Seaweed as soil

Seaweed as soil substitute in the SWG (PDF 64 kb)

The Seawater Greenhouse (SWG) will be used in arid climates close to the sea. One of the characteristics of a typical location for the SWG is that there is often poor soil for growing crops typically found in a greenhouse, such as vegetables. The SWG can function quite well in a climate that will not normally allow anything at all to be grown due to water shortage. Hardly anything can grow in a climate like this, which results in a soil that contains very little humus and is therefore, often very sandy. This poses a problem if you want to use soil as a substrate inside the SWG, as it can be prohibitive to transport soil to the location or make soil from sand and manure. However, many prospective SWG locations have sea grass or seaweed in the nearby ocean, which could serve as a soil substitute when composted and mixed up with sand to give it a better structure. January 2005, Thomas Bjelkeman-Pettersson (2 pages).

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