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I have access to and abundance of FRESH FISH GUTS, as we have fishermen in my neighborhood. I've been reading about fish emulsion, and since this bounty would be FREE, I'd like to know how I might incorporate it into my veggie garden.
I was thinking I need to buy a used blender, and just blend it all up into a slurry that I could pour around the seedlings and plants.
Linda, I've heard of native Indians putting fish into their planting holes, and somehow I doubt they had blenders (giggle)
I've never had access to fresh fish guts, but if I did, I would either dig some holes, or a trench, and put the fishy stuff down deep enough that the smell would not attract neighborhood cats or wildlife.
Gymgirl; I have fished for years. Ya bury the guts between rows in growing season any where in the off season Go deep I use a trench spade 16 in You don"t need to go that deep but don't go shallow. do mark or remember where you buried them. you don't want to uncover them for a time. I don't know about down there(weather-worms) but up here it takes about a month for the worms to finish. Great stuff, I don't grind or mess with it (yuck) but I love fish and fishing . I wouldn't make a slurry to pour on the ground . It would gag a maggot in a day or two.
Putting it on or near the top of the soil would beckon every local fly, cat, and dog (and in my case, coyote). I'm thinking the stuff needs to be buried.
It attracts coons, possums, skunks, and buzzards, etc.. There was just a thread about this recently but I don't know where. You have to bury them deep enough that nothing can smell them and dig them up.
Linda - I just noticed this thread and I'd like to re-open it for a comment.
I fish a LOT, that's my other main hobby besides gardening. I've even built a permanent campground-style fish cleaning table in my side yard. It has running water, a sink, a cutting board, a metal slide leading to a gut bucket, overhead lights, and multiple plug-ins for electric knives.
I've been building up the soil in my 35' x 50' vegetable garden for years, and I've done it with compost largely composed of fish parts. Trouble is, that has to be done on a scale that may not be practical for you.
I have three 10' x 10' compost bins made of oak pallets, and each of them will hold a compost pile about 5' deep. I compost grass clippings, chopped oak leaves, cornstalks and such, and fish parts - and that makes really, really good black compost to add to the garden.
When I clean a bunch of fish and have a bucket full of heads and guts, I lift up a big scoop of compost with a tractor and front end loader, dump the fish parts in the hole, and drop the compost back on top. That buries the fish about 3' deep in the compost pile, and if I don't do that neighbor dogs and all kinds of critters will get into them up and make a real mess.
The fish parts break down quickly, and I turn the compost piles often with the tractor bucket. If I had to do all this with a shovel, I don't think I'd do it. The only other downside - don't walk barefoot in my garden, there's lots of catfish spikes in the soil and they're still sharp. lol
Ozark,
Thanks for the feedback, but you're right -- I'd have to do that with a shovel! It's all I can do to move my 5 x 5 pile around with a pitchfork every once in awhile!
But, I KNEW there was some benefit to using those guts. After all, anything that was once alive can be composted into something beneficial!
OK, since we're on this subject here's a horrible, horrible thought I've had for years and never shared with anybody.
Around here, and all through the eastern U.S. where it gets cold, our trees get a lot of "fall color". People even come to the Ozarks in October to see the pretty trees, and our weathermen try to predict the first frost and figure out when the trees will be brightest. Oaks turn brown, hickories turn yellow, and the maples turn red.
I've noticed that the maple trees that turn the brightest red are always in cemeteries. Thinking about how gardeners change the color of hydrangea and other blooms by pouring vinegar on the soil, I have a theory about why those cemetery maples turn so red. Embalming fluid.
