Benefits of Seaweed and How to Apply

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This Saturday at beds at Zilker Botanical Garden we gave our cucumber plants a seaweed treatment to help them de-stress. Austin Organic Gardeners have long used to seaweed for its many benefits in the garden including:

1. FERTILIZER Seaweed is a broad spectrum fertilizer that has 60 trace minerals and ready-to-use nutrients including nitrogen, potassium, phosphate, and magnesium. It also contains hormones to encourage plant growth. Seaweed is high in carbohydrates which are essential building blocks in growing plants, and low in cellulose so it breaks down readily. 

2. PEST CONTROL. Slugs especially hate seaweed because of its sharp edges and salt. Birds and other garden pests dislike it for the same reasons. 

3. PREVENTS DISEASE Seaweed helps you to grow strong, healthy plants, and healthy plants resist disease. Seaweed shares no diseases with land plants.

HOW TO APPLY
It can be bought at local garden stores and comes as a powder that is water soluble or as liquid concentrate. Powdered form adds organic matter and also aerates the soil. For the solid, work about 10 lbs. per 100 sq. ft. into the soil. For the liquid, follow label directions for dilution.