I'm About to Score Some Fish "Parts"!

Too Tall Tomatoes 11/16/2011, 10:45 pm

About a week ago, I sent an email to a trout hatchery/farm that processes the trout into filets for area restaurants. I asked them if I would be able to pick up some of their fish "parts" to add to my compost bin. I just got an email from them this evening asking me how much fish "parts" I need and when I would like to pick it up.

I know that any fish "parts" added to a compost pile can attract animals such as raccoons and cats, but I think if I bury that stuff underneath a pile of manure, those animals won't be able to smell the fish.

Is this a good idea or what? I'm thinking that maybe 5 gallons of fish "parts" would be sufficient.

pharmerphil 11/17/2011, 5:49 am

Too Tall, If I ws to do this in my NON SFG garden, I would trench the fix stuff in...
just dig a trench where your crops will be, make it deep enough so that 6 inches of soil will cover it when finished
as for amounts, IF, your soil is ALIVE with microbes...5 gallons will be gone in no time...consumed by your friendly lil soil family

Too Tall Tomatoes 11/17/2011, 6:19 am

So....it would be a good idea to put the fish stuff in my compost? Maybe I could go with 10 gallons.

**camprn** 11/17/2011, 9:49 pm

Fish parts is good stuff for the compost pile, 5 gals should be good. spread it out in the pile and bure it deep, that is my best advice. Good luck! Very Happy

Too Tall Tomatoes 11/17/2011, 10:45 pm

I'm getting these fish parts next week, and after I add that to my compost bin, I'll top it off with rabbit manure/straw, chopped leaves, and a small bale of hay leftover from my Fall decoration you see in my avatar.

I never see any racoons in my neighborhood. I do smell a skunk once in a blue moon, and there is a cat, but they won't be able to smell the fish underneath all of that stuff.

Too Tall Tomatoes 11/21/2011, 8:40 am

I just got back from that trout farm's processing facility. I thought that I'd just drop those two bucks off and I'd go back in a few days but they already had a heck of alot of trout parts for me. The woman filled up those buckets in a matter of minutes. She even rinsed them off for me. Anyway, I got about 10 gallons of that stuff to put on my compost pile. I didn't get the rabbit manure that I was hoping to get this weekend(I'm picking it up this coming Saturday), but I'll just shovel off some of the compost and bury the fish parts under that.

Am I nuts or what?

**walshevak** 11/21/2011, 9:36 am

No you are not nuts, you are just trying to build a gcouood foundation for growing your food. Remember the native americans planted a fish in the holes with their 3 sisters gardens. I'm near the Albemarle Sound and there are fishing boats around me. I'm going to try to find out where they unload and see if I can score some fish parts. So are I've only be able to get 4 bushels of horse hocky/straw mix. This is produce country and not animal country. The few people that keep chickens and goats only have enough for their own gardens.

Kay

Too Tall Tomatoes 11/21/2011, 10:15 am

I did that Indian trick with fish right in the planting hole last year. I caught a bucket full of panfish and threw about 2-3 per plant hole. I don't really know how much of a difference it made because I had nothing to compare it to.

plantoid 11/21/2011, 10:49 am

TTT

I'm About to Score Some Fish "Parts"! Empty

Because of using fish bits with strawin nthe compsostg mix I was able to make this garden in an area where no one else bothered to grow because of the very heavy blue clay soil .

Enlarge this image Reduce this image Click to see fullsize
I'm About to Score Some Fish "Parts"! Scan0005

I'm About to Score Some Fish "Parts"! Scan0005

circa 1980 .

This is one of my gardens that had equal mix of composted fish bits and composted horse muck as the fertilizer . Deep dug beds down to 36 inches and back filled with equal parts of sharp sand , compost mix and soil with a bit of lime in it to crumb it as it was an old clay pond bed in the 1940's

The four beds were 35 inches wide by 25 feet long with a 30 inch wide concrete path system all round all seeds were indivudually sown in a block / space system similar to Mel's old system .

Composted fish bits are a fantastic trace element fertilizer for you get traces of things like iodine etc.

Be careful about using too much hay as the base material in the compost for it usually has loads of seeds that frequently survive the composting temperatures , straw is far better .

Too Tall Tomatoes 11/21/2011, 1:15 pm

plantoid wrote:Be careful about using too much hay as the base material in the compost for it usually has loads of seeds that frequently survive the composting temperatures , straw is far better .

I have a small bale of hay(maybe a 2ft x 1ft piece) that I'm going to add to the compost. It's a leftover fall decoration. There can't be any more seeds in it than what's in the horse manure I added.

While working outside today, I noticed a nice earthy smell that was coming from the compost. There's still an odor of the different manures I added but it's still a nice smell.

I DARE any creature to find the fish parts I added. Twisted Evil

**RoOsTeR** 11/21/2011, 2:11 pm

Honestly, I have straw and hay. Either one is going to have seeds. Straw is usually lots cheaper than hay, least around here. Best place to get straw would be from local farmers as they are typically about half the price as a store/merchantile. I can get normal size straw bales here for $2.

As far as grass hay, we grow our own. Alfalfa also.

I use all three, but like using the alfalfa the most. I will say, if you use any of these, do yourself a huge favor and chop it up as much as possible with your lawn mower. Its somewhat of a pain, but you will thank yourself later. It breaks down tons faster chopped up.

plantoid 11/21/2011, 2:25 pm

Too Tall Tomatoes wrote:
plantoid wrote:Be careful about using too much hay as the base material in the compost for it usually has loads of seeds that frequently survive the composting temperatures , straw is far better .

I have a small bale of hay(maybe a 2ft x 1ft piece) that I'm going to add to the compost. It's a leftover fall decoration. There can't be any more seeds in it than what's in the horse manure I added.

While working outside today, I noticed a nice earthy smell that was coming from the compost. There's still an odor of the different manures I added but it's still a nice smell.

I DARE any creature to find the fish parts I added.

The seeds have already been through a sort of compost breakdown system inside the horse ,the grass seeds etc. in hay have not . The recomposting of the horse muck knocks out the majority of the seeds .

Composting the uneaten hay tends to leave a heck of a lot of seeds to spring to life at a later date.

Think of the old adage of " One years seeds means seven years weeds "

Lindacol 11/21/2011, 3:11 pm

plantoid wrote:
Too Tall Tomatoes wrote:
plantoid wrote:Be careful about using too much hay as the base material in the compost for it usually has loads of seeds that frequently survive the composting temperatures , straw is far better .

I have a small bale of hay(maybe a 2ft x 1ft piece) that I'm going to add to the compost. It's a leftover fall decoration. There can't be any more seeds in it than what's in the horse manure I added.

While working outside today, I noticed a nice earthy smell that was coming from the compost. There's still an odor of the different manures I added but it's still a nice smell.

I DARE any creature to find the fish parts I added.

The seeds have already been through a sort of compost breakdown system inside the horse ,the grass seeds etc. in hay have not . The recomposting of the horse muck knocks out the majority of the seeds .

Composting the uneaten hay tends to leave a heck of a lot of seeds to spring to life at a later date.

Think of the old adage of " One years seeds means seven years weeds "

It would depend on the type of hay. My compost is primarily goat manure and alfalfa hay. The alfalfa is what the goats do not eat and what is left in their feeders or pulled out on the ground. The goats will not eat it when it gets dirty. Alfalfa is usually baled well before it goes to seed.

The 'hay' used for decorations around halloween is usually some kind of straw, in my area is is often wheat or barley straw, which is the left over after the grain has been threshed out. There is very little grain left in the straw.

**RoOsTeR** 11/21/2011, 3:50 pm

It would depend on the type of hay. My compost is primarily goat manure and alfalfa hay. The alfalfa is what the goats do not eat and what is left in their feeders or pulled out on the ground. The goats will not eat it when it gets dirty. Alfalfa is usually baled well before it goes to seed.

The 'hay' used for decorations around halloween is usually some kind of straw, in my area is is often wheat or barley straw, which is the left over after the grain has been threshed out. There is very little grain left in the straw.

Agreed. That's why I prefer alfalfa over the others. I use all the scrap in the barn for compost or chickens. They love the alfalfa! Plus to me it just looks better lol. I use straw as a second choice, but again use all the scrap, which unfortunetly typically contains most of the seed. Last is grass hay. I usually have the most of this left:evil: and don't like using it the most, but I do.

All of it is going to have seed. The poop, hay, straw...There are lots of variables here too. Sometimes if we get to much rain when its cutting time, our hay have way more seed. There is a pretty narrow window there. Miss it by a week or few days and you could have some hay with lots of seed, which in turn leads to more seed in the pooh.

Regardless, its still good stuff, and I still use it and Too Tall, you will be glad you did too! Very Happy

plantoid 11/21/2011, 4:05 pm

Ok guys gotcha on your terms of " hay " meaning all sorts of animal fodder .

It was the grass stemmed un eaten stuff being full of dormant perennial seeds waiting to germinate even after going through the compost heap that I was on about .

Too Tall Tomatoes 11/21/2011, 4:14 pm

The fall decoration has green stuff growing out of it so I'm assuming it's hay.

It's goin' in! I'm About to Score Some Fish "Parts"! 411499

And from what I understand about horse manure, a lot of the seeds they eat pass through undigested. It has something to do with them only having a simple one-stomach digestive system. Now a cow, having a few stomachs, does a much better job digesting all of the food it eats. In other words, seeds are not likely to survive going through a cow.

**walshevak** 11/21/2011, 4:32 pm

In my case beggars can't be choosy. I was lucky to find just a small amount of horse hocky. And I picked up hay at a feed store to mulch my garlic. Left over is going in the compost pile along with some leaves from the tree the hurricane knocked down.

Kay

**RoOsTeR** 11/21/2011, 7:18 pm

Well said Too Tall and you too Walshevak.
I have enough of all of it here so I am definately using it too!

Too Tall, you are gonna have black gold when yours is done. It sounds awesome!

Too Tall Tomatoes 11/21/2011, 8:41 pm

I sure as heck hope so Rooster. I want some awesome 'maters next year

I'm going to put the compost bin into hibernation next week.

southern gardener 11/21/2011, 8:44 pm

TTT...here is a place that sells all KINDS of tomatoes. They might be able to steer you in the right direction for what you're trying to accomplish. I don't know them or anything, but they have some cool tomatoes. Im kind of thinking of the pineapple tomatoes??
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Pennys-Tomatoes-and-Pepper-Joes/204328085055

I hope it's OK to post the link, if not, feel free to delete, don't want to violate any policies Smile

Too Tall Tomatoes 11/21/2011, 9:41 pm

Thanks for the link southern gardener. I added Penny's Tomatoes website to my ever-growing list of tomato-related websites.
I'm studying all sorts of information trying to figure out what tomato varieties to plant next year. I found a local garden center that will grow whatever tomato seeds I give them.
Very Happy

Too Tall Tomatoes 11/24/2011, 12:32 am

When I buried the 10 gallons of fish scraps in my compost heap, I stuck a thermomenter right into the center where the fish was laying and the temp dropped way down to about 50 degrees......some of the fish scraps came from the walk-in fridge at the processing facility. Anyway, that was on Monday. Tonight, I went outside to uncover the pile(I had a tarp on it the past two days during all of the rain that hammered me) and the temp. was up just over 110 degrees.

An increase of 60 degrees since Monday afternoon???? Wow.

I'm really loving this composting

Too Tall Tomatoes 11/26/2011, 11:17 pm

Before I added the last of the rabbit manure, straw, and chopped leaves I gave the compost pile a quick turn. Wow....was that ever stinky! My neighbor across my back yard commented on the "earthy smell"......that was her nice way of saying that it stank.
When I buried the fish parts, I never added in any browns like chopped leaves. I just didn't have any to add. LOL....I'll never make that mistake again.
I tried to mix in some chopped leaves and straw today so hopefully that'll make things semi-ok.
I'm not worried about it. I piled on rabbit manure/straw, and then I added a lot of chopped leaves. I won't touch it until spring time.

My composting is done for now.

Moral of the story........

Always use plenty of browns when adding something like fish to the compost pile. affraid

**gwennifer** 11/27/2011, 2:51 am

Too Tall Tomatoes wrote:It's goin' in!

*LOL* I'm new here this year but I haven't yet seen anyone tackle the homemade compost part of SFG'ing with as much gusto as you have TooTall! This actually made me think of the BlendTec gimmick "Will it blend?". Only in this case, the question is "Will it compost?"! Ha! Only one way to find out: It's goin' in! Too bad the results aren't as instantaneous as whipping up a smoothie.

Too Tall Tomatoes 11/27/2011, 8:11 am

LOL....Hey I'll find out in the spring if my gusto has paid off.

Usually when I do something I have an all-or-nothing attitude about it.

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