Products containing fish.

Hello all, I enjoy reading about the "out of the box" thinking and approaches taken by the folks in this community. I'm confused about some soil amendment products where the sustainability of fish are concerned. Like Menhaden. Any opinions. Thanks. http://www.pennelements.com/menhaden-a-little-fish-with-big-problems/

Mark, I haven't read the book, but it appears obvious to me that the fishing industry isn't sustainable. Fish populations have collapsed in a number of areas. And the fishing goes on despite the warnings.

The only fish I eat is local raised tilapia and wild caught Alaskan salmon. Once or twice a year I eat Ono, a local Hawaiian fish. I love salmon but I can't afford to eat it often. But the tilapia is raised here in tanks and ponds, fed locally produced food. We have other containment raised seafood here but they all get commercial feed, so I avoid them.

I make my homemade fish fertilizer out of fish waste from the local fishermen. This waste otherwise gets buried in a hole off on the corner of some property somewhere. So I have no guilt using it for fish emulsion.

...Su Ba
www.kaufarmer.blogspot.com

Su Ba, Do you compost the fish scraps? I tried adding some to my bin, but was afraid it would throw it out of wack if I added too much.

Worldwide, commercial fishing consumes aprox. one pound of diesel fuel for every pound of fish landed.

On a calorie for calorie comparison, the ratio would look much worse.

Mark, no, not in the compost. I make emulsion.

Take one old cooler that has a spigot or drain in the bottom, and a good tight lid. Fill it half way with fish scrapes .....heads, fins, guts, skins. Don't pack it tight. Leave gaps and spaces to the liquid to flow. Cover over with a half inch of brown sugar. Now fill the cooler the rest of the way. Cover liberally with brown sugar, about an inch. If the fish waste was dry, then add a cup or two of water. This is not usually necessary. Shut the lid tightly and let it sit for a couple of months. Using the spigot or drain, take off emulsion when you need some. If the fish isn't completed rotted, you can add some water when needed.

That was the instructions given to me. But I do it a bit differently. Since I have my own sugar cane and can make cane juice, I use that in place of brown sugar. I add fish waste to the cooler in layers, wetting each layer with cane juice. I leave air gaps, so I'm not filling the cooler with juice, just wetting the fish. Every two weeks I add a cup of raw cane juice. Whew, it stinks when you open the lid! That's why you want a cooler with a drain so that you don't have to open the lid to get at the fish emulsion. And with the lid tightly shut, it doesn't get maggots inside.

I have many of the fish coolers n operation.

...Su Ba
www.kaufarmer.blogspot.com

Su Ba Great idea. Is the liquid thick like in the bottle? How much do you have to cut it?

Mark, sometimes a batch is watery, sometime thick. I think it depends on the weather and temperature, but I haven't kept detailed records. I've never purchased fish emulsion at the store, so I don't know how it compares.

I use this liquid to make my own high nitrogen fertilizer. I mix it with fine, almost powder, biochar. This fine char is a by-product of breaking up the biochar for my compost piles. i don't like the idea of applying such powdery char directly to the soil or compost because it tends to stay hydrophobic unless pre-soaked before adding. But this fine char absorbs the fish emulsion nicely, gently stirring while slowly adding.. I add enough to make the char moist and crumbly. By the way, the char takes most of the odor away, a nice side benefit.

This fish emulsion/char mix is easy to handle, easy to apply. I use it for spot dressing plants that need a nitrogen boost. I don't have to use a batch immediately. I'll store it in a plastic bag that I can seal shut then use it over the period of a month or so. This works really well on lettuce and other greens, and corn.

...Su Ba
www.kaufarmer.blogspot.com