Homemade seaweed and fish fertilizer???

[Hermitian]

Originally Posted by RayR

Ascophyllum nodosum is much more than a source of hormones like gibberellic acid. It is a source of carbohydrates, essential nutrients and trace minerals, vitamins, proteins and amino acids.

Those additional items are not listed in the Guaranteed Analysis section of Kelp products for a reason: they are not accessible to plants in any relevant time span.

[RayR]

Originally Posted by Hermitian

Those additional items are not listed in the Guaranteed Analysis section of Kelp products for a reason: they are not accessible to plants in any relevant time span.

It's actually surprising what is not listed in the Guaranteed Analysis of many products or what is understated simply because of regulatory morass.
To say that the components of kelp are not accessible to plants in any relevant time span is like saying that manure or compost has nothing that is accessible to plants in any relevant time. Simply not true and discounts the power of the whole Soil Food Web.

Typical Analysis of Kelp

Here's another one

There are similar typical analysis for kelp products for human and animal consumption. Kelp has been used as a nutritional food source for centuries.

[bower]

I see there are some different ways of preparing fish for use as fertilizer around on the internet.

Several sites tout a recipe involving not so much fish, afaict it's basically a fish-enriched compost tea rather than 'emulsion' or 'hydrolysate'. Can't believe they even use canned fish in some cases! (always super salty, to my taste! And what an expense...). This is fermented for a couple of weeks, and stirred to aerate periodically. I'm familiar with the smell of rotting fish.... peew! But at least you can keep a tight lid on the 5 gallon bucket...
http://www.farmcurious.com/brew-your...on-fertilizer/
I can tell you from personal experience that both kelp and fish guts without anything added in a closed bucket will start to rot and liquify pretty much immediately. You can add some water and strain that liquid off as a quick hot fertilizer but it is pretty awful smelling. Plants of course have no noses!

Another guy does 'fish hydrolysate', adding a fair bit of sugar or molasses and inoculating with lactobacilli to ferment. He says you can't cover tightly because the container may explode... oh man, that's got to smell and draw the cats and dogs for miles! If you can't close the container, forget it. Animals will have it, or your neighbours will kill you and bury you deep along with it, long before it's "ready"....
http://gilcarandang.com/recipes/fish-fertilizer/

In both of the above, the brew is ready when the fish is completely rotted and no longer smells.

This guy just puts fish guts and water in a blender... voila. For immediate use only!
http://plantfreak.wordpress.com/2012...fish-emulsion/

The commercial process for 'fish emulsion' that we buy as a concentrated product involves cooking and pressing and boiling down the juice. A little phosphoric acid is added to bring the pH below 4.5, so that no rotting takes place. Note that oil is separated from the juice so there isn't much fish oil in the 'emulsion'.
http://rainyside.com/resources/fishfert.html

It would be handy to make the bottled stuff at home for use when needed... I have fish alright, but not phosphoric acid... I suppose vinegar would also preserve it, need a way to measure pH for that.

[chance]

Seaweed undoubtedly has every mineral, hormone, trace element, acid, etc. ever created regardless of which ocean it comes from. It mostly comes from the north sea because commercial harvesting is allowed there.