For those that read this thread......that home made fish emulsion is a failed attempt. I used tap water for it. DOH! Our tap has chloramines and they kill microbes. So my brew turned out incomplete and has not taken on the right smell. I am not done. This is not my last attempt. Though, the next attempt will be documented in my other thread "Patient's grows". I will treat my water for like I used to for compost tea. I added Top Fin (PetsMart) water conditioner and my brews always worked. Totally overlooked and learned the same lesson twice. Never try and brew anything microbial with tap water...evah' evah' evah'. It kills it!
Oh Man - I get that - I'm way out in the woods but on a highway - when it starts getting close to the end I get a bit antsy!!! It was way worse last year - and I didn't even know that the stuff I had I probably couldn't give it away!!! It is nice to be able to lock up the greenhouse but if they want it I'd probably have to replace glass as well. For some reason I didn't worry as much this time.
Good info. Blending the fish to a pulp speeds up the process. Me and the missus get the fishes guts from the fishmongers for free and use that in our home made stinky stews. Not good for indoor grows though. Tried it once and the house stunk like a dumpster on a summer's day.If anyone has followed y'all know i am in search of a cheap All Purpose with low numbers, like a 2-2-2. I ran my BlackWater on my Bonsai nutes. It kicked butt! Now i am out an Kellogg's isn't making anymore. Sooo...desperate times...
I found a thread by Terroir Seeds' (gardening) Stephen Scott. It describes how to brew your own fish emulsion. Given my need for a cheap All Purpose and seeing what the BlackWater is doing, i may just try this. Letting sardines rot in a mixture of Kelp & Molasses w/compost. Stir for a month. Strain floating solids. Pee-Yew! The results are undeniable with the BlackWater. My Bonsai's are hungry. I am redneck enough.
-copied from Terroir Seeds site-
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Fish Emulsion Feeds Your Plants
Fish emulsion has been a go-to product for the organic and natural home gardener for years now, as it has proven its effectiveness in feeding the soil and plants with biologically available nutrients while increasing soil and microbe health. The main drawback to commercial fish emulsion is the cost and the smell. While we can’t do anything to help you with the fishy smell, we can help you make your own fish emulsion that will not only save you a lot of money in product and shipping costs, but just might make a better product than you can buy! This homemade fish emulsion will almost always supply more nutrients than commercially available, but also supplies much more beneficial bacteria from the brewing process. In order to ship, commercial emulsions have little to no active bacteria, because they make containers swell as they continue to grow!
All fish emulsions are good organic nitrogen sources, but they also supply phosphorus, potassium, amino acids, proteins and trace elements or micro-nutrients that are really needed to provide deep nutrition to your soil community and plants. One of the benefits of fish emulsion is that they provide a slower release of nutrients into the soil without over-feeding all at once. It is usually applied as a soil drench, but some gardeners swear by using it as a foliar fertilizer as well.
Adding seaweed or kelp to the brewing process adds about 60 trace elements and natural growth hormones to the mix, really boosting the effectiveness of the fish emulsion. The seaweed or kelp transforms the emulsion into a complete biological fertilizer. Beneficial soil fungi love seaweed. Dried seaweed is available at most oriental grocery stores. The amount you need to add will depend entirely on your soil needs. If you are just getting started in improving your soil, add up to a cup of dried seaweed or 2 – 3 cups fresh. If your soil is doing pretty good then add about 1/4 to 1/2 cup of dried seaweed and up to 1 – 2 cups fresh.
Making Your Own Fish Emulsion
Fish Emulsion Ingredients
To make your own, obtain a dedicated 5 gallon bucket for this project. Trust me; you won’t want to use it for anything else once you’re done! Buy 10 cans of herring type fish such as sardines, mackerel or anchovies. Sourcing these from a dollar store or scratch and dent store makes perfect sense, as you don’t care about the can and aren’t going to eat them.
Zeus with Compost
Rich, well-aged compost is a key ingredient to great fish emulsion, as it has lots of active microbes and other biological life which will help kick-start the fermentation of the fish. A good compost hunting dog is not required, but really helps. We’ve found the Doberman breed to be very helpful in finding just the right compost! Dalmatians do a pretty good job as well.
Adding Compost to Bucket
Fill the bucket half full of well-aged compost, aged sawdust or leaves, or a combination of all three. You are looking for the dark brown, crumbly compost that smells like rich earth.
Adding Water to Compost
Add water to about 2 inches from the top…
Adding Sardines
add in the cans of fish, rinsing the cans with the water to make sure you get every last drop of the “good stuff”. The juices or oils in the can will breed beneficial microbes and supply extra proteins.
Blackstrap Molasses
To supercharge the brew, add 1/4 to 1/2 cup of blackstrap molasses to provide sugars and minerals to the fermenting process. The sugars also help control odors. Next, add the chopped or powdered seaweed to the mix. If you need extra sulfur and magnesium, add 1 Tbs Epsom salts.
Stirring Compost and Sardines
Stir well and cover with a lid to control the odor, but not tightly as it will build pressure as it brews.
Be Careful!
NOTE – Make sure that flies do not get into the bucket or you will have a marvelous breeding ground for maggots! One solution is to drill several holes in the lid for the bucket and glue screen mesh on the inside of the lid, allowing air flow but keeping those pesky flies out. Remember, you are brewing the most delicious aromas the flies have ever smelled!
Let it Ferment
Let it brew for at least 2 weeks, a month is better. Give the contents a good stir every couple of days.
Once it has brewed for a month, it is ready for use!
There are a lot of ways to use this brew, so be creative. Some folks will strain off the solids, put them in the compost pile and use the liquid as a concentrated “tea” to be diluted with water. Others keep everything together and stir the mix well before taking what they need. What you have is a supply of bio-available nutrients in a soluble form.
Use as a Soil Drench and Foliar Fertilizer
For a soil drench, use 2 – 3 Tbs per gallon of water and apply to the roots on a monthly basis during the growing season. 1 Tbs per gallon of water makes a good foliar fertilizer. Just make sure to apply it by misting during the cooler parts of the day, not drenching the leaves in the heat. Half a cup per gallon will give your compost pile a kick start.
This brew will keep for at least a year, but you might want to make fresh each season. If you need less than 5 gallons, halve or quarter the recipe. It will smell, so store it where the odor won’t knock you out. I don’t trust the “deodorized” fish emulsions, as to remove the odor, some component of the fish product was removed either physically or chemically and is no longer available as a nutrient
just catching up on the thread. May take me a while to get through.
its the road im taken now 
That looks nasty. Does it smell as bad as it looks?Jadam farming/gardening may interest some of you
Made a quick brew yesterday Today at 2:00 AM
looks like this after one night
Be super careful with brewing POOP lol cant stress this enough, it can be dangerous
I used homemade EM1
, no wasn't much smell
Damn. You have ruined the ending of the story now
Been waiting for somoeone to bust this outt!! And it looks like you had some success @Patient PufferWell this outdoor season has come to a close. I am starting an indoor grow for seeds. I am pairing a BluSkunk & Harley-Tsu. See what we get. My 2nd run will be to try and unlock the auto gene in some f2's. I paired my Skunk with a NYC Diesel auto. Those off spring have half auto genes.
Viewing the punnet square on the left, we pair photo & auto. The photo is homozygous for non auto genes "aa". The auto is homozygous for the auto gene "AA". The pairing gives all off spring the gene. Since the auto gene is recessive, it doesn't surface due to the photo gene being dominant. These are the "f1's". In the punnet square on the right, we breed the f1's together. By breeding the f1's together to get f2's, we unlock the auto gene in 25% of the f2's.
"This is mathematical and not how it works in real life." J.C.
