Students growing business from seaweed
Covid delays and some wild weather have not deterred two Coastal Taranaki students set on growing a future business from seaweed fertiliser.
Jason Holmes, 17, and Brody Neilson, 18, from Opunake High School’s whare atawhai (learning support centre), have spent two years on a project to turn seaweed gathered from the beach near their school into fertiliser, which they planned to sell at gala days.
While they lost their main market when the pandemic caused the school’s gala days to be cancelled for two years, the project is flourishing nonetheless.
The students make the fertiliser by collecting seaweed off the beach and putting it into a drum back at school. They add water and let it brew, then bottle the outcome in recycled passata jars.
Due to lack of space, they originally had to bottle the whiffy brew over the sink in their classroom, and then had nowhere to store all the bottles, teacher aide Pauline Sandford said. She solved this by applying for a $500 grant from the Glass Packaging Forum. This paid for a garden shed that became seaweed fertiliser HQ.
But Covid delays meant the shed did not arrive until after the Christmas school holidays started. Then, once it was assembled this year, a violent storm badly damaged the structure.
Luckily, students from the school’s tiny home project came to the rescue, building a sturdy frame to hold the shed together, Sandford said.
The two boys have put a lot of work into the project, with Jason designing a logo and labels for the bottles, and Brody testing the fertiliser on seedlings he grows.
‘‘Brody and Jason have been planting vegetables all around the school, and we are trying to create an edible garden in the staffroom courtyard,’’ said Sandford, who is also a keen gardener.
‘‘Last year we did a trial – one garden with the fertiliser being used, and one without.’’
A professional horticulturist in Opunake was also trialling the fertiliser for them, she said.
The boys have been selling some of the seaweed fertiliser to local people, but they would like to open a shop, teacher Jan Murgatroyd said. ‘‘The long-term plan is to create a business these young people can continue with beyond their school years.
‘‘The big picture is to have an outlet to sell it; this is just the beginning.’’