I used to save enough fish scraps from cleaning fish to bury a handful or so under each tomato plant when planting the garden. I haven’t been fishing much at all in about 4 years so haven’t been putting fish under my tomatos. My tomato fruits have been smaller and the flavor quality is less than I remember. But, as with above I don’t have a way to compare if it is the fish or something else in the more recent years.
Also, I always rotate where I grow certain plant types from year to year so I never had fish buried in the same area year after. But I never had problems growing anything where the fish was in following years.
1 Like
I dont bow fish anymore… did that some back in my younger days.
I do fish quite a bit and now that I am retired plan to do much more of that.
Good sized fish are fileted… smaller fish like bluegill, smaller black perch are cooked as whole fish. My wife will only eat filets… so I get all the whole fish…
Good sized (2 lb +) bass or catfish filets are very good, grilled or keto fried…
I eat all fish eggs and liver too… true superfoods.
I have never added fish scraps to my compost pile… but will give that a try this year and see how it goes. My two piles are out beside my veggie garden… a good 50 yards away from the garage side of our home. Never smell anything offensive from the pile.
Where does the high N come from with fish ?
The flesh ?
I am going to be eating most of that…
It will be mostly fish heads, skins, bones, and a little gut… that goes into my pile.
I would think the fish head and bones would breakdown providing calcium and phosphorus (as bone meal does) ???
.
2 Likes
Those discarded parts should be frozen then when you plant your tomatoes put them underneath. Divers suffer from nitrogen exposure but fish do not. All parts of the fish are rich in nitrogen Nitrogen Narcosis In Diving - StatPearls - NCBI Bookshelf
What makes you healthy from eating fish is its packed with vitamins and protein making it a near perfect food
The food you eat is at least 16% amino nitrogen
This is why animal urine and feces is so high in nitrogen. Since poultry dont have urine their feces it is super fertilizer.
Years ago i raised tropical fish for pet stores and cleaned their tanks regularly. The water on the bottom was sucked up by siphon which contained fish feces. That water applied to vegetables was gold for a garden. Many people realized this and the aquaponics movement started as a result.
The one time I used fish emulsion, some varmint dug up the area looking for the fish. Not again.
1 Like
I recently made a pile for hot composting. Arborist chips 3 ft wide 7ft long and 3ft tall so far. It contains 30lbs of catfish offal, 40lbs of whole carp, 10lbs of wild rabbit remains, and the leftovers from butchering four roosters that needed to go. Watered every other day with 5 gallons of rain water. It got up to about115f. Bottle flies were on it pretty good, enjoying the heat. Im hoping that it will get hot enough to kill the maggots, or else we will have flypocalypse the first day in the 80s.
1 Like
I use the fish but head, tail, skin, guts and bones. I figure any blood and what not will provide some nitrogen to grow and attract the worms and the plant will get to the bones by the time it’s producing the big fruits. I’ve only grown tomatoes with fish and it works very good and productive tasty fruits. I’ve also used crab n shells with stellar results.
Always thought it would improve the soil.
What’s interesting about it all is the natives not only grew their foods and burned the lands to replenish the soils with great success compared to the many modern day cancer loving mono croppers greed mongers around me in California but they could also predict the weather better than our crappy phone apps and pathetic media.
Epic Gardening on youtube conducted an interesting experiment around this. The fish did worse than everything else he did, even the control. He speculated that anaerobic conditions were at fault.https://youtu.be/9xXohNFN0rk?si=W7_7pgBTXeP2d8UD
1 Like
Thanks, Good old Epic garden channel. I watched them for years. He has some good stuff. I’ve never just used heads but a lot of skin, tails, blood, bones and guts. Maybe they break down different idk. I also use trout, salmon or shad.
I can tell you a lot of what I see on the YouTube garden channels is simply regurgitated from one channel to another. I did a lot of experimenting with carrots and potatoes and had the most success doing basically everything they all said wouldn’t work. There’s a few real deal growers on there that know their stuff through generations or experience.
I’ve been growing like that for years and I do a lot of experimenting with organics and synthetics but tbh nothing beats the healthy plants and flavors especially grown in good soils and manures including fish. I mean healthy by disease and bug pressure.
But also, Check out Hollis and Nancy’s Homestead he’s been doing it for many years. https://www.youtube.com/@HollisNancysHomestead/videos
I agree, I was pretty sceptical of the channel and video, but the experiment was well done and convincing. I have been burying whole carp under my garden for years and have gotten good results. One thing I do different is add wood chips below and above the fish and make sure it is covered by at least 12 inches of soil.
1 Like