Kelp & Fish Emulsion Combination product - Sea Rich foliar

I have read a lot of the back post on the benefits, and drawbacks of using both of these products in the gardens. Most people seem to agree on their effectiveness. The only items that I see listed more are compost (very important), and alfalfa (thinking about trying this one).

Garden Alive has a combination product wtih kelp, and fish emulsion. Has anyone tried this? Does it have the same stench as the fish emulsion alone? They also have a liquid kelp spray that looks interesting.

http://www.gardensalive.com/product.asp?pn=8921

I'm currently using Neptune's Harvest Fish & Seaweed Emulsion. Fish & Seaweed Fert has so many different uses I wouldn't be without it - fertilizing seedlings, indoor houseplants, at planting time, a quick pick-me-up for the plants, in container gardens.... It does smell pretty bad though but a couple of hours after using it the smell has gone. Last summer I made some alfalfa tea which in itself is rank, and I made the mistake of adding the Fish/Seaweed emulsion at the beginning of the process. Wow - It smelled like a whole family of skunks had died and the stench lingered for quite a while. Won't make that mistake again. LOL

http://www.neptunesharvest.com/

I too use Neptune's Harvest, my favorite.

Just happened on this thread showing in the 'recent posts' . . .

Worth bearing in mind that while fish emulsion may be organic, it is very definitely NOT ecologically sound, being very damaging for fish. Overfishing of the oceans for human food is already bad enough, without catching more just to let it rot in the ground.

Resin

You are right, Resin, over-fishing of the oceans is a huge concern, and fishing just to make a fertilizer is very wasteful. Neptune's Harvest maintain that their fertilizers are the by-product of providing fresh fillets to the food market - the heads, skeletons, scales etc which typically would be dumped back into the ocean which is definitely not ecologically sound. Check out the "About Us" section of their website for more information.

Interesting, thanks! - over here, fish waste like that (heads, guts, etc) is ground up for tinned cat food, so there isn't generally any left over for fertilisers.

Resin

Much of the fish waste is made into pet food here too. I suppose it is possible that the fertilizer companies are offering a higher price for fish waste than the pet food industry.

I think it's the other way round here - fish waste is generally of named species, which can be used for added value in adertising cat food "Kitten's Joy *WITH SALMON*", whereas fishmeal for other uses is made from dedicated catches of fish that don't get sold for human consumption . . . who would buy "Kitten's Joy *WITH SANDEEL*" ??

Resin

mmmm - sounds tasty!

You bet your sweet patootie that they they are not going out and specificly bringing in fish specificly to make fertilizer! It would be WAY too expensive to do that. What fertilizer uses of fish does is make it econimical for fisherman to bring in the so called waste fish instead of discarding them into the ocean. These fish are killed when they are caught but if there is no market for them they simply dump the ones no one wants to eat back into the ocean. Also as was mentioned the byproducts of processing, guts, heads scales etc. are used. This supports the fisherman by supporting higher prices for his for ALL of his catch by providing another market for the "waste". It may result in in slightly higher prices for pet food etc. because of competition, but it helps make sure that waste is utilized instead of dumped in a landfill and it supports the livelyhood of the fisherman as well as those involved in the production of the emulsion fertilizer. Not to mention the fact that by using fish emulsion you won't be supporting the use of fossile fuels to produce chemical fertilizer, its very environmentally sound.

Don't you believe it!

http://www.fishkey.com/news2.asp?s=957 - industry view
http://cas.bellarmine.edu/tietjen/Environmental/Fishmeal%20catch%20'hits%20UK%20seabirds'.htm - consequences
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3662934.stm - consequences
http://www.innovations-report.de/html/berichte/umwelt_naturschutz/bericht-37321.html - consequences

Resin

I used to use kelp and fish emulsion (separately), but I never liked using the fish emulsion because it tends to glop up my sprayer and it stinks. I started using Omega 6-6-6 and Omega 1-5-5 instead, and I like them a lot better. They are made from bloodmeal, bonemeal, and potash. No fish. One of them is a bit stinky, like manure, but it's not as bad as fish emulsion. I still use kelp for starting seeds and watering seedlings, though.

The best one (that's been recommended in our Master Gardener classes) is Maxi-Crop, made from seaweed. It's concentrated --- a tbs. in a gallon of water. It can be used on everything and do the plants love it. No smell either. The onlhy places I've found it is at the Ace Hardware stores and one or two of the nurseries.

I actually ended up getting Sea Green Plus by Bonide. It is a combination fish emulsion and kelp product. It smells awful, but hopefully it will do the trick. This is my first step towards kicking the miracle grow habit!

It appears that most of that commercial fishing that is destroying the bird habitats isn't used for fertilizer production