THE EDITOR:
I read with great interest an article on a sea weed problem in St Lucia. It is my experience that this could be turned into a blessing.
When I was Director of Research and Development of the Windward Islands Banana Research and Development Centre (WINBAN) based in St Lucia, I had the sea weeds analyzed for plant nutrient status at our chemistry laboratory.
I am pleased to report that they were found to be rich in nutrients vital for the growth of plants. I recall that phosphorus, potassium and some micro nutrients were included in those nutrients.
At that time, as a hobby, I air layered branches of a rubber plant growing in my yard and potted them for sale.
The air layered branches rooted in a few weeks. I also used the washed weeds as a fertilizer.
I therefore recommend that we collect the weeds, wash them on a suspended mesh to dilute the salt and use them as mulch and for potting plants. They can be chopped up into small segments and bagged as a substitute for imported mulch.
In so doing we can convert a problem into a blessing. Perhaps we can use the human resources in some of our holding institutions for industrial processing of our sea weed blessings.
–Dr. Edsel Edmunds,
Former Senior Research Fellow, UWI
Former Director of Research WINBAN