and schnooks like me pay good money for things like maxicrop :)

but then, i'm 2000 miles from the coast...

sea salt is a wonderful nutrient for plants, but its still a salt, which in large doses, is Bad for plants. how big of a dose is 'large?' that I cannot answer.

my stock answer is to do a side-by-side test with one plant getting the seaweed and one not. then compare results. what works for one person doesn't necessarily work for someone else.

I use seaweed. I do rinse it several times before I apply it as top-dressing.

I harvest seaweed during storms becuase the tides are heavy and wash up more seweed on shore, the rain rinses some salt from it, and the rain also keeps its moist--sometimes there are small brine shrimp on the seaweed which is a ceratanaceous bonus (IMHO), but most importantly--when I harvest during a storm there are no gawkers, lol! Miles and miles of shoreline are empty and the fields of seaweed are immense.

Hi, the little bit of salt that may be on seaweed doesn't have to be washed off. There's really not that much. The seaweed makes a good mulch, slippery and a bit smelly on a hot day. After it dries there's hardly anything left - it's mostly water. Really great stuff to turn into the soil in the fall; it's full of micronutrients and breaks down readily. It costs just a little more than fall leaves since you might have to drive some to get it whereas the leaves come to you. Give it a try.