Yeah if you can get it. ;) From everything I have read about its use over on the Compost & Mulch forum it makes a great mulch for many different things. Many of the east coast resident regulars on that forum swear by it. Dave

No, rinsing it is not worthwhile. It's a waste of your time, and more importantly, it's a waste of water. The amount of salt on seaweed is negligible for soil systems and compost systems. If you're adding so much seaweed that salt becomes a problem, then your soil system or compost system isn't going to be well balanced enough anyways to be successful. Salt is no good for plants but with enough organic matter in a system other than seaweed you will be fine. What I do is usually add seaweed but in small layers at a time, separated with other organic material like leaves/grass/etc. Space it out and don't go overboard. You'll be fine. Don't waste precious water and don't waste your time.

sconticut, Great idea about lining your potato beds with seaweed. I have used seaweed as mulch off and on over a number of years and in the beginning took great pains to rinse all of the salt/sand off the weed and as time went on (as with most things) I became sloppier about that. I don't mind the look even when bleached but it is a big chore if your doing more than a small bed. Rose Treat lives in my community and has created a name for herself in the art world using seaweed she also has written a children's book "The Seaweed Book How to Find and Have Fun with Seaweed". It has some photos/name/descriptions of our local weed that I found interesting. kt

Saeweed emulsion? Or fish? Seaweed is about 0-0-4 or 1-0-4 NPK. PLUS you diluted it??? And fish is top heavy in nitrogen, usually around 5-1-1 or 4-1-1 NPK, a bad ratio for tomatoes to start with, unless Neptune's Harvest Fish & Seaweed, which has the best ratio for tomatoes, at 2-4-1 0r 2-4-0.5. Still, you are underfertilizing. The leaves you mulched with were using whatever N (nitrogen) to break down. Adding the mushroom compost, less than 1-1-1, is helping break the leave down, which will be great... for next year. Are your beds 'flat' or raised beds? I fell for that "veggie blend topsoil" or "compost & topsoil blend" about 10+ years ago when I made raised beds. Looks lovely dumped in your driveway... until it rains. That's because they shred it into the truck. When it rains & then dries, it's all one big "lump" again! If it's enclosed raised beds, treat it as a giannt container. Containers shouldn't use topsoil for optimal results. I ammended my beds every year since then with municipal compost, a couple more inches each year, which I BUY every year. I'm in the city and catch hell if I try to have a compost pile or semi-enclosed bin, plus besides driving 15-20 miles or so, it's only about $18 a load, (including tax), dumped into the back of my pickup. Or about $2.50 per large garbage can if I shovel it. (why bother?) I bought sooooo much compost over the last 5-10 years that my yard looks like landscaped sanddunes, but leveled out--the last 20 feet length of my yard is/was almost a foot higher than the rest of the yard! For root bound plants, the best way I have found is to blast the rootball apart with a hose. The roots will be hanging down by themselves when you go to plant it and you can plant them deeper too, and the soil will fill in around the roots and they will no longer be going in circles. To get tomatoes this year, if your temps are below 92 and first frost won't be until fall, you still have time to FERTILIZE REGULARLY (weekly with a high middle # fertilizer or tomato blend or bloom booster formula water soluble fertilizer, or every 5 days with a Neptune's Harvest fish/seaweed blend or Maxicrop seaweed powder) AND WATER WELL (regularly.) If fyou feel your soil is clayey, add lots of compost, which will also provide calcium, magnesium & sulfur. Heck, some of my plants didn't get into the ground (or 4 or 5 gallon buckets) until just a couple weeks ago. Some of my containers that got planted in June are starting to produce now. Just picked 4 Speckled Romans today and the pup/bed-tiller has been eating her share of Sungolds & Matt's Wild Cherries for the last couple weeks... Hope this helps.