Seaweed, compost, mulch and salt

In Cornwall we are surrounded on three sides by coast with a ready supply of washed up seaweed. I have often thought of bagging this for the allotment, but I am worried about adding too much salt to my beds which may cause mineral leaching and could possibly drive earthworms away from my beds.

On the other hand a top mulch of seaweed once the potato leaves become established may keep slugs away!

An internet search has brought up pages that advise it is ok to just put it into the compost heap or even direct to beds or dug into trenches for things like Runner Beans and Potatoes, but also pages that advise you to run water on the seaweed for one hour at least – clearly the allotment committee would have a dim view of me doing that!

What do others do or think about the salt issue please?

Does he rinse the seaweed before applying or put direct on the plot?

You don't need to rinse it. A woman on the program "Coast" who harvests seaweed said you can put it straight on the garden as the salt keeps the slugs off. Of course it doesn't work for me as they still climb all over it when I tried it.

That's good to know if you can apply the seaweed straight to the ground without rinsing  . This year I have started to make a plant feed from seaweed as we are so close to the shore here, but the recipe I have (loosely) followed requires it to be rinsed before the steeping in water.

Hi argyllie - could you post your recipe here as this might be an alternative use for seaweed. How do you rinse your gatherings?

Our allotment committee would be having words if they caught me wasting water to clean my seaweed  and I would want to avoid wasting water at home as well really if possible.

Hi Zippy,

I don't feel that it should be called my recipe, as I got the idea from the internet where you will find several similar results in a search for "homemade seaweed fertiliser" but this is the general idea.  I use mixed types of seaweed, some suggest using only one type.

I have an open topped container of probably about 50 litres in size, I guess. My helpful husband made me a lid and a stand and tapped the container. I gather enough seaweed to fill the container half way. I have a piece of wind breaking type fabric which I lay on the ground and spread the gathered seaweed out. I then hose it thoroughly (sorry allotment commitee  ) and leave it about a day (it might get rain washed too  ) before it goes into the container to be topped up with water and left about 3 weeks. I'm also thinking it may be more logical to make the mixture in buckets then strain it into the tapped container but we haven't tried this yet as the stuff goes a long way, but it would be a good way to keep up a good supply. 

Hope this helps,

Lorna. 

In the Heligan Gardens they just spread it straight on the veg beds in the autumn, and dig it in.
Just like that

I think I have it cracked..........

Sounds like a plan to me