Fertilising unworked soil and pruning old fruit bushes?
Hello!
We have just obtained an amazing plot which we have waited 4 years for!
There is allot of work to be done , it has been un worked for 4/5 years and the soil really really needs rejuvenating. We have cleared allot of the land, carpeted some and dug over the patch we now want to put raised beds on.We also have a poly tunnell that needs work too.
We are very much beginners and are open to all the advise and wisdom of others much more experience!
What is the best way of getting the soil up to scratch for the beds and planting some winter crops? Manure? does this have to be well rotted first though? seaweed? What is the most efficient way to go about topping up the beds?
Also we have inherited some gooseberry and raspberry bushes which are in poor nick but still standing and I am very loath to pull them out. Should we prune these now ( all the books say autumn!) but they are not producing much fruit and are looking very bedraggled?
All comments welcome..many thanks.
ok here's what I found out...
How to apply seaweed
You can apply fresh kelp directly to the soil, Arrange it as a 2 to 4-inch mulch layer or include it in the compost pile. Seaweed decays quickly because it contains little cellulose. What's nice too, is that you don't introduce weed seeds with seaweed mulch.
You can also apply kelp as a liquid fertilizer at the base of plants to reach the root zone, add it to a drip irrigation system or as a dilute foliar spray. In recent tests at Virginia Polytechnic Institute, soil sprayed with a seaweed solution had 67 percent to 175 percent more roots than untreated soil.
To make your own liquid kelp, add a couple handfuls of seaweed to a 5-gallon bucket of water. Stir the concoction daily for a few days, then strain and dilute it using the ratio of 1 part kelp liquid to 2 parts water.
Any sprayer or mister will work, from hand-trigger units to backpack models. The best times to spray are early morning and early evening, when the liquids will be absorbed most quickly. Spray the tops and bottoms of leaves until the liquid drips off the leaves.
Prevention is the best defense: use kelp
According to Rodale's All-New Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening (TIP: You can find inexpensive, used copies of this "indispensable resource for every gardener" are available through Amazon.com), sprays of seaweed extract can help prevent plant diseases. "They work by improving the overall health of the plant."
Such foliar sprays (liquid fertilizers sprayed on plants) are up to 20 times more effective as a way to supply nutrients when the soil is poor quality or when roots are stressed from transplant shock or suffering from extreme heat and drought conditions. Here, too, seaweed is very effective in improving soil conditions and giving plants a helpful boost.
Hope that helps
many thanks for this indepth reply, it has really helped, think I will be down the shore collecting this evening!
Cheers.
I just wished I lived close enough to the sea to get my own supply lol
Can anything be done with the remaining seaweed or does it basically dissolve?
Hi
Is it any sea weed as know there are quite a few different kinds?
Ty
Karen