Homemade fish emulsion?

This might be a dumb question, but if anyone has made fish emulsion at home ....where do you get your fish parts? I looked up online how to make your own which seems cheaper than buying it, but I just can't imagine really going out to buy a can of sardines and starting a batch with that.
Does anyone have any experience?

The only experience I've had is with fish emulsion purchased in a jug - Neptune's Harvest. You only need a tablespoon of this stuff to a gallon of water, so, personally, I think it's cheap enough.

Ugh! Date night?

Is it 'legal' to leave a link to a thread on a competing site? If it is, I got a heckuva funny thread about making your own FE. ;o)

Al

Lol, victor! Long time no typey!

Al, yes I believe it is, so long as you refer to it as "the website whose name shall not be spoken" :-P That's what we call my brother's ex :)

Honeybee, I'm just worried about a one time cost and shipping etc, at this point it's worth it to me to take 4 weeks to make because I can't afford a large fertilizer expenditure. I'll look at Neptune's Harvest though. Do you find it does wonders for your garden?

Try this. It may change your perspective on making it from scratch. ;o)

http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/organic/msg0920244921575.html


Al

Thanks, Al! I'm the one that started that thread. I'll never live it down. I had followed the instructions exactly as they were printed in that forum's instructions - there were no warnings in the instructions that it could possibly explode!

Bonheur

Edited to say I got lots of fish parts from a friend who went deep sea fishing & gave me the heads, guts, & bones from the red snapper and grouper they caught.

This message was edited Jun 30, 2009 6:54 PM

Oh....wow, you weren't kidding!!! LOL!!! I laughed out loud, very loud at some of those posts. Who knew it was such an explosive undertaking!?!?

Hm, well this one might have to go into the category with raising chickens on my 1/4 acre (which DH vetoed, lol)

Bonheur, I do agree - the same intructions I found from GW were less than clear...I would probably be in your boat and I'm so glad you started just a funny and informative thread ;-)

art_n_garden - about the fish emulsion - the answer is I don't know - I feed my veggies all kinds of organic fertilizers/compost/castings that it's hard to say what does the best. I only know hubby and I get enough to eat/freeze/share to make us happy :)

Thanks, art_n_garden, you make me feel much better about that fiasco. I had emailed Captain Compost about the maggots and he was kind enough to reply immediately saying not to worry about them. But they were huge & thousands of them - I didn't know what they would grow up to be & I didn't want to find out! I didn't realize how many years have passed. I still have that 5 gallon bucket tightly sealed on the edge of my property. Someday I may open it, but it smelled so bad when it was fresh, I doubt it.

I have a five gallon bucket that I put a large coffee can of alfalfa pellets, 16 oz of epsom salts, any fish we have caught and any weed I pull plus old sodas, milk, tea and coffee grounds and top off with water, but leaving 3 inches at the top. I do not put a lid on it and it bubbles and ferments nicely, i stir it at least once a day. The heat, i feel, keeps the maggots at bay. After a few days I fill it the rest of the way, stir, and start dipping. Each plan gets at least a 16oz cup of this stuff, then I water it in. It reeks, looks terrible, and the plants have done amazing that survived being pulverized from a hail storm, tornado and flood all in a matter of three days. I never use all of the compost goo at the bottom of the bucket, so I add more water and whatever and keep the goo brew cooking. I do live in the country so dont have to worry about the neighbors. My daughter brought home a snake that was run over, she wanted to know what kind it was strange kid :) runs in the family this strangeness, and she also put it in the bucket. Waste not want not. Kathy