Use of seaweed

Hiya,

Being a bit of a tightwad, and living fairly close to the coast, I wondered if rather than splash out on seaweed extract to supplement my organic feed I could use fresh stuff straight off the beach. Does anyone have experience of this, and if so is it necessary to process it in any way first? i'm guessing at least rinsing the salt off and chopping? Would you dry it at all? Dig in or mulch? When would be the best time to add and are there any edibles you should avoid adding it to?

Thanks you lovely, clever people :-)

 

This is the tip I followed, given to me by wife's aunt who maintains a thriving garden.

Collect it when its dried out a bit if you can, otherwise you'll be hauling as much sea water as seaweed. Give it a thorough rinse before use, to get some of the salt off. Then just put in on the ground where you want it, around, but not touching the plants.

Then, in wife's auntie's words, "it just goes". Living near the coast you've probably noticed that seaweed doesn't take long to rot down. All the soil creatures will quickly drag the rotting seaweed under for you, as well as speeding up the decomposition process.

 

Brill, thanks. Sounds simple enough that even an amateur like me ought to be able to manage that!