Salt in Seaweed Mulch

[Tomstrees]

Full Moon -

Sounds like pay back for all of my
mouth watering mater pics
I posted during my season !!! :wink:

Just make sure there isn't TOO much nitrogen ...
then you get big plants ... no maters ~

I've been thinking more about this seaweed thing ...
My parents live 1 block from a lake ...
a lake with LOTS of seaweed ...
they've not been having great harvests ...
no washing needed ???
hmmmmm ...... what if .... oh boy, I got it !
to be continued !!!

~ Tom

ps.
have any of you near lakes given it
a try instead of buying seaweed fertilizer
or any ferlized ???

[michael johnson]

I realy like to use(spent mushroom compost) when I can get it, especialy in the greenhouse- as you nearly always get a bonus crop of huge mushrooms coming up amongst the tomatoes around august /sept and they go down very well with some fried tomatoes all freshly pulled in the morning. and perhaps a rasher or two of smoked bacon

Spent mushroom compost is very rarely totaly spent out- there is nearly always a few viable mushroom spores still left in it.

[Full Moon]

Micheal, I didn't know that. I'll keep an eye open for them.

Oh and Tom, you haven't seen the beginning of pay back yet

[Tomstrees]

Michael ~

I had so many mushrooms in
my yard this year - I did just that ...
Crushed them up , and used them as mulch ~

Fullmoon -

I'm in for a
looooong winter !!! :wink:
~ lol ~

Tom

[Mitch-in-the-garden]

I've read several studies now that indicate that tomatoes do benefit from slightly salinated water. I should think applying unprocessed seaweed directly to crops as a mulch should pose no problems and may even improve vigor, yield, and taste in your tomatoes. JMO.

[Tomstrees]

I live about 1/2 mile away from the NJ Bayshore and I collect seaweed every year.

I used to lay it out on my lawn and spray with my hose and apply.

Then I got lazy, stopped washing it, and applied it right to my garden seashells, starfish, everything.

I've had no side effects from doing it this way. I also apply it directly to my compost pile.

I've been thinking about using fresh water seaweed from my parents lake.

But yeah, one you apply the stuff, you can immediately see the difference in the plants: THEY JUMP OUT OF THE GROUND !

~ Tom

[dcarch]

Originally Posted by Tomstrees

I live about 1/2 mile away from the NJ Bayshore and I collect seaweed every year.
I used to lay it out on my lawn and spray with my hose and apply.
Then I got lazy, stopped washing it, and applied it right to my garden seashells, starfish, everything.
I've had no side effects from doing it this way. I also apply it directly to my compost pile.
I've been thinking about using fresh water seaweed from my parents lake.
But yeah, one you apply the stuff, you can immediately see the difference in the plants: THEY JUMP OUT OF THE GROUND !
~ Tom

It would be interesting to do a side-by-side grow comparison and see if salt effects taste.

dcarch

[Tomstrees]

This is interesting Dcarch:

Stephen Gaya Agong1, 2, Siegfried Schittenhelm1 and Wolfgang Friedt3
(1) Federal Agricultural Research Centre, Braunschweig-Völkenrode (FAL), Institute of Crop Science, Bundesalle 50, D-38116 Braunschweig, Germany(2) Present address: Department of Horticulture, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, P.O. Box 62000, Nairobi, Kenya)(3) Institute of Crop Science and Plant Breeding I, Justus-Liebig University Giessen, Ludwigstr. 23, D-35390 Giessen, Germany

Abstract Tomato is an important vegetable crop in Kenya and the development of salt tolerant cultivars would enhance its productivity in the vast marginal areas of the country. This study was aimed at determining the magnitude of genotypic variability for salt tolerance in the Kenyan tomato germplasm. Pot experiments with 22 landraces and 9 market cultivars were laid out as a two and four replicate split-plot design in glasshouse in Experiments 1 and 2, respectively. Salt treatments in Experiment 1 were 0 and 5 g NaCl kg-1 resulting into 0.5 and 9.1 dS m-1 of the soil saturation extracts, respectively. In Experiment 2 the treatments were 0, 4, and 8 g NaCl kg-1 soil corresponding to 0.5, 7.4, and 14.2 dS m-1, respectively. Data were recorded on agronomic and biochemical parameters. The germplasm showed large variation for salt tolerance. Fruit and seed production at soil salinity of 14.2 dS m-1 demonstrated that these tomatoes are fairly tolerant of NaCl. Osmotic adjustment was achieved by higher fruit electrical conductivity, brix and total titratable acidity. Low and high contents of K+, Ca2+ and Mg2+ within tomato tissues and soil, respectively, under salt treatment, confirmed competition and antagonism involving Na+ and these cations. Low Na+ and Cl- contents in the fruit at 7.4 dS m-1 revealed their exclusion and ensured production of physiologically normal seeds and nutritionally healthy fruits. Two landraces ‘Chwerotonglo’ and ‘Nyanyandogo’ were identified as salt tolerant. Comparatively, the market cultivars showed superior fruit yields despite their susceptibility to salinity. Accordingly, tolerance of landraces in combination with superior yields of the market cultivars is suitable for tomato improvement for salt tolerance.
Lycopersicon esculentum - tomato landraces - salt stress tolerance - osmotic adjustment - adaptation - breeding potential
This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.

[Tomstrees]

Went down to my beach last night and collected 2 huge bags of fresh seaweed. I mulched each of the plants in the main garden, as well as all of the potted projects.

With whatever I had left over, I put into my compost bin, and made a "seaweed-brew" for a plant "super-drink" ...

Love summer ~

Tom

(ps. I did not rinse it, and I included sponges, shells, dead crabs, everything ... hey extra stuff can't hurt ... hasn't before ~ )

[spyfferoni]

Man, we don't have anything like that around here. If I ever live near a coast I'm going to try it. I don't think anything grows in the Great Salt Lake. We live near Utah lake but at one time it was used to cool? at Geneva Steel, and I think it is a bit polluted now. I think I'm going to track down some Kelp emulsion and give that a try along with Fish emulsion this year.

Tyff

[Tomstrees]

My parents live by a lake, and this summer (when I get a chance to get up there) I'm going to harvest some of the fresh-water seaweed as well.
I guess, and lake or pond would do Tyff !

~ Tom

[happychick]

Does it matter much what kind of seaweed it is (other than to avoid the aforementioned eel grass, of course)? The seaweed that washes up here looks more like berries attached to sticks...

Edit...I'm not native to this area, so I don't know anything about the seaweed, but I looked it up. It's Sargassum, which I also looked up, so I know it's good to go. (Good thing, because I heaped a trash bag full of it into my compost a few weeks ago - it disappeared almost overnight!!!)

[Tomstrees]

Happychick,

I've seen seaweed of similar nature wash up on my beach. Its not "kelp like" but more bumpy and werid lookin. Well that hasn't stopped me from adding it to my garden or compost! lol

I live at the Bayshore in NJ, so my seaweed isn't as "salty" as oceanside collected seaweed. I've heard of washing it and not washing it. I don't wash mine, but if you think it may have too much salt, give it a rinse.

Going to try a foliar seaweed spray, use as mulch, and compost with it.

~ Tom

[bcday]

Originally Posted by Tomstrees

My parents live by a lake, and this summer (when I get a chance to get up there) I'm going to harvest some of the fresh-water seaweed as well.
~ Tom

Um, does seaweed wash up along the shore of the lake where your parents live, or were you planning to harvest it by pulling up live plants from the lake bottom?

You don't want to run afoul of state fish and game laws that protect those plants that provide food and cover for gamefish and other aquatic life. Ripping live plants out of the lake isn't the same as scavenging washed-up dead seaweed from a beach.

Aside from any concern for the ecosystem of the lake, it just pays to check first and make sure that what you're planning won't get you fined. :wink:

[Tomstrees]

Um, does seaweed wash up along the shore of the lake where your parents live, or were you planning to harvest it by pulling up live plants from the lake bottom?

You don't want to run afoul of state fish and game laws that protect those plants that provide food and cover for gamefish and other aquatic life. Ripping live plants out of the lake isn't the same as scavenging washed-up dead seaweed from a beach.

Aside from any concern for the ecosystem of the lake, it just pays to check first and make sure that what you're planning won't get you fined.

The seaweed in my parents lake grows so tall that it literally lays on the surface of the water and near the edges.

I should have meantioned that my parents live in a lake community and its not a public lake. The seaweed has become such a HUGE problem that they actually rake certain parts of the lake to remove the seaweed: its literally choking out the wildlife. What I was thinking is to get down to the lake before they remove it from the beach and take some home. I really doubt they would give me a hard time helping them "remove" a few bags of the weeds that come up (huge piles).

I have googled some bigger seaweed harvesting operations and yeah, they look like they do more harm than good. I really can't see your average home gardener taking more than the lake could not handle replacing; but yeah you're right: check before you "dive" in ...

~ Tom