Seaweed as Plant Food

It was in the first days of our trip that Zach and I were on the beach collecting seaweed to add to one of Bob's three compost piles (one seaweed, one discarded veg/grass, one animal manure). Seaweed is hugely beneficial to plants as fertilizer. Its also ideal material for composting as this paragraph explains:

"Seaweeds, like land plants, contain carbohydrates, but those in seaweed differ in several respects from those in land plants. The most important difference is that carbohydrates in seaweed decompose more readily in the soil, and promote the proliferation of soil bacteria. This is partly because they contain about 10 percent simple sugars which are available to bacteria without further decomposition, partly because they contain very little cellulose, which is the main constituent of land plants, and notoriously resistant to bacterial attack" (Seaweed in Agriculture and Horticulture by W.A. Stephenson, 1974, p. 33).

This farm being directly on the coast, this great resource is right at your door step. Its just the matter of hauling it back from the beach:

"Cast weed, torn by tide and storm off coastal rocks and even rocks out at sea, and then washed in heaps on the shore, can be of value to local farmers. Composted, it would prove useful to gardeners who went to the trouble of carrying it away." (p.39)

With the various tidal activity, sometimes it is very easy to harvest this cast seaweed, according to Bob.

They go to that trouble here at Kilkilleen organics. When it is completely decomposed it creates a clay-like material. Bob seems to give a dose of seaweed whenever plants are struggling or stressed, for instance when starter plants are planted out. There is also commercially available seaweed extract which is mixed with water to feed plants, this is available from the farm shop.

Seaweed can be used as skin food too! Its used in skin lotions, a person has just started selling some at the Bantry market.