Fish fertilizer

[pepper]

Has anyone tried making this? I was watching a video on it, the guy filled about a quarter of a bucket with fish then added a bit of leaf compost filled it with water and left it for a year. He used a airlock method like is used in making wine and said it didn't smell too bad but I find that hard to believe, but maybe because it is basically composting it might not smell too bad?

If anyone tried it I'd like to know. I don't want to attract every animal within 5 miles to my garden and don't want the neighbors coming at me with pitchforks lol. Also thinking of the flies it might attract.

 

[Meadowlark]

Yes, I used home grown fish fertilizer regularly for a few years while I was actively pursuing Striped Bass.

I employed the techniques attributed to American Indians and buried the unused portions of my catch in garden areas that were being replenished for future planting. I was catching and keeping an average of 300 stripers a year, so I had a pretty good supply.

I never had any problems that I recall from this practice, and it yielded some incredible produce...the Indians knew what they were doing.

Today, I just use fish emulsion on growing plants. It is all I ever use on my potatoes and onions and others.

 

[Chuck]

I tried using fish parts once. I grew a hell of a crop of fire ants. Commercial fish emulsion/fertilizer is different. I use it on everything.

 

[pepper]

I just wonder if it smells really bad when making the fish emulsion/fertilizer rather then buying it already made? It's crazy expensive to buy, I'd rather make it for free. But not if it smells like the bait minnows I've previously forgotten to take out of my pickup after a long day of fishing in July lol

 

[Meadowlark]

I just wonder if it smells really bad when making the fish emulsion/fertilizer

Bury it where you will grow produce in a few months...no smell, no mess, no fuss, just wonderful garden produce grown in the healthiest way possible.

 

[pepper]

Bury it where you will grow produce in a few months...no smell, no mess, no fuss, just wonderful garden produce grown in the healthiest way possible.

I have done that but I'd rather the stuff I can mix with water and spray, same as what you posted in the pick. When I bury it then dogs, skunks, raccoons and everything else comes to dig it up unless I burry it so deep it doesn't help when I rototill. Here is the video so you know what I mean..

 

[Meadowlark]

Well, I do have a backhoe and also have used middle busters to dig trenches and never had any of the problems you mentioned. I can't imagine making your own emulsions...but good luck.

 

[pepper]

Well, I do have a backhoe and also have used middle busters to dig trenches and never had any of the problems you mentioned. I can't imagine making your own emulsions...but good luck.

I only have a garden tiller for a quarter acre garden, no backhoe here lol. Anyway I know lots of diy stuff on YouTube is not exactly as described more often then not so that's why I asked. I'll give it a try, if it stinks to high hell I'll figure out why people spend a crazy amount of money buying it rather then making it for free lol. If it's tolerable I'll laugh every time I pass the garden store and see people paying money for it lol

 

[Meadowlark]

I only have a garden tiller for a quarter acre garden, no backhoe here lol. ...

A quarter acre is about 4 times larger than the size of my 2600 sq. ft. garden. You are to be admired for doing that with only a tiller.

 

[pepper]

A quarter acre is about 4 times larger than the size of my 2600 sq. ft. garden. You are to be admired for doing that with only a tiller.

Here it's usually the third week of May when plants can go in the ground because of potential frost. This year it will be a week late, frost warning tonight. But that gives me a few weeks each year to till and I usually go over it 3 or 4 times. And some of it I don't till because of things planted like rhubarb and grapes that I just have to keep on-top of weeding. It's not so bad, I wouldn't do it if I didn't enjoy it.

 

[pepper]

A quarter acre is about 4 times larger than the size of my 2600 sq. ft. garden. You are to be admired for doing that with only a tiller.

I was completely wrong. I couldn't figure out why you thought it was so big I looked into it and it's not even close to a quarter acre. I don't know why I thought it was but it's not.

It still would be next to impossible with the amount of fishing I do to have enough fish scraps for all the plants in my garden to benefit if I buried them even if animals didn't come dig them up so I am still going to try making the fish fertilizer. The stuff in the store is organic and made somewhat the same way other then some of them use molasses and wood chips rather then water and leaf compost from what I've been reading.

I will post some updates on it over the next month, if I have to scrap it because of the smell and if not how it turns out in the end product.

 

[Meadowlark]

One quarter of an acre is 10,890 sq. ft.

Looking forward to your updates...and I'm betting you will be rewarded with great productivity from your plants.

 

[DirtMechanic]

Composting meats can be fun. I compost squirrels and sometimes bones. We feed chicken to pets and I take those bones fresh and roast them and make chicken stock and throw them in the pile. I bought a short loin T-bone and took the strip and tenderloin off and use the bones and scraps for beef stock, then they go in the pile.

 

[pepper]

Composting meats can be fun. I compost squirrels and sometimes bones. We feed chicken to pets and I take those bones fresh and roast them and make chicken stock and throw them in the pile. I bought a short loin T-bone and took the strip and tenderloin off and use the bones and scraps for beef stock, then they go in the pile.

I usually put bones and everything in the firepit and they just turn to ash. I don't know if that takes the good stuff out of them? Keeps the garbage from stinking though.

Once in a blue moon I make hide glue for some projects and boil the heck out of venison bones then leave them in the sun to completely dry. They turn into a nice crumbly bone meal for my tomato plants.

 

[DirtMechanic]

I usually put bones and everything in the firepit and they just turn to ash. I don't know if that takes the good stuff out of them? Keeps the garbage from stinking though.

Once in a blue moon I make hide glue for some projects and boil the heck out of venison bones then leave them in the sun to completely dry. They turn into a nice crumbly bone meal for my tomato plants.

I need a tee shirt that says "Feed the Pile". I think that is basically all I am doing.

 

[pepper]

I need a tee shirt that says "Feed the Pile". I think that is basically all I am doing.

Funny story for you. Every year a group of us get together in the fall for a party. It's after the harvest and hunting season for a big cookout. About 5 years ago it was my turn to host it. It was kind of a pot luck, some people came with their BBQ, some with salad, beans and whatever. There was 3 of us that had those big outdoor turkey deep fryer things. In mine I made french fries. Someone else deep-fried a wild turkey and another was walleye and pike.

To make a long story short we were all half cut and no one wanted to bother waiting for the cooking oil to cool down and pour it back into the containers. So I said let's just dump it in the garden. Well, several gallons of cooking oil dumped at the side of my garden lol. It took years for that to recover. Each year when I would till it the soil in that spot was almost like a cross between playdough and connetic sand lol.

No real point to my story but lesson learned, even though I consider cooking oil to be organic I would never do that again.

 

[DirtMechanic]

Funny story for you. Every year a group of us get together in the fall for a party. It's after the harvest and hunting season for a big cookout. About 5 years ago it was my turn to host it. It was kind of a pot luck, some people came with their BBQ, some with salad, beans and whatever. There was 3 of us that had those big outdoor turkey deep fryer things. In mine I made french fries. Someone else deep-fried a wild turkey and another was walleye and pike.

To make a long story short we were all half cut and no one wanted to bother waiting for the cooking oil to cool down and pour it back into the containers. So I said let's just dump it in the garden. Well, several gallons of cooking oil dumped at the side of my garden lol. It took years for that to recover. Each year when I would till it the soil in that spot was almost like a cross between playdough and connetic sand lol.

No real point to my story but lesson learned, even though I consider cooking oil to be organic I would never do that again.

Ha sounds like a missed opportunity for a big fire!

 

[pepper]

Ha sounds like a missed opportunity for a big fire!

That was a different year and a different story for another day lol!

 

[pepper]