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Anyone have experience with fresh kelp?

misterbrownstone06

misterbrownstone06

I was gonna go buy some kelp for my plants yesterday when I realized that im an idiot to pay for kelp when i live about 1-2 miles from miami beach. i can take a quick dip and just grab a bucket full. Anyways, am i just supposed to dry it and mix it with the soil? or do i mix it fresh (with a good rinse to remove the salt)?

and ill definately have a few beers while im at the beach.
 
Hmmmm, my grandfather used to use copius amounts of seaweed as a top dressing for his vegetable garden.
He first introduced me to my first burn, garlic and i still love it raw. As a five year old he was slicing it up for me lol
I use seasol as an alternative now but will be gathering some soon too add to my soil.

From memory (my memory is pretty good up until age 15 ) he used to keep it in a 44gal drum. As rainwater filled the drum he would take handfulls and disperse wherever he deemed fit. Never saw him use fertilizer at all but he had the bomb garden. :)
 
I should mention that he never gathered it wet by seawater. He waited until a lull in the tide and a few days dry weather before collection. I took a photo of my dad and grandfather on a day of seaweed collection at the ripe old age of six with a kodak 110. Still have the piccy, ahhh memory lane good stuff.
 
Here's a couple of links.

http://www.houseofsalesinc.com/organa/fine_gardening_magazine.htm

http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles/nyerges44.html

I was just reading up on it.

This a recipe from Hawaii Alex that I use.

http://www.thehotpepper.com/topic/21693-seaweed-help-needed/page__p__451634__hl__seaweed__fromsearch__1#entry451634
 
When I was growing up in England, my father would gather seaweed at the high tide line and take home sacks full of the stuff. He put it on his compost pile and then incorporated it into the garden (under potatoes, etc.). I spent a week at the beach last year and amused myself by doing the same thing. I washed it off well to remove salt then sundried it before taking it home. I haven't done a controlled experiment to see how it works (I put it in my compost pile and it's got mixed up with other stuff). I think it should be a great source of trace minerals. And by the way, gathering seaweed is a great conversation starter!
 
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