as a foliar feed or as a soil drench or both. Soil drenches are best for building up the soil microbial activities and supplying lots of beneficial soluble NPK to the plant's root system and the topsoil texture. Foliar feeds are best for quick fixes of trace elements and small portions of other soluble nutrients into the plant through its leaves. Foliar feeds are also good for plant disease control. Foliar feeds work best when used with soil drenches or with lots of organic mulches around plants. You can poke holes in the soil around crop roots with your spade fork, to get more oxygen in the soil to further increase organic matter decomposition and increase microbial activity in the soil.
Remember all your homemade fertilizers and soil amendments can be as diverse and unique as you are. So have fun and keep composting!
Happy Gardening!
Entered by CaptainCompostAL
Most commercial fish emulsions are rated NPK = 5-1-1.
Most commercial liquid seaweed sprays are rated NPK = 0-0-1.
Even though these NPK ratings to a novice may seem low, there are lots of important trace elements, growth hormones, disease control, and organic matter in these products.
Fish Emulsion is mainly used for its quick high organic nitrogen and available soluble P and K benefits as a foliar feed. Fish Meal is mainly a great soil conditioner and great bacterial food to help feed the soil microherd. Even though there may be 4-5% organic N, 1% soluble P, and 1% soluble K in fish emulsion, there may be up to 6-8% total N, and 2-3% total insoluble P or K in it, that gets broken down later by the soil microherd. Most commercial fish products are made from the trash products of the menhaden fish. This fish is a relative of the herring, sardine, and anchovy fishes. Most commercial fish emulsions contain up to 5% sulfuric acid in order to preserve the fertilizer on the shelf, but also it supplies needed sulfur to the plant and soil. Most economical fish products do not contain any fish oils in it, which supply extra beneficial soil fungi. Most also do not contain much fish bones which supply extra calcium.
Seaweed/Kelp has a low NPK = 0-0-1. However, just like the fish products and all other natural fertilizers, there are more insoluble NPK nutrients and other trace elements in the product than meets the eyes. There may be up to 1-3% total N, 1-2% total insoluble P, 3-5% total insoluble K in seaweed products. The real benefit of seaweed is not in its NPK amounts. Seaweed/kelp can contain 60 trace elements, many growth hormones, and disease control properties in it! Basically every nutrient that any surface plant can ever need! If seaweed products are mixed with high N products like fish, you have an excellent complete natural fertilizer and soil amendment that will supply every NPK and trace element need of the soil and plant. Seaweed and other algae plants are some of the most powerful plants on earth, or should I say in the ocean. Seaweed is also an excellent food source for beneficial fungi in the soil.
[SIZE=+1]WHY MAKE IT HOMEMADE INSTEAD OF BUYING IT COMMERCIALLY?[/SIZE]
A. It's cheaper to make most natural fertilizers and soil amendments in large quantities.
B. There are some nutrients that you get from homemade versions that are not in most commercial brands. For example, commercial fish emulsion since it is processed from trash fish, will have less fish oil, fish bones, and proteins than fresh fish parts or canned fish in a homemade brew.
C. Aerobic bacteria and fungi are essential to hot composting, disease control, and soil health. In commercial fish emulusions there no little to no aerobic bacteria in the containers. If there were any growing and living in the containers, the bottles would explode on the shelves! Homemade brews always will contain more beneficial microherd than most commercial brands.
[SIZE=+1]HOW DO I MAKE A HOMEMADE BATCH OF FISH/SEAWEED EMULSION:[/SIZE]
You can use the following suggestions to the other suggestions in the Organic Gardening forum FAQ's on Compost Tea recipes when you brew these fish/seaweed foliar sprays or soil drenches.
You can use fresh fish parts or any cheap canned fish. The juices, sauces, or oils in the can can be used to breed beneficial microbes and supply extra proteins in the tea, so use it.
(NOTE: If you use canned fish products, you may want to let it decompose mixed with some finished compost, good garden soil, etc. in a separate closeable container for a few days before using. Since most canned meat products contain preservatives, this will guarantee that the good microbes in the tea will not be killed off or harmed in brew making.)
You can use any fresh or dried seaweed. Fresh seaweed has more N in it, but that really isn't important for seaweed teas. You can buy fresh or dried seaweed at most oriental grocery stores. Seaweed decomposes better if chopped up or liquified first in water before brewing.
If you are using fresh fish, you need to compost it separately in a 5 gallon closeable bucket. Fill bucket 1/2 full with extra browns like sawdust, leaves, or straw. You can add molasses to the fishy mixture in order to build up microbes in order to speed up decomposition. The sugars will also help control odors too. Open the bucket and stir the fishy paste daily or every other day in order to get air in the mix for better decomposition and better aerobic microbial growth in the emulsion. Let this paste rot for at least 1-2 weeks. The browns help control offensive odors and absorb organic nitrogen from the fish so that it is not leached out or evaporated.
Since commercial fish emulsions contain sulfur in the form of sulfuric acid, if you like you could add 1-2 tblsp of Epsom salt to the mix for extra magnesium and sulfur. Or to mimic the acidity of sulfuric acid and add extra trace elements you could add 1-2 tblsp of apple cider vinegar to the mix. NOTE: Recent studies have shown that unsulfured molasses or dry molasses powder is best for faster microbial growth in tea brewing.
You can now safely take the decomposed fish paste from the 5 gallon bucket and add it to your regular hot composting piles or add it to your special compost tea recipes. The more vegetable or fruity organic matter that you add to fishy compost the better you remove the offensive smells and the more trace elements you add to your compost and teas. This of course is optional.
You can add molasses or brown sugar to your teas also. Sugars are high carbon substances that not only can cause speedy microbial growth, but also sugars are an excellent natural deodorizer.
At this point you may want to decide whether you want to make a simple tea or an aerobic aerated tea for your needs.
When you make fishy tea, you need to add the seaweed at brewing time. Let it brew for at least 1 week, stirring every few days. If you decide to brew it aerobically with an air pump, try up to 3 days, or until the brew has a "yeasty" smell, or has a foamy top layer on the tea.
You can apply this fish/seaweed emulsion at a dilution rate from 1:1 to 1:5 ratio (5 gallons of tea to 25 gallons of water).
If you like, you can add a few drops of mild liquid soap per gallon as a wetting agent to get better coverage as a foliar feed at application time. (NOTE: If you are concerrned that using soaps may harm the beneficial microbes in your teas, you may want to just use liquid molasses, dry molasses powder, fish oil, or yucca extract as a spreader-sticker.)
You can use this tea as a foliar feed or as a soil drench or both. Soil drenches are best for building up the soil microbial activities and supplying lots of beneficial soluble NPK to the plant's root system and the topsoil texture. Foliar feeds are best for quick fixes of trace elements and small portions of other soluble nutrients into the plant through its leaves. Foliar feeds are also good for plant disease control. Foliar feeds work best when used with soil drenches or with lots of organic mulches around plants. You can poke holes in the soil around crop roots with your spade fork, to get more oxygen in the soil to further increase organic matter decomposition and increase microbial activity in the soil.
Remember all your homemade fertilizers and soil amendments can be as diverse and unique as you are. So have fun and keep composting!
Happy Gardening!
Entered by CaptainCompostAL
greennewfie
Active Member
The Benefits of Using Liquid Seaweed Fertilizer.
By mistyhorizon2003
See all 19 photos
One of the best fertilizers you can use on your plants is liquid seaweed, yet this is probably the last fertilizer people think of buying when they go to their local garden centre or shop online. Liquid seaweed fertilizer is not only organic, but comes from a sustainable source and can be harvested without damaging the environment.
Most seaweed based fertilizers are made from Kelp, a variety of seaweed which can grow to lengths of over 50 metres.Trace elements found in seaweed organic fertilizers include magnesium, potassium, zinc, iron, and nitrogen -- all of which are beneficial to plants. Nitrogen, for instance, is essential to the production of nitrate, a key component needed by plants during photosynthesis.
In the Channel Islands, such seaweed fertiliser is known as vraicin their dialects of Norman, a word that has also entered Channel Island English, the activity of collecting vraic being termed vraicking. In Scotland, it is used as fertiliser in lazybeds or feannagan.
Falkland Islanders have also been nicknamed "Kelpers" from time to time, from collecting seaweed partly for this purpose.
Fermenting Seaweed
Great for lawns or golf courses.
One benefit of using a liquid seaweed fertilizer is that you can vary the concentrations according to what you are using the fertilizer for, so for instance, on a lawn you would probably use a more diluted mixture, but for a houseplant you would tend to use a stronger concentration. One thing I have noticed is that a little of this product goes a very long way with some pretty impressive results. Personally one of my favourite uses for liquid seaweed fertilizer is to give my exhibition vegetables a boost during the growing season in the hope I will stand a better chance of securing a few prizes once the Summer show comes around each August.
Foliar application is no doubt the most efficient and effective method of administering liquid seaweed to your plants . Kelp extracts are 8 to 20 times more effective when applied to the leaves then when broadcast on the soil. Spray as a fine mist until it drips off the plants surfaces and the plants will immediately absorb the fertilizer and begin to benefit from it by the second day.
Liquid seaweed fertilizer is used by many of the English and Scottish Football Premiership Grounds, as well as numerous UK Championship Golf Courses. In fact the high number of quality top sporting venues that use liquid seaweed extract as a fertilizer prove that it is extremely effective as a plant food.
Foliar Application
Pumpkin Growers Swear by liquid seaweed fertilizer.
Advantages of Using Liquid Seaweed Fertilizer
1) It promotes additional buds when applied as the plants are beginning to bud.
2) It extends the shelf life of fruits and vegetables if applied 10 days before harvesting
3) It lengthens the life of cut flowers if they are sprayed with Liquid Seaweed a day or two before cutting.
4) Treating seeds or seed pieces with Liquid Seaweed prior to planting will improve seed germination, root growth, and early seedling vigor.
5) Liquid Seaweed also can be used as a rooting solution. Place cuttings in a solution of Liquid Seaweed and water until roots develop, then plant. When planting, water in with Liquid Seaweed solution.
6) Liquid Seaweed applied to pasture crops increases the nutrient uptake, the protein content, and overall quality of the crop.
7) Seaweed organic fertilizers can be used as a soil treatment to grow healthier, stronger, and more disease-resistant plants.
A wide range of beneficial effects have been reported from the use of liquid seaweed extracts including increased crop yields, resistance of plants to frost, increased uptake of inorganic constituents from the soil, more resistance to stress conditions and reductions in storage losses of fruit.
9) Promotes vigorous growth and helps deter pests and diseases on fruit, flowers, vegetables, lawns etc.
10) Seaweed has more than 70 minerals, vitamins, and enzymes.
11) Seaweed fertilizers are especially useful in organic gardening. They contain almost every micro-nutrient in a fully chelated (immediately available) form. They deliver a healthy dose of natural plant hormones. Seaweed is full of carbohydrates, which the plants use as a building block and which large populations of beneficial micro-organisms use as a food source.
12) Alginates, (sponge-like starches found in seaweed), hold water droplets near the plant roots, making moisture available to them without drowning them; they also help enrich the soil by feeding myriad beneficial microorganisms such as bacteria and tiny fungi necessary to composting.
13) Research at major universities has shown that seeds soaked in seaweed extract germinate more rapidly, have larger root mass, stronger plant growth and higher survival rate. Soaking plant roots in seaweed extract reduces transplant shock and speeds root growth.
14) Several university studies have shown that seaweed can produce dramatic results in plants: geraniums produced more flowers per plant; grapes were sweeter; gladiolus corms grew larger; and cucumber yields increased 40 percent and the fruits suffered less often from softening and rotting. Improved yields after seaweed treatments were measured in potatoes, sweet corn, peppers, tomatoes, apples, strawberries, okra, and oranges. Better frost tolerance, increased seed germination, and greater capacity to absorb trace elements were other documented benefits for plants.
15) Seaweed fertilizers have many benefits. They provide natural hormones and many nutrients not found in other forms of fertilizer. Since most plants absorb their nutrients through the leaves, applying this with a foliar method will benefit the plant even more. Foliar simply means placing the fertilizer on the leaf itself. As the plant absorbs the sunlight it needs, it will also be absorbing the nutrients found in the fertilizer.
16) Another major component in liquid seaweed fertilizers are the hormones. The main hormones in seaweed are auxins, gibbelerins, cytokinins and betaines. The roles of these hormones are essential to plant health. Most of these are only required in very small proportions. There are many different auxins and they all have their specific roles. Their main functions are the balanced control of speed of growth. They have both growth stimulating as well as delaying functions. They stimulate root-growth, prevent bud-forming or opening at the wrong times.
17) Seaweed can play an important role in the production of the plant's own auxins, because the enzymes formed with the help of trace elements from the liquid seaweed fertilizer play an important role in the formation of these auxins.
1 Cytokinins are another group of important plant hormones. They initiate and activate basic growth processes. The cytokinins available in liquid seaweed extract stimulate growth with greater vigour, because they mobilise nutrients in the leaves. They also provide protection from marginal frost (to -3 C). Cytokinins also retard the senescence (aging processes) in the plant.
19) Betaines play an essential role in the osmotic processes in plants. They help to increase the water uptake in plants and are extremely helpful in dry conditions. Betaines are particularly helpful to plants under stress.
20) Liquid seaweed fertilizers, (especially the alginates in the seaweed) act as soil conditioners. The alginates react with metals in the soil and form long and cross-linked polymers in the soil. These polymers improve the crumbing in the soil, and swell up when they get wet, and retain moisture for a long period.
Lawn Before and After.
How is Liquid Seaweed Fertilizer Made?
Liquid seaweed fertilizers are made from various species of seaweed, which are washed, dried, milled and processed to enable the natural benefits which the seaweed provides to act immediately upon coming into contact with either the plants foliage or the soil itself. This speeds up the natural processes by converting raw seaweed into an easily applied digested weed.
Harvesting methods ensure sustainability of the natural crop, and the selection of healthy weed growing under optimum conditions and season, guarantee the best growth promoting substance yield/activity in the liquid seaweed product.
Products are produced with no acid, caustic or organic solvents. Liquid seaweed fertilizer is a truly organic product that has been extensively used in organic grower trials.
Kelp Forest
I can't rave enough about the benefits to using a liquid seaweed fertilizer on your garden, be it on your lawns, your flower beds, your vegetables or even on your houseplants. I personally have found the results incredibly impressive, and I love the fact this is a natural product which is harvested in a way that won't have any negative impact on the environment, or the sustainability of the seaweed itself. Those of you that have read my other articles on growing vegetables will know that I only grow my produce organically and I refuse point blank to spray any pesticides on my crops. The other advantage I have discovered is that the liquid seaweed fertilizer applied as a foliar feed actually seems to deter such nasty pests as greenfly and whitefly organically. What more could I ask for!
Research Sources Used.
By mistyhorizon2003
See all 19 photos - Oceanic Liquid Seaweed Fertilizer - Organic Liquid Seaweed Fertilizer
Oceanic Liquid Seaweed Fertilizer - Bring Your Garden To Life With The Gardeners Best Kept Secret - Oceanic Liquid Seaweed Fertilizer
One of the best fertilizers you can use on your plants is liquid seaweed, yet this is probably the last fertilizer people think of buying when they go to their local garden centre or shop online. Liquid seaweed fertilizer is not only organic, but comes from a sustainable source and can be harvested without damaging the environment.
Most seaweed based fertilizers are made from Kelp, a variety of seaweed which can grow to lengths of over 50 metres.Trace elements found in seaweed organic fertilizers include magnesium, potassium, zinc, iron, and nitrogen -- all of which are beneficial to plants. Nitrogen, for instance, is essential to the production of nitrate, a key component needed by plants during photosynthesis.
In the Channel Islands, such seaweed fertiliser is known as vraicin their dialects of Norman, a word that has also entered Channel Island English, the activity of collecting vraic being termed vraicking. In Scotland, it is used as fertiliser in lazybeds or feannagan.
Falkland Islanders have also been nicknamed "Kelpers" from time to time, from collecting seaweed partly for this purpose.
Fermenting Seaweed
Great for lawns or golf courses.
One benefit of using a liquid seaweed fertilizer is that you can vary the concentrations according to what you are using the fertilizer for, so for instance, on a lawn you would probably use a more diluted mixture, but for a houseplant you would tend to use a stronger concentration. One thing I have noticed is that a little of this product goes a very long way with some pretty impressive results. Personally one of my favourite uses for liquid seaweed fertilizer is to give my exhibition vegetables a boost during the growing season in the hope I will stand a better chance of securing a few prizes once the Summer show comes around each August.
Foliar application is no doubt the most efficient and effective method of administering liquid seaweed to your plants . Kelp extracts are 8 to 20 times more effective when applied to the leaves then when broadcast on the soil. Spray as a fine mist until it drips off the plants surfaces and the plants will immediately absorb the fertilizer and begin to benefit from it by the second day.
Liquid seaweed fertilizer is used by many of the English and Scottish Football Premiership Grounds, as well as numerous UK Championship Golf Courses. In fact the high number of quality top sporting venues that use liquid seaweed extract as a fertilizer prove that it is extremely effective as a plant food.
Foliar Application
Pumpkin Growers Swear by liquid seaweed fertilizer.
Advantages of Using Liquid Seaweed Fertilizer
1) It promotes additional buds when applied as the plants are beginning to bud.
2) It extends the shelf life of fruits and vegetables if applied 10 days before harvesting
3) It lengthens the life of cut flowers if they are sprayed with Liquid Seaweed a day or two before cutting.
4) Treating seeds or seed pieces with Liquid Seaweed prior to planting will improve seed germination, root growth, and early seedling vigor.
5) Liquid Seaweed also can be used as a rooting solution. Place cuttings in a solution of Liquid Seaweed and water until roots develop, then plant. When planting, water in with Liquid Seaweed solution.
6) Liquid Seaweed applied to pasture crops increases the nutrient uptake, the protein content, and overall quality of the crop.
7) Seaweed organic fertilizers can be used as a soil treatment to grow healthier, stronger, and more disease-resistant plants.
A wide range of beneficial effects have been reported from the use of liquid seaweed extracts including increased crop yields, resistance of plants to frost, increased uptake of inorganic constituents from the soil, more resistance to stress conditions and reductions in storage losses of fruit. 9) Promotes vigorous growth and helps deter pests and diseases on fruit, flowers, vegetables, lawns etc.
10) Seaweed has more than 70 minerals, vitamins, and enzymes.
11) Seaweed fertilizers are especially useful in organic gardening. They contain almost every micro-nutrient in a fully chelated (immediately available) form. They deliver a healthy dose of natural plant hormones. Seaweed is full of carbohydrates, which the plants use as a building block and which large populations of beneficial micro-organisms use as a food source.
12) Alginates, (sponge-like starches found in seaweed), hold water droplets near the plant roots, making moisture available to them without drowning them; they also help enrich the soil by feeding myriad beneficial microorganisms such as bacteria and tiny fungi necessary to composting.
13) Research at major universities has shown that seeds soaked in seaweed extract germinate more rapidly, have larger root mass, stronger plant growth and higher survival rate. Soaking plant roots in seaweed extract reduces transplant shock and speeds root growth.
14) Several university studies have shown that seaweed can produce dramatic results in plants: geraniums produced more flowers per plant; grapes were sweeter; gladiolus corms grew larger; and cucumber yields increased 40 percent and the fruits suffered less often from softening and rotting. Improved yields after seaweed treatments were measured in potatoes, sweet corn, peppers, tomatoes, apples, strawberries, okra, and oranges. Better frost tolerance, increased seed germination, and greater capacity to absorb trace elements were other documented benefits for plants.
15) Seaweed fertilizers have many benefits. They provide natural hormones and many nutrients not found in other forms of fertilizer. Since most plants absorb their nutrients through the leaves, applying this with a foliar method will benefit the plant even more. Foliar simply means placing the fertilizer on the leaf itself. As the plant absorbs the sunlight it needs, it will also be absorbing the nutrients found in the fertilizer.
16) Another major component in liquid seaweed fertilizers are the hormones. The main hormones in seaweed are auxins, gibbelerins, cytokinins and betaines. The roles of these hormones are essential to plant health. Most of these are only required in very small proportions. There are many different auxins and they all have their specific roles. Their main functions are the balanced control of speed of growth. They have both growth stimulating as well as delaying functions. They stimulate root-growth, prevent bud-forming or opening at the wrong times.
17) Seaweed can play an important role in the production of the plant's own auxins, because the enzymes formed with the help of trace elements from the liquid seaweed fertilizer play an important role in the formation of these auxins.
1
Cytokinins are another group of important plant hormones. They initiate and activate basic growth processes. The cytokinins available in liquid seaweed extract stimulate growth with greater vigour, because they mobilise nutrients in the leaves. They also provide protection from marginal frost (to -3 C). Cytokinins also retard the senescence (aging processes) in the plant. 19) Betaines play an essential role in the osmotic processes in plants. They help to increase the water uptake in plants and are extremely helpful in dry conditions. Betaines are particularly helpful to plants under stress.
20) Liquid seaweed fertilizers, (especially the alginates in the seaweed) act as soil conditioners. The alginates react with metals in the soil and form long and cross-linked polymers in the soil. These polymers improve the crumbing in the soil, and swell up when they get wet, and retain moisture for a long period.
Lawn Before and After.
How is Liquid Seaweed Fertilizer Made?
Liquid seaweed fertilizers are made from various species of seaweed, which are washed, dried, milled and processed to enable the natural benefits which the seaweed provides to act immediately upon coming into contact with either the plants foliage or the soil itself. This speeds up the natural processes by converting raw seaweed into an easily applied digested weed.
Harvesting methods ensure sustainability of the natural crop, and the selection of healthy weed growing under optimum conditions and season, guarantee the best growth promoting substance yield/activity in the liquid seaweed product.
Products are produced with no acid, caustic or organic solvents. Liquid seaweed fertilizer is a truly organic product that has been extensively used in organic grower trials.
Kelp Forest
I can't rave enough about the benefits to using a liquid seaweed fertilizer on your garden, be it on your lawns, your flower beds, your vegetables or even on your houseplants. I personally have found the results incredibly impressive, and I love the fact this is a natural product which is harvested in a way that won't have any negative impact on the environment, or the sustainability of the seaweed itself. Those of you that have read my other articles on growing vegetables will know that I only grow my produce organically and I refuse point blank to spray any pesticides on my crops. The other advantage I have discovered is that the liquid seaweed fertilizer applied as a foliar feed actually seems to deter such nasty pests as greenfly and whitefly organically. What more could I ask for!
Research Sources Used.
- Oceanic Liquid Seaweed Fertilizer - Organic Liquid Seaweed Fertilizer
Oceanic Liquid Seaweed Fertilizer - Bring Your Garden To Life With The Gardeners Best Kept Secret - Oceanic Liquid Seaweed Fertilizer
ClamDigger
Active Member
the last pic, or Bull Kelp, or "Nereocystis" has a thick rigid stem that it up to 50 feet long, i chop this and add it to my current dirt mixes and compost piles for slow release Micro's.
good info,
living by the ocean is awesome.
good info,
living by the ocean is awesome.
watchhowIdoit
New Member
This is well on its way to being a very informative and helpful thread.....good stuff all.......
ClamDigger
Active Member
2 possible downsides to using kelp;
"
Drawbacks of Using Kelp
Even something as wonderful and useful as kelp fertilizer has some drawbacks. While commercially prepared kelp meal has almost no drawbacks, using fresh kelp can have a few. These include:
Salt: Because kelp is harvested directly from the ocean, using it straight from the beach and in the garden may add additional salt, which is unhealthy for plants. Fortunately, you'd have to add a huge amount, much greater than most gardeners will ever add, for the salt to build up. Commercially prepared seaweed fertilizers do not usually pose this problem.
Worms hate it: Worms are a gardener's best friend. They may be slimy and gross to some, but they perform invaluable tasks in the garden. Their tunneling action aerates soil and creates small tunnels, allowing water to reach thirsty plant roots. They eat decomposing vegetation and excrete worm castings (feces) which are rich in fertilizer for plants. Lots of worms in the compost pile means a healthy pile, at just the right temperature and full of food that worms love. Unfortunately, worms won't touch fresh kelp. Kelp fertilizers from commercial vendors shouldn't matter to worms. However, if you are able to add fresh kelp to the compost pile, know that your worm friends will turn their imaginary noses up at it.
"
"
Drawbacks of Using Kelp
Even something as wonderful and useful as kelp fertilizer has some drawbacks. While commercially prepared kelp meal has almost no drawbacks, using fresh kelp can have a few. These include:
Salt: Because kelp is harvested directly from the ocean, using it straight from the beach and in the garden may add additional salt, which is unhealthy for plants. Fortunately, you'd have to add a huge amount, much greater than most gardeners will ever add, for the salt to build up. Commercially prepared seaweed fertilizers do not usually pose this problem.
Worms hate it: Worms are a gardener's best friend. They may be slimy and gross to some, but they perform invaluable tasks in the garden. Their tunneling action aerates soil and creates small tunnels, allowing water to reach thirsty plant roots. They eat decomposing vegetation and excrete worm castings (feces) which are rich in fertilizer for plants. Lots of worms in the compost pile means a healthy pile, at just the right temperature and full of food that worms love. Unfortunately, worms won't touch fresh kelp. Kelp fertilizers from commercial vendors shouldn't matter to worms. However, if you are able to add fresh kelp to the compost pile, know that your worm friends will turn their imaginary noses up at it.
"
greennewfie
Active Member
Thanks ClamDigger!! i will do that ill chop the stem up add it to the soil, and ill make a tea out of the rest of it by letting it ferment in natural spring water that i get near my place as well... not to sure about the fish emulsion right yet because it may be a bit too stinky for indoors lol..
greennewfie
Active Member
Thanks watchhowidoit!! i hope this thread is a good help to others, because it was a really good help to myself.. Thanks All for the input and advice keep it coming!!!
South Texas
Well-Known Member
A 3 year old question. In the Country, all the Cows drinks from the trough/tank/pond, getting the grass in the water where it starts growing to an alge. This is good looking stuff, but there is so many types, I couldn't research properly. I did see Horses eating it, making me think it is as rich in trace minerials as I think it is. Anybody know anything about fresh water seaweed looking shit??
greennewfie
Active Member
Thats a good question too!! i see that green algae stuff in a lot of the fresh water around here as well... Bump..
greennewfie
Active Member
[FONT=Times New Roman,Georgia,Times]Seaweed contains all major and minor plant nutrients, and all trace elements; alginic acid; vitamins; auxins; at least two gibberellins; and antibiotics.
Of the seaweed contents listed after nutrients and trace elements, the first, alginic acid, is a soil conditioner; the remainder, if the word may be forgiven in this context, are plant conditioners. All are found in fresh seaweed, dried seaweed meal and liquid seaweed extract -- with the one exception of vitamins: these, while present in both fresh seaweed and dried seaweed meal, are absent from the extract.
We will deal first with alginic acid as a soil conditioner. It is a matter of common experience that seaweed, and seaweed products, improve the water-holding characteristics of soil and help the formation of crumb structure. They do this because the alginic acid in the seaweed combines with metallic radicals in the soil to form a polymer with greatly increased molecular weight, of the type known as cross-linked. One might describe the process more simply, if less accurately, by saying that the salts formed by alginic acid with soil metals swell when wet and retain moisture tenaciously, so helping the soil to form a crumb structure.
These brief notes cover two examples: one of the way in which seaweed helps to produce a crumb structure in the soil, another of the way in which it helps soil to retain moisture.
We have a market gardener customer at Sittingbourne in Kent who tells us that before he used seaweed meal, heavy rain used to run down his sloping plots and carry all his seedlings and fertilizers into the ditch. Since his introduction of seaweed, the structure of his silty, sandy soil has so improved that soil, seedlings and nutrients are no longer of being washed away, even in the heaviest rain.
As to water-retaining characteristics, Miss Constance MacFarlane of the Nova Scotia Research Foundation told members of the Fourth Seaweed Symposium at Biarritz, in 1961: 'In the spring of 1956 I was greatly impressed with fields in the island of Jersey. This was not in any way a scientific experiment, but the results were most obvious. The year 1955 had been exceedingly dry. The only fields suitable for a second crop of hay were those which had been fertilized with seaweed. All the others had dried out, and had to be ploughed up for other crops.'
Research confirms this observation: two workers at the Agricultural Research Council's unit of soil metabolism (now disbanded) reported in 1947 that 0.1 of a gram of sodium alginate added to 100 grams of soil increased its water-holding power by 11 per cent. This is the first way in which seaweed and seaweed products condition the soil: by increasing its water-holding capacity, and encouraging its crumb structure. This in turn leads to better aeration and capillary action, and these stimulate the root systems of plants to further growth, and so stimulate the soil bacteria to greater activity.
As far as soil-conditioning is concerned -- and that is all we are to consider for the moment -- bacterial activity in the presence of seaweed has two results: first the secretion of substances which further help to condition the soil; and second, an effect on the nitrogen content of the soil. We will deal with these in turn.
The substances secreted by soil bacteria in the presence of seaweed include organic chemicals known as polyuronides. Polyuronides are chemically similar to the soil conditioner alginic acid, whose direct effect on the soil we have already noticed, and themselves have soil-stabilizing properties. This means that to the soil-conditioning agent which the soil derives from undecomposed seaweed -- alginic acid -- other conditioning agents are later added: the polyuronides, which result from the decomposition of seaweed.
The second effect of adding seaweed, or seaweed meal, to a soil well populated with bacteria, has already been mentioned briefly. It is a more complex matter, and requires consideration in some detail. Basically, the addition of seaweed leads to a temporary diminution of nitrogen available for crops, then a considerable augmentation of the nitrogen total.
When seaweed, or indeed any undecomposed organic matter, is put into the soil, it is attacked by bacteria which break the material down into simpler units -- in a word, decompose it. To do this effectively the bacteria need nitrogen, and this they take from the first available source, the soil. This means that after seaweed has been added to the soil, there is a period during which the amount of soil nitrogen available to plants is reduced. During this period seed germination, and the feeding and growth of plants, can be inhibited to greater or lesser degree. This temporary nitrogen deficiency is brought about when any undecomposed vegetable matter is added to the soil. In the case of straw, for example, which is ploughed in after harvest, bacteria use up soil nitrogen in breaking down its cellulose, so that a 'latent' period follows. Farmers burn stubble after harvest to avoid this latent period, and the short-term loss of available nitrogen which causes it. But such stubble-burning is done at the cost of soil structure, soil fertility, and long-term supplies of nitrogen which ultimately would have been released from the decomposed straw.
It has been said by one authority that the latent period following the application of seaweed to the soil is one of fifteen weeks. But during this period, while there is a temporary shortage of available nitrogen, total nitrogen in the soil is being increased. This increase makes itself felt after the seaweed is completely broken down. Total nitrogen then becomes available to the plant, and there is a corresponding upsurge in plant growth.
It is therefore clear that while seaweed, in common with all organic matter, is beneficial to soil and plant, it has to be broken down, or decomposed, before its benefits are available. (I have already pointed out, but repeat it here, that liquid seaweed extract is not subject to this latent period. The nutrients and other substances it contains are available to the plant at once.)
This period of decomposition -- or composting, as gardeners know it -- usually extends over months. It can, however, be reduced by the use of dried blood and loam according to the technique invented by Mr. L. C. Chilcott, Brent Parks Manager. Only fourteen days of heating up are required before the mixture is used, and no latent period follows. This technique is described in detail on page 182.
So much for the soil conditioning effects of seaweed. Now a word about what I have called its plant-conditioning contents, beginning with vitamins.
Brown seaweeds, which are the ones used in agriculture and horticulture, not only contain vitamins common to land plants, but also vitamins which may owe their origin to bacteria which attach themselves to sea plants, in particular vitamin B12. There is still some doubt about this -- B12 may be contained in the seaweed, although in some cases it is in associated bacteria. Vitamins known to be present in the brown seaweeds include vitamin C (ascorbic acid), which appears in as high a proportion as in lucerne. Vitamin A is not present, but its precursor, beta-carotene, is, as well as fucoxanthin, which may also be the precursor of Vitamin A. B group vitamins present are B1 (thiamine), B2 (riboflavin), B12, as well as pantothenic acid, folic acid and folinic acid. Also found in brown seaweeds are vitamin E (tocopherol), vitamin K, and other growth-promoting substances. The unusual nature of the vitamin E in seaweed should be stressed. It has valuable characteristics (put technically, a complete set of isomers) found only in such seed oils as wheat germ oil.
Auxins in seaweed include indolyl-acetic acid, discovered in seaweed in 1933 for the first time. Two new auxins, as yet unidentified, but unlike any of the known indolyl-acetic acid types, were also discovered in 1958 in the Laminaria and Ascophyllum seaweeds used for processing into dried seaweed meal and liquid extract. These auxins have been found to encourage the growth of more cells -- in which they differ from more familiar types of auxin which simply enlarge the cells without increasing their number. One of the auxins also stimulates growth in both stems and roots of plants, and in this differs from indolyl-acetic acid and its derivatives, which cause cells to elongate but not to divide. The balanced action of this seaweed auxin has not been found in any other auxin.
It has been proved at the Marine Laboratory at Aberdeen that indolyl-acetic acid and the other newly discovered seaweed auxins are extracted in increased quantities by the process of alkaline hydrolysis. We believe that much of the value of our hydrolized seaweed extract is due to this auxin content; but since the amount of auxin in the extract is scarcely enough to promote the increased growth which follows its use as a foliar spray, we think plants so treated are themselves stimulated to produce more vitamins and growth hormones than would otherwise be the case.
At least two gibberellins (hormones which simply encourage growth, and have not, like auxins, growth-controlling properties too) have been identified in seaweed. They behave like those gibberellins which research workers have numbered A3 and A7 -- although they may in fact be vitamins A1 and A4.
We now come to trace elements, some of the most important and most complex of all seaweed constituents. Two things must be said at once. The first is, that the more one studies the effect of trace elements on plants and animals, the more difficult and involved the subject becomes. Even those who devote their whole working life to the subject are far from having a complete grasp of it. The second point to make here is that while one can hope, at first, to treat trace elements separately for plants and animals, there comes a time when the two become hopelessly mixed. I shall try, in this chapter, to deal with the effect of trace elements on plants only; but some mention of their effect on animals will be inevitable, if only because animals eat plants and the trace elements they contain.
We have seen that seaweed contains all known trace elements. This is important. But it is also important that these elements are present in a form acceptable to plants. We have seen that trace elements can be made available to plants by chelating -- that is, by combining the mineral atom with organic molecules. This overcomes the difficulty that many trace elements, and iron in particular, cannot be absorbed by plants and animals in their commonest forms. This is because they are thrown out of solution by the calcium carbonate in limy soils, so that fruit trees growing in these soils can suffer from a form of iron deficiency known as chlorosis. It is for this reason that plants such as rhododendrons and azaleas, which are particularly sensitive to iron deficiency, can grow only in acid soils. In these soils, iron does not combine with other elements to form insoluble salts which the plant cannot absorb, and it is therefore more freely available.
It is true that an iron salt such as iron sulphate can be dissolved in water and the solution poured on the soil, injected into an animal, or put into its feed. But iron has such a tendency to become bound up with other elements that it is not available to plants or animals when introduced in this way. If, on the other hand, iron in the form of iron oxide is dissolved in an organic compound, there will be no fusion with other chemicals in the soil, and it will be available to the plants which need it. This is the technique of chelating which makes possible the absorption of iron by living matter.
Such chelating properties are possessed by the starches, sugars and carbohydrates in seaweed and seaweed products. As a result, these constituents are in natural combination with the iron, cobalt, copper, manganese, zinc and other trace elements found naturally in seaweed. That is why these trace elements in seaweed and seaweed products do not settle out, even in alkaline soils, but remain available to plants which need them.
Hydrolized seaweed extract also 'carries' trace elements in this way, in spite of the fact that the liquid is alkaline, having a pH of nine -- in the ordinary way so alkaline a solution would automatically precipitate trace elements. This precipitation does not take place in seaweed extract because the trace elements already form part of stronger, organic, associations.
With liquid extract, this ability to chelate can be taken a stage further than happens naturally with seaweed and seaweed meal. Chelation can also be used, artificially, to cause extract to carry more trace elements than are found in fresh seaweed, in seaweed meal, or in ordinary hydrolized extract.
We have ourselves exploited these chelating properties of liquid seaweed extract by manufacturing three special types, one containing added iron, one added magnesium, and one containing the three trace elements of iron, magnesium and manganese. We have also made experimental batches with copper and boron. Most metals could be chelated in this way.
It will be remembered that liquid seaweed extract differs from seaweed meal in that it can be used directly on the plant in the form of a spray. We know that the minerals in seaweed spray are absorbed through the skin of the leaf into the sap of the plant -- and not only minerals, but the other plant nutrients, auxins and so on, listed earlier. Experience further suggests that plants' needs for trace elements can be satisfied at lower concentrations if those elements are offered to the leaves in the form of a spray, rather than being offered through the soil to the roots.
It is also possible that seaweed sprays stimulate metabolic processes in the leaf and so help the plant to exploit leaf-locked nutrients -- for it is known that trace elements won from the soil, and delivered by the plant to the leaf tissue, can become immobilized there. And if, as has been suggested by E. I. Rabinowitch in a standard work on photosynthesis, a 'considerable proportion' of photosynthesis is carried out by bacteria at the leaf surface, spraying with seaweed extract at this point may feed and stimulate them, and thus increase the rate of photosynthesis.
We now come to the debatable matter of antibiotics in seaweed -- debatable, not because there is any doubt that seaweed contains therapeutic substances, but because the precise nature of those substances is unknown. We call them antibiotics for convenience.
It is known that plants treated with seaweed products develop a resistance to pests and diseases, not only to sap-seeking insects such as red spider mite and aphides, but also to scab, mildew and fungi. Such a possibility may seem novel, but it is in keeping with the results of research in related fields. The control of plant disease by compounds which reduce or nullify the effect of a pathogen after it has entered the plant is an accepted technique. It is in this way that streptomycin given as a foliar spray combats fireblight in apples and pears, and antimycin and malonic acid combat mosaic virus in tobacco. The subject of controlling plant disease by introducing substances into the plant itself is known as chemotherapy, and is dealt with in a useful round-up article in the Annual Review of Plant Physiology, 1959, by A. E. Dimond and James G. Horsfall of the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, New Haven, United States.
As far as chemotherapy through seaweed is concerned, the annual report for 1963 of the Institute of Seaweed Research stated that trials in which soil-borne diseases of plants were reduced by adding seaweed products to the soil were the first recorded instance of the control of disease by organic manure. 'Hitherto', the report ran, 'the majority of agricultural scientists believed that the value of organic manures was restricted to their nitrogen-phosphorus-potassium content, with perhaps some additional value as soil conditioner. This new discovery challenges this over-simplified view of the value of organic manures, and has initiated a new appraisal of this very complex problem.'
The reason why seaweed and seaweed products should exert some form of biological control over a number of common plant diseases is unknown. Soil fungi and bacteria are known to produce natural antibiotics which hold down the population of plant pathogens, and when these antibiotics are produced in sufficient quantities they enter the plant and help it to resist disease. The production of such antibiotics is increased in soil high in organic matter, and it may be that seaweed still further encourages this process.
I am aware that the claims made here, and elsewhere in this book, for the control of diseases by seaweed products, are supported more by the practical experience of growers than by the result of trials at research institutions. We have reported such trials as have taken place, but they are few in number. I cannot accept that the testimony of hard-headed farmers and horticulturists is any less reliable than that of academic researchers. But the reader might think that my attitude has been coloured by my interest, and for this reason I would say a word or two about the evidence on which these statements are based.
I have said elsewhere in this book that the evidence of the disease-controlling qualities of seaweed came to us as a complete surprise. It was those who used seaweed extract as a foliar nutrient, or seaweed meal as fertilizer, who first discovered these characteristics, and described them to us. We make no other claims than these, only record what users say, and it would be a poor service to truth to censor this evidence of the value of seaweed because it has not been confirmed in all respects by trials at research stations. Where these trials have taken place they are later reported. Trials in this country [UK] have been few, for a variety of reasons which need not concern us. We might regret that state-supported stations noted for a high standard of scientific integrity are also conservative in outlook, and little disposed to test that which is unusual. It is not for us to criticize their choice of subjects for research, but our own information is so striking that we should wholeheartedly welcome testing of seaweed and seaweed products by those with complete facilities for doing so. The evidence we have collected would then be respectably 'scientific' -- and we do not doubt that the findings would corroborate our claims to the full.[/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman,Georgia,Times]
[/FONT]
Of the seaweed contents listed after nutrients and trace elements, the first, alginic acid, is a soil conditioner; the remainder, if the word may be forgiven in this context, are plant conditioners. All are found in fresh seaweed, dried seaweed meal and liquid seaweed extract -- with the one exception of vitamins: these, while present in both fresh seaweed and dried seaweed meal, are absent from the extract.
We will deal first with alginic acid as a soil conditioner. It is a matter of common experience that seaweed, and seaweed products, improve the water-holding characteristics of soil and help the formation of crumb structure. They do this because the alginic acid in the seaweed combines with metallic radicals in the soil to form a polymer with greatly increased molecular weight, of the type known as cross-linked. One might describe the process more simply, if less accurately, by saying that the salts formed by alginic acid with soil metals swell when wet and retain moisture tenaciously, so helping the soil to form a crumb structure.
These brief notes cover two examples: one of the way in which seaweed helps to produce a crumb structure in the soil, another of the way in which it helps soil to retain moisture.
We have a market gardener customer at Sittingbourne in Kent who tells us that before he used seaweed meal, heavy rain used to run down his sloping plots and carry all his seedlings and fertilizers into the ditch. Since his introduction of seaweed, the structure of his silty, sandy soil has so improved that soil, seedlings and nutrients are no longer of being washed away, even in the heaviest rain.
As to water-retaining characteristics, Miss Constance MacFarlane of the Nova Scotia Research Foundation told members of the Fourth Seaweed Symposium at Biarritz, in 1961: 'In the spring of 1956 I was greatly impressed with fields in the island of Jersey. This was not in any way a scientific experiment, but the results were most obvious. The year 1955 had been exceedingly dry. The only fields suitable for a second crop of hay were those which had been fertilized with seaweed. All the others had dried out, and had to be ploughed up for other crops.'
Research confirms this observation: two workers at the Agricultural Research Council's unit of soil metabolism (now disbanded) reported in 1947 that 0.1 of a gram of sodium alginate added to 100 grams of soil increased its water-holding power by 11 per cent. This is the first way in which seaweed and seaweed products condition the soil: by increasing its water-holding capacity, and encouraging its crumb structure. This in turn leads to better aeration and capillary action, and these stimulate the root systems of plants to further growth, and so stimulate the soil bacteria to greater activity.
As far as soil-conditioning is concerned -- and that is all we are to consider for the moment -- bacterial activity in the presence of seaweed has two results: first the secretion of substances which further help to condition the soil; and second, an effect on the nitrogen content of the soil. We will deal with these in turn.
The substances secreted by soil bacteria in the presence of seaweed include organic chemicals known as polyuronides. Polyuronides are chemically similar to the soil conditioner alginic acid, whose direct effect on the soil we have already noticed, and themselves have soil-stabilizing properties. This means that to the soil-conditioning agent which the soil derives from undecomposed seaweed -- alginic acid -- other conditioning agents are later added: the polyuronides, which result from the decomposition of seaweed.
The second effect of adding seaweed, or seaweed meal, to a soil well populated with bacteria, has already been mentioned briefly. It is a more complex matter, and requires consideration in some detail. Basically, the addition of seaweed leads to a temporary diminution of nitrogen available for crops, then a considerable augmentation of the nitrogen total.
When seaweed, or indeed any undecomposed organic matter, is put into the soil, it is attacked by bacteria which break the material down into simpler units -- in a word, decompose it. To do this effectively the bacteria need nitrogen, and this they take from the first available source, the soil. This means that after seaweed has been added to the soil, there is a period during which the amount of soil nitrogen available to plants is reduced. During this period seed germination, and the feeding and growth of plants, can be inhibited to greater or lesser degree. This temporary nitrogen deficiency is brought about when any undecomposed vegetable matter is added to the soil. In the case of straw, for example, which is ploughed in after harvest, bacteria use up soil nitrogen in breaking down its cellulose, so that a 'latent' period follows. Farmers burn stubble after harvest to avoid this latent period, and the short-term loss of available nitrogen which causes it. But such stubble-burning is done at the cost of soil structure, soil fertility, and long-term supplies of nitrogen which ultimately would have been released from the decomposed straw.
It has been said by one authority that the latent period following the application of seaweed to the soil is one of fifteen weeks. But during this period, while there is a temporary shortage of available nitrogen, total nitrogen in the soil is being increased. This increase makes itself felt after the seaweed is completely broken down. Total nitrogen then becomes available to the plant, and there is a corresponding upsurge in plant growth.
It is therefore clear that while seaweed, in common with all organic matter, is beneficial to soil and plant, it has to be broken down, or decomposed, before its benefits are available. (I have already pointed out, but repeat it here, that liquid seaweed extract is not subject to this latent period. The nutrients and other substances it contains are available to the plant at once.)
This period of decomposition -- or composting, as gardeners know it -- usually extends over months. It can, however, be reduced by the use of dried blood and loam according to the technique invented by Mr. L. C. Chilcott, Brent Parks Manager. Only fourteen days of heating up are required before the mixture is used, and no latent period follows. This technique is described in detail on page 182.
So much for the soil conditioning effects of seaweed. Now a word about what I have called its plant-conditioning contents, beginning with vitamins.
Brown seaweeds, which are the ones used in agriculture and horticulture, not only contain vitamins common to land plants, but also vitamins which may owe their origin to bacteria which attach themselves to sea plants, in particular vitamin B12. There is still some doubt about this -- B12 may be contained in the seaweed, although in some cases it is in associated bacteria. Vitamins known to be present in the brown seaweeds include vitamin C (ascorbic acid), which appears in as high a proportion as in lucerne. Vitamin A is not present, but its precursor, beta-carotene, is, as well as fucoxanthin, which may also be the precursor of Vitamin A. B group vitamins present are B1 (thiamine), B2 (riboflavin), B12, as well as pantothenic acid, folic acid and folinic acid. Also found in brown seaweeds are vitamin E (tocopherol), vitamin K, and other growth-promoting substances. The unusual nature of the vitamin E in seaweed should be stressed. It has valuable characteristics (put technically, a complete set of isomers) found only in such seed oils as wheat germ oil.
Auxins in seaweed include indolyl-acetic acid, discovered in seaweed in 1933 for the first time. Two new auxins, as yet unidentified, but unlike any of the known indolyl-acetic acid types, were also discovered in 1958 in the Laminaria and Ascophyllum seaweeds used for processing into dried seaweed meal and liquid extract. These auxins have been found to encourage the growth of more cells -- in which they differ from more familiar types of auxin which simply enlarge the cells without increasing their number. One of the auxins also stimulates growth in both stems and roots of plants, and in this differs from indolyl-acetic acid and its derivatives, which cause cells to elongate but not to divide. The balanced action of this seaweed auxin has not been found in any other auxin.
It has been proved at the Marine Laboratory at Aberdeen that indolyl-acetic acid and the other newly discovered seaweed auxins are extracted in increased quantities by the process of alkaline hydrolysis. We believe that much of the value of our hydrolized seaweed extract is due to this auxin content; but since the amount of auxin in the extract is scarcely enough to promote the increased growth which follows its use as a foliar spray, we think plants so treated are themselves stimulated to produce more vitamins and growth hormones than would otherwise be the case.
At least two gibberellins (hormones which simply encourage growth, and have not, like auxins, growth-controlling properties too) have been identified in seaweed. They behave like those gibberellins which research workers have numbered A3 and A7 -- although they may in fact be vitamins A1 and A4.
We now come to trace elements, some of the most important and most complex of all seaweed constituents. Two things must be said at once. The first is, that the more one studies the effect of trace elements on plants and animals, the more difficult and involved the subject becomes. Even those who devote their whole working life to the subject are far from having a complete grasp of it. The second point to make here is that while one can hope, at first, to treat trace elements separately for plants and animals, there comes a time when the two become hopelessly mixed. I shall try, in this chapter, to deal with the effect of trace elements on plants only; but some mention of their effect on animals will be inevitable, if only because animals eat plants and the trace elements they contain.
We have seen that seaweed contains all known trace elements. This is important. But it is also important that these elements are present in a form acceptable to plants. We have seen that trace elements can be made available to plants by chelating -- that is, by combining the mineral atom with organic molecules. This overcomes the difficulty that many trace elements, and iron in particular, cannot be absorbed by plants and animals in their commonest forms. This is because they are thrown out of solution by the calcium carbonate in limy soils, so that fruit trees growing in these soils can suffer from a form of iron deficiency known as chlorosis. It is for this reason that plants such as rhododendrons and azaleas, which are particularly sensitive to iron deficiency, can grow only in acid soils. In these soils, iron does not combine with other elements to form insoluble salts which the plant cannot absorb, and it is therefore more freely available.
It is true that an iron salt such as iron sulphate can be dissolved in water and the solution poured on the soil, injected into an animal, or put into its feed. But iron has such a tendency to become bound up with other elements that it is not available to plants or animals when introduced in this way. If, on the other hand, iron in the form of iron oxide is dissolved in an organic compound, there will be no fusion with other chemicals in the soil, and it will be available to the plants which need it. This is the technique of chelating which makes possible the absorption of iron by living matter.
Such chelating properties are possessed by the starches, sugars and carbohydrates in seaweed and seaweed products. As a result, these constituents are in natural combination with the iron, cobalt, copper, manganese, zinc and other trace elements found naturally in seaweed. That is why these trace elements in seaweed and seaweed products do not settle out, even in alkaline soils, but remain available to plants which need them.
Hydrolized seaweed extract also 'carries' trace elements in this way, in spite of the fact that the liquid is alkaline, having a pH of nine -- in the ordinary way so alkaline a solution would automatically precipitate trace elements. This precipitation does not take place in seaweed extract because the trace elements already form part of stronger, organic, associations.
With liquid extract, this ability to chelate can be taken a stage further than happens naturally with seaweed and seaweed meal. Chelation can also be used, artificially, to cause extract to carry more trace elements than are found in fresh seaweed, in seaweed meal, or in ordinary hydrolized extract.
We have ourselves exploited these chelating properties of liquid seaweed extract by manufacturing three special types, one containing added iron, one added magnesium, and one containing the three trace elements of iron, magnesium and manganese. We have also made experimental batches with copper and boron. Most metals could be chelated in this way.
It will be remembered that liquid seaweed extract differs from seaweed meal in that it can be used directly on the plant in the form of a spray. We know that the minerals in seaweed spray are absorbed through the skin of the leaf into the sap of the plant -- and not only minerals, but the other plant nutrients, auxins and so on, listed earlier. Experience further suggests that plants' needs for trace elements can be satisfied at lower concentrations if those elements are offered to the leaves in the form of a spray, rather than being offered through the soil to the roots.
It is also possible that seaweed sprays stimulate metabolic processes in the leaf and so help the plant to exploit leaf-locked nutrients -- for it is known that trace elements won from the soil, and delivered by the plant to the leaf tissue, can become immobilized there. And if, as has been suggested by E. I. Rabinowitch in a standard work on photosynthesis, a 'considerable proportion' of photosynthesis is carried out by bacteria at the leaf surface, spraying with seaweed extract at this point may feed and stimulate them, and thus increase the rate of photosynthesis.
We now come to the debatable matter of antibiotics in seaweed -- debatable, not because there is any doubt that seaweed contains therapeutic substances, but because the precise nature of those substances is unknown. We call them antibiotics for convenience.
It is known that plants treated with seaweed products develop a resistance to pests and diseases, not only to sap-seeking insects such as red spider mite and aphides, but also to scab, mildew and fungi. Such a possibility may seem novel, but it is in keeping with the results of research in related fields. The control of plant disease by compounds which reduce or nullify the effect of a pathogen after it has entered the plant is an accepted technique. It is in this way that streptomycin given as a foliar spray combats fireblight in apples and pears, and antimycin and malonic acid combat mosaic virus in tobacco. The subject of controlling plant disease by introducing substances into the plant itself is known as chemotherapy, and is dealt with in a useful round-up article in the Annual Review of Plant Physiology, 1959, by A. E. Dimond and James G. Horsfall of the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, New Haven, United States.
As far as chemotherapy through seaweed is concerned, the annual report for 1963 of the Institute of Seaweed Research stated that trials in which soil-borne diseases of plants were reduced by adding seaweed products to the soil were the first recorded instance of the control of disease by organic manure. 'Hitherto', the report ran, 'the majority of agricultural scientists believed that the value of organic manures was restricted to their nitrogen-phosphorus-potassium content, with perhaps some additional value as soil conditioner. This new discovery challenges this over-simplified view of the value of organic manures, and has initiated a new appraisal of this very complex problem.'
The reason why seaweed and seaweed products should exert some form of biological control over a number of common plant diseases is unknown. Soil fungi and bacteria are known to produce natural antibiotics which hold down the population of plant pathogens, and when these antibiotics are produced in sufficient quantities they enter the plant and help it to resist disease. The production of such antibiotics is increased in soil high in organic matter, and it may be that seaweed still further encourages this process.
I am aware that the claims made here, and elsewhere in this book, for the control of diseases by seaweed products, are supported more by the practical experience of growers than by the result of trials at research institutions. We have reported such trials as have taken place, but they are few in number. I cannot accept that the testimony of hard-headed farmers and horticulturists is any less reliable than that of academic researchers. But the reader might think that my attitude has been coloured by my interest, and for this reason I would say a word or two about the evidence on which these statements are based.
I have said elsewhere in this book that the evidence of the disease-controlling qualities of seaweed came to us as a complete surprise. It was those who used seaweed extract as a foliar nutrient, or seaweed meal as fertilizer, who first discovered these characteristics, and described them to us. We make no other claims than these, only record what users say, and it would be a poor service to truth to censor this evidence of the value of seaweed because it has not been confirmed in all respects by trials at research stations. Where these trials have taken place they are later reported. Trials in this country [UK] have been few, for a variety of reasons which need not concern us. We might regret that state-supported stations noted for a high standard of scientific integrity are also conservative in outlook, and little disposed to test that which is unusual. It is not for us to criticize their choice of subjects for research, but our own information is so striking that we should wholeheartedly welcome testing of seaweed and seaweed products by those with complete facilities for doing so. The evidence we have collected would then be respectably 'scientific' -- and we do not doubt that the findings would corroborate our claims to the full.[/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman,Georgia,Times]
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greennewfie
Active Member
Kelp Fertilizer increases fruit and flower production, vastly improves foliage coloration, and turbo charges plant growth naturally
This page listed under Organic Fertilizer
Kelp fertilizer can make excellent amendments to the garden soil. As seaweed, kelp is a great bio-activator, which evokes all the microbes in the soil to break down the organic substances and make the nutrientssuch as nitrogen, phosphorous, sulfur and potassium available to all plants.
Also present in its nature are macro and micro nutrients, trace elements and vital resources.
Kelp is the general term used to describe large-sized brown seaweeds. It grows along coastlines around the world, and belongs to algae family. Many people call kelp bladderwrack and seawrack, while others refer to any seaweed kelp.
However, the truth is that kelp refers to one specific type of aquatic plant. For gardens, Kelp Fertilizer
is truly great.
It does not contain harmful chemicals that can spoil the quality of the garden soil.
In contrast, it treats the garden soil of any unfavorable conditions. The fertilizer comes in many forms, but the most common found commercially are kelp meal and kelp powder.
Kelp Meal
is used to condition the soil.
How Kelp Meal Is Made
To make kelp meal, the seaweed is dried quickly at a low heat to maintain proper moisture level for amino acid and vitamin consistency.
Kelp powder, on the other hand is derived from dehydrated liquid extract from seaweed. It is used as fertilizer when it is combined with liquid.
The benefits of using kelps as fertilizer are many. As mentioned earlier, it is a rich source of bio-activators. When used in compost pile, the bio-activators accelerate the biological process of decomposition.
The decomposed state of plants ameliorates the quality of soil. Unlike all other fertilizers, the one from kelp is very rich in potassium which is very useful in germination and in helping plants develop healthy and strong roots.
With healthy and strong roots come abundance in fruits and flowers. The chlorophyll in plants is stabilized and enhanced, thereby improving photosynthesis.
Even the sugar content in plants is improved. After the plants developed roots, the kelp fertilizer acts as an agent that slows down the ageing process, and hence, allows the plants to live longer. In addition, it helps increase mineral uptake from soil into plant leaves.
Kelp meal makes a complete and balanced food for plants. It has non-plants ingredients such as amino acids, vitamins and minerals, essential oils and enzymes.
As a fertilizer, Kelp
guarantees sustainability.
The seaweeds grown rapidly in oceans and they are gathered mostly from the shore. Using it on a garden makes the whole environment benefit from
This page listed under Organic Fertilizer
Kelp fertilizer can make excellent amendments to the garden soil. As seaweed, kelp is a great bio-activator, which evokes all the microbes in the soil to break down the organic substances and make the nutrientssuch as nitrogen, phosphorous, sulfur and potassium available to all plants.
Also present in its nature are macro and micro nutrients, trace elements and vital resources.
Kelp is the general term used to describe large-sized brown seaweeds. It grows along coastlines around the world, and belongs to algae family. Many people call kelp bladderwrack and seawrack, while others refer to any seaweed kelp.
However, the truth is that kelp refers to one specific type of aquatic plant. For gardens, Kelp Fertilizer
It does not contain harmful chemicals that can spoil the quality of the garden soil.
In contrast, it treats the garden soil of any unfavorable conditions. The fertilizer comes in many forms, but the most common found commercially are kelp meal and kelp powder.
Kelp Meal
How Kelp Meal Is Made
To make kelp meal, the seaweed is dried quickly at a low heat to maintain proper moisture level for amino acid and vitamin consistency.
Kelp powder, on the other hand is derived from dehydrated liquid extract from seaweed. It is used as fertilizer when it is combined with liquid.
The benefits of using kelps as fertilizer are many. As mentioned earlier, it is a rich source of bio-activators. When used in compost pile, the bio-activators accelerate the biological process of decomposition.
The decomposed state of plants ameliorates the quality of soil. Unlike all other fertilizers, the one from kelp is very rich in potassium which is very useful in germination and in helping plants develop healthy and strong roots.
With healthy and strong roots come abundance in fruits and flowers. The chlorophyll in plants is stabilized and enhanced, thereby improving photosynthesis.
Even the sugar content in plants is improved. After the plants developed roots, the kelp fertilizer acts as an agent that slows down the ageing process, and hence, allows the plants to live longer. In addition, it helps increase mineral uptake from soil into plant leaves.
Kelp meal makes a complete and balanced food for plants. It has non-plants ingredients such as amino acids, vitamins and minerals, essential oils and enzymes.
As a fertilizer, Kelp
The seaweeds grown rapidly in oceans and they are gathered mostly from the shore. Using it on a garden makes the whole environment benefit from
greennewfie
Active Member
Growing up in the north east I remember in the spring and summer one of the neighbors making his way home from the beach with a couple of wet trash bags filled with seaweed. He used to put it around his tomato plants and they always grew robust producing lots of fruit. At the time we also had a garden but purchased fertilizer and despite some annual setbacks like pests and occasional fungus, we reaped a good harvest. Still, looking back I often wonder what our return would have looked like had we ventured down the beach for some of that long brown rubbery stuff.
What is kelp?
Seaweed comes in many shapes and sizes but the type organic farmers like best for soil enrichment is what’s generally known as kelp.
It’s a “weed” classified as algae that grows at a rate of up to two feet a day on the ocean floor.
Found in abundance along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts it is available year round and comes in slightly different forms in other places around the world.
What kelp does for your soil:
Kelp makes contributions to the garden that few other natural fertilizers can brag about. First off it doesn’t smell as bad as manure! Others include the following:
Applying seaweed to the garden is easy and can be a fun outing for the entire family. It starts by deciding on a beach to collect the kelp and for gathering purposes plan to bring along baskets with many openings or mesh bags to drain excess water.
Furthermore, ideally you’ll want enough kelp to cover the surface around your plants a couple of inches deep.
Avoid collecting kelp that is already drying and probably infested with certain types of flies or other bugs. You want healthy seaweed and scraps that tend to be smaller make it easier to distribute around plants.
It should be noted some gardeners worry that since kelp comes from the ocean its salt content may be unhealthy for soil and should be thoroughly rinsed. However, many lifetime green thumbs apply it directly to the garden without any problems. At the very least it could be lightly rinsed off before blanketed around crops.
Considerations:
Finally, if you decide on using seaweed make sure the beach you go to isn’t restricted because harvesting would then be illegal. This shouldn’t be a problem in most cities and towns but if you are unfamiliar with the region call the local authorities to be sure.
Also, for those of you reading this that don’t live near the ocean but really want to use seaweed know there are many seaweed fertilizers sold in gardening and home improvement stores across the country.
Just be sure to check with the dealer that the product is 100% organic and no other chemicals were introduced in its production. This is often the case and defeats the whole purpose of using seaweed in the first place, even if its store bought.
Include comments in search
What is kelp?
Seaweed comes in many shapes and sizes but the type organic farmers like best for soil enrichment is what’s generally known as kelp.
It’s a “weed” classified as algae that grows at a rate of up to two feet a day on the ocean floor.
Found in abundance along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts it is available year round and comes in slightly different forms in other places around the world.
What kelp does for your soil:
Kelp makes contributions to the garden that few other natural fertilizers can brag about. First off it doesn’t smell as bad as manure! Others include the following:
- Being rich in bio-activators (the ingredients for healthy decomposition) kelp is great for compost piles as it assists in speeding up the decay of other organic matter.
- Kelp contains large traces of potassium and natural hormones making it a hearty fertilizer that strengthens roots and a plant’s overall system.
- It lowers vulnerabilities against diseases
- Its smell repels many unwanted pests and insects though it unfortunately also makes earthworms temporarily run for the hills, which is noteworthy because worms are important contributors to soil composition. However, they don’t disperse for long and in the end the benefits of applying fresh seaweed out way this temporary situation.
- As mulch kelp stops weeds dead in their tracks and keeps soil moist.
- Because kelp comes from the ocean it doesn’t introduce unwanted seeds to the new environment like other mulches may.
Applying seaweed to the garden is easy and can be a fun outing for the entire family. It starts by deciding on a beach to collect the kelp and for gathering purposes plan to bring along baskets with many openings or mesh bags to drain excess water.
Furthermore, ideally you’ll want enough kelp to cover the surface around your plants a couple of inches deep.
Avoid collecting kelp that is already drying and probably infested with certain types of flies or other bugs. You want healthy seaweed and scraps that tend to be smaller make it easier to distribute around plants.
It should be noted some gardeners worry that since kelp comes from the ocean its salt content may be unhealthy for soil and should be thoroughly rinsed. However, many lifetime green thumbs apply it directly to the garden without any problems. At the very least it could be lightly rinsed off before blanketed around crops.
Considerations:
Finally, if you decide on using seaweed make sure the beach you go to isn’t restricted because harvesting would then be illegal. This shouldn’t be a problem in most cities and towns but if you are unfamiliar with the region call the local authorities to be sure.
Also, for those of you reading this that don’t live near the ocean but really want to use seaweed know there are many seaweed fertilizers sold in gardening and home improvement stores across the country.
Just be sure to check with the dealer that the product is 100% organic and no other chemicals were introduced in its production. This is often the case and defeats the whole purpose of using seaweed in the first place, even if its store bought.
Include comments in search
greennewfie
Active Member
a few more sites i found on the use of seaweed and kelp!! i know its alot of reading im starting to go cross eyed reading so much..lol.. but its really good info and helps if you plan on useing it for your crops
greennewfie
Active Member
+
Using Seaweed in the Garden
If you live near the sea here are a few tips on utilising a valuable free resource for your garden. Seaweed is almost good as farmyard manure, although it is lower in phosphates but richer in potash. It is loaded with vitamins and minerals
The best time to collect seaweed for use in the garden is right after a storm as the newly washed up seaweed has less salt in it than weed which has been lurking in a harbour for weeks. If it smells clean and fresh use it, if it pongs walk away. Only collect loose seaweed do not pull it off of rocks, by doing so you will be making numerous sea creatures homeless and damaging the eco system. Give it a quick swish in the sea and a shake to remove any residents. It is best to wash the seaweed with fresh water or leave in the rain for a couple of days to get more of the salt out, worms dont like it and it kills them if strong enough, same principle as putting salt on slugs. Photo: Max Blinkhorn
Make your own Liquid Seaweed Feed
A well known brand of liquid seaweed extract or growth stimulant costs about £7 per litre, you could make your own for free. Get a 10 gallon plastic drum/container, half fill it with seaweed, top up the container with water and let it stand for 3 months, that is the optimum time, I do know people who have used it after a few weeks. Strain off the liquid and add about a cupful to 2 gallons of water, do not be tempted to make it any stronger or you could burn the roots of your plants. Think I might stitch up an old net curtain to make a bag and put the seaweed in that so I dont have to strain it, then I can put the used seaweed residue on the compost heap. It is quicker and decomposes better if you chop the seaweed up first. You can of course make it in smaller amounts, just use any suitable container for the space you have available.
Compost it
Seaweed is an excellent compost activator, so adding it to you compost heap will add nutrients and more organic matter to your compost.
You can also use a 4″ 6″ layer of seaweed as a mulch for shrubs and roses, although you might get a few complaints from near neighbours as it starts to rot down.
Seaweed improves the structure of clay soils, think it is the alginates in the seaweed helps break it up so it does not clump so much.
Using Seaweed in the Garden
If you live near the sea here are a few tips on utilising a valuable free resource for your garden. Seaweed is almost good as farmyard manure, although it is lower in phosphates but richer in potash. It is loaded with vitamins and mineralsThe best time to collect seaweed for use in the garden is right after a storm as the newly washed up seaweed has less salt in it than weed which has been lurking in a harbour for weeks. If it smells clean and fresh use it, if it pongs walk away. Only collect loose seaweed do not pull it off of rocks, by doing so you will be making numerous sea creatures homeless and damaging the eco system. Give it a quick swish in the sea and a shake to remove any residents. It is best to wash the seaweed with fresh water or leave in the rain for a couple of days to get more of the salt out, worms dont like it and it kills them if strong enough, same principle as putting salt on slugs. Photo: Max Blinkhorn
Make your own Liquid Seaweed Feed
A well known brand of liquid seaweed extract or growth stimulant costs about £7 per litre, you could make your own for free. Get a 10 gallon plastic drum/container, half fill it with seaweed, top up the container with water and let it stand for 3 months, that is the optimum time, I do know people who have used it after a few weeks. Strain off the liquid and add about a cupful to 2 gallons of water, do not be tempted to make it any stronger or you could burn the roots of your plants. Think I might stitch up an old net curtain to make a bag and put the seaweed in that so I dont have to strain it, then I can put the used seaweed residue on the compost heap. It is quicker and decomposes better if you chop the seaweed up first. You can of course make it in smaller amounts, just use any suitable container for the space you have available.
Compost it
Seaweed is an excellent compost activator, so adding it to you compost heap will add nutrients and more organic matter to your compost.
You can also use a 4″ 6″ layer of seaweed as a mulch for shrubs and roses, although you might get a few complaints from near neighbours as it starts to rot down.
Seaweed improves the structure of clay soils, think it is the alginates in the seaweed helps break it up so it does not clump so much.