Im going to be starting a compost bin soon and was wondering what would be good to throw in? I work as a commercial diver and i dive the western sounds 5 days sometimes 7 days a week. Can i collect things like kelp to add to my pile?
5 Likes
@nwnative , I think you are on to something. Harvesting surplus form the ocean is a great way to improve the quality of your grow. But you have to be careful not increasing the salinity of your soil to much and cause plant problems. Anything you get should be rinsed in fresh water a number of times, like the kelp. You can make a bubbled tea out of the kulp, seaweed etc mixed with other garden weeds or compost.
Sea shells are also very good for calcium and other micro nutrients. Best to crush them down into smaller pieces and add as an addition to your soil.
7 Likes
I use about 5 buckets of sargasso in my 55 gallon compost spinner along with food scraps and lots of juicer pulp. They say don’t rinse it first. Micro nutrients. It makes absolutely bodacious compost and compost tea. Takes me about 2 years to do a barrel. No lack of sargasso, (a type of seaweed).
7 Likes
Kelp is a pretty popular additive, different types have different benefits I think I remember @Dog_Fart1 mentioning something about this before. Hopefully you’ll be able to find it in the search bar. You should check to see if they’re are any invasive species in your area. Its also worth noting that some types of seaweed can bioaccumulate high levels of heavy metals.
Edit: found the post
4 Likes