Country Enterprise - seaweed as fertiliser. Appy general fertilizer to crops.

<P> If you live near the sea, seaweed is really fantastic. </P><P>You have to stack it for a month or so for most of the salt to be washed out. In fact, if it is gathered in a dry summer, you will have to water it. It really does produce heavy crops. If you feel tempted to bring some back from a holiday by the sea, it may be worth remembering that to be really effective you have to apply 12lb (6kg) per square yard (metre). Even if your car will carry a hundredweight of it, you can only fertilise ten square yards, and of course you may well find your family refuses to appreciate the odour of decaying seaweed at close quarters. </P><P>Preparations from a seaweed base for foliar application are available from garden centres. We often concoct our own liquid mixtures using well rotted manure and these are particularly effective if there is a dry spell and the plants are not able to draw all the required benefit from the soil. These liquid feeds are not a substitute for well-dug-in manure, just a helpful supplement. If you apply a general fertiliser to growing crops but do not dig it in, just sprinkle it on the ground — the rain will gradually water it in and it will reach all the roots instead of bypassing them. </P><P ALIGN=RIGHT> <A HREF=veg6.htm TARGET=mainframe STYLE="text-decoration: none">seaweed as fertiliser</A></P>