Seaweed For Grassland.

[Kiwi Pete]

I'm really impressed by the salted gorse!

You've had a very good kill........ maybe put a match to it now..... I seriously wouldn't be able to help myself

Swaling season starts TOMORROW



When salting the gorse, do you need to really cover the plant well in solution?

It is tempting to flick a couple of matches in and then go down to the fire station and put my level 2's on... but park in front of the door with a couple of boxes of Speights
Have a wee party with the boys and then go up and damp it down

Well, yes I gave it a bloody good drenching to be honest, like you would with tordon etc, missed a few patches but they died later on as well.
Pretty sure neilo said that perhaps something else killed those bits instead
"If it works, then why doesn't everyone use it" if I remember correctly?
I'm leaning towards the salt killing the plant, myself.
I did spray it in the heat of summer though, when none of it had any flowers, and it was just starting to pop its seed as I was finishing it.
I think timing with gorse control has a bit to do with how effective a kill you get, and I aim to spray when it's sunburn weather as even winter spraying metsulfuron at my neighbour's wasn't as effective a kill as I had here.
But short answer yes, careful not to have not too much dripping on the grass, but don't go shy with it, aim for total coverage.

 

[gatepost]

Humistart from Timac agro, we get it via Mole valley, closest I have got to calcified seaweed.

 

[awkward]

never liked timac products. always feel like I'm being ripped off for what it is

 

[Cab-over Pete]

That’s because you are being ripped off.

Some French bloke came to see me a few years ago wanting me to sell and apply their products. The figures he talked about were pretty amazing, mark ups were stupid levels and commissions were very high.

I turned them down. There’s no way I’m getting involved with ripping farmers off and that’s exactly what they were wanting to do.

 

[awkward]

that's why I never bothered.

 

[Kiwi Pete]

I think the main thing to be aware of with seaweed products is - it's a product.
Folks love to bamboozle other folks with guff about products.
Sorry about the wee dig before @neilo - but your own tale of what people will resort to.... there's no excuse for that at all.

Seaweed is not a fertiliser as such, nor a cure-all for what ails stock. It's a tonic and growth-promotant.

It's benefit to my farm in that it helps feed the soil with things it might not get from normal livestock farming practices: our soils are naturally low in calcium copper cobalt and selenium but mine are high in those.
For me it's almost free of charge, so I could hardly lose, for the processing of and a couple of hours spraying it on.
Our proprietary local product would work out at around $3500 per year for 100ac, 2 applications @ 5 litres/ha - that's steep enough IMO but I'd consider it for the savings I know it would bring on animal health related issues and reduction in capital fert/lime/reseeds.

I think to claim it does away with things is akin to promoting, a home ventilation system is a household heater - false advertising.
Yes it gives you a better environment but in winter you are still cold!
But - its soil benefits are huge in terms of older pasture performance - the contractor is still talking about the silage he made here. The local farmers say "you have a cracking piece of land there, Pete, it knows how to grow grass" but how much of that is down to seaweed is anyone's guess!
I will eventually get around to putting on what's here refer my earlier post about the neighbour's always being too......something?
I'm too busy to spray it on!
Or too dark when I finish work, too windy in the mornings
I will get there...

But be wary of price and try to get an analysis with whatever someone is trying to sell.
Most stuff is mostly molasses and a tiny bit of seaweed they're as dodgy as you think they are.

 

[cozzie]

I included a fancy seaweed product when applying a fungicide to sugar beet nearly 2 months ago. I have never seen the likes of the color the beet turned after the application. It was the healthiest shade of deep green I have seen.

 

[cozzie]

@Kiwi Pete can you give me an idea of how much seaweed you are using when making up your spray on formulas. As in, is it taking 10kgs of seaweed to cover 10ha of land. its making the solution similar to making a compost tea?

 

[Cab-over Pete]

How does such a small amount in a home brew make such a difference and, if it does, how does that compare with other folks who are spreading whole seaweed on with spreaders?

Is there a chance that they’re over dosing the Land a bit?

 

[dannewhouse]

we had a long discussion with a feed rep re seaweed and we think the difference of how stock ate the sea weeded grass better was due to the amount of salt on/in the grass and stock like salts. we were discussing how the stock ate/utilised the grass rather than the amount of growing of grass?

you can get sodium in fertiliser now and other salts (origin sweetgrass) which might do the trick?

 

[awkward]

we had a long discussion with a feed rep re seaweed and we think the difference of how stock ate the sea weeded grass better was due to the amount of salt on/in the grass and stock like salts. we were discussing how the stock ate/utilised the grass rather than the amount of growing of grass?

you can get sodium in fertiliser now and other salts (origin sweetgrass) which might do the trick?

not quite right because all processed seaweed is steam washed and rinsed a few times before baging. you don't want to get salmonella. although you still get salt in the seaweed it's only trace quantities

 

[dannewhouse]

not quite right because all processed seaweed is steam washed and rinsed a few times before baging. you don't want to get salmonella. although you still get salt in the seaweed it's only trace quantities

does seaweed contain salt for when its breaking down anyway? always tastes salty to me even after its been washed.
perhaps a different seaweed, I still don't like it that stuff they have at the chinky

 

[awkward]

different thing me thinks

 

[Kiwi Pete]

@Kiwi Pete can you give me an idea of how much seaweed you are using when making up your spray on formulas. As in, is it taking 10kgs of seaweed to cover 10ha of land. its making the solution similar to making a compost tea?

Yep it's really similar to compost tea, I think there's probably around 400kg of chopped seaweed in my drums or so, 5 x200 l a bit over half full, and covered in water.
I've found no advantage stirring all the time, just when the fizz lifts the stuff up I'll stir it all around and under with a piece of wood.
So I should get about 700 litres of juice to spray on now, and same in the autumn, will siphon out as much as I can and then fill the drums up with more water and let them brew again.
It takes half the time in summer as with all reactions, temperature speeds it up.
I'll aim to cover 35ha with the 700 litres of that, and a couple of hundred litres of water molasses. Not much.

But the available product here suggests 5-10 l/ha, spring and autumn, for grassland.
I guess mine will only be half as good so 20l/ha should do

Ideally little and often - in my mind it's there to feed the soil when there isn't much residue on top to give them something to process. If I just sat around watching the moss I'd just keep dribbling it on, but I will give it a heavier dose once and see how summer treats me.

 

[neilo]

we had a long discussion with a feed rep re seaweed and we think the difference of how stock ate the sea weeded grass better was due to the amount of salt on/in the grass and stock like salts. we were discussing how the stock ate/utilised the grass rather than the amount of growing of grass?

you can get sodium in fertiliser now and other salts (origin sweetgrass) which might do the trick?

Or just Ag salt in 600kg bags. It was about £110/t last time I had some, and a ton goes a long way.

 

[neilo]

Yep it's really similar to compost tea, I think there's probably around 400kg of chopped seaweed in my drums or so, 5 x200 l a bit over half full, and covered in water.
I've found no advantage stirring all the time, just when the fizz lifts the stuff up I'll stir it all around and under with a piece of wood.
So I should get about 700 litres of juice to spray on now, and same in the autumn, will siphon out as much as I can and then fill the drums up with more water and let them brew again.
It takes half the time in summer as with all reactions, temperature speeds it up.
I'll aim to cover 35ha with the 700 litres of that, and a couple of hundred litres of water molasses. Not much.

But the available product here suggests 5-10 l/ha, spring and autumn, for grassland.
I guess mine will only be half as good so 20l/ha should do

Ideally little and often - in my mind it's there to feed the soil when there isn't much residue on top to give them something to process. If I just sat around watching the moss I'd just keep dribbling it on, but I will give it a heavier dose once and see how summer treats me.

Would it be more effective if you took a bucketful from the drum, and diluted in another 205L drum, maybe repeated a few times? A bit like homeopathy works.

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Would it be more effective if you took a bucketful from the drum, and diluted in another 205L drum, maybe repeated a few times? A bit like homeopathy works.

It could be, my technology for getting the liquid out will probably only take most of it.
I will aim to leave some in there all the same, strangely the brew in each drum is different.
One is very creamy yellow, one fizzes away like it has berocca in there, and a couple I notice go mouldy on top much faster than the others (hours after stirring)
So I want to try to mix in each tank, and then see if I think I can get 5 drums of slops into 3 for next time, and get some better stuff that isn't such a bugger to cut up!
I thought I was doing the right thing when I did my harvesting, but I know better now.

 

[JD-Kid]

https://www.nzkelp.co.nz/zelp-2/