Wednesday 22 May 2013

Seaweed under the sea wall


Seaweed gathered under the sea wall at St Brelade's Bay.

Seaweed contains all the trace elements and plant nutrients necessary for healthy crops, in addition the alginates in Brown seaweeds (Phaeophyta) are reputed to be an excellent soil conditioner. In Jersey the special flavour of their new potatoes is thought to derive from the seaweed they spread on their fields locally known as Vraic (Wrack). The seaweed is also thought to suppress Eelworm in the potato crop and has been collected and spread by the Jersey farmers since the 12th century, when every farmer had the right to collect seaweed from the beach.

For ABC Wednesday.

5 comments:

Richard Lawry said...

I would have never thought of seaweed as something to put on your fields.
An Arkies Musings

Leslie: said...

FaScinating - a great fertilizer!

Leslie
abcw team

photowannabe said...

I didn't know that it is good fertilizer for the fields either.

Roger Owen Green said...

NOT just an inconvenience!
ROG, ABC Wednesday team

Joy said...

We don't seem to get as much seaweed as we used to here, looks as though it must be all heading to Jersey:-) Coincidently I've just bought some Jersey Royals, interesting.
Joy - ABC Team