with the weather being what it is in the winter up here I've had time to think up some projects for the spring. i never have enough quality compost. our summers are so short , its hard to get everything broken down for use the following summer. but i was thinking. fish fertilizer is one of the best organic fertilizers there is. but it isn't cheap. I'm a fisherman. we have tons of these yellow perch taking over our waters up here. they are a invasive and you can't keep them off your line. i was thinking of catching a big amount of these and composting them. now down the road theres a firewood mill that has tons of hardwood sawdust that i can have for free. what if i layer the fish in the sawdust and keep it moist. would this break down quickly? i would think w/ the high nitrogen of the fish this would make some awesome compost quick! as long as the fish stayed buried there should be no odor. what do you veteran composers think?
fish compost?
- Thread starter steve bossie
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I think I would do a small controlled experiment first. Get a 5 gallon bucket and either drill or shoot a bunch of holes in it. If there is no oxygen what will happen is the fish will go anaerobic, the fungal and bacterial microbes that are needed for decomposition will not survive and you will end up with a terrible stinking soggy mess. At a guess I think your plan has great merit and with a little experimenting and tweaking you might just have invented a great product. The most important ingredient for composting is oxygen and there are different ways to deliver it.
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the thing that would worry me is as the fish is decaying the drawing of animals to that area to eat it. you may be asking for trouble.
Wonder if I bury sections of pcv pipe w/ holes drilled in them in my pile. That way air can enter . I have my compost bin gated so no animals can get in there. Even have chicken wire on top. I livve in a field so neighbors won't be affected. Think I'm going to try this soon. Thanks for the input.
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PVC might be a good option. Do you have any way to force heated air through it?
No but if you stand them vertically the heat in the pile should draw air in due to the temp difference? Gonna have to experiment with this come spring. If it works well Icould make enough to sell to other gardeners and maybe make a little change on the side.
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Remember that fish are about 90% water and you are going to need a lot of air and heat. This won't be like throwing a bunch of lettuce leaves and banana peels into a pile of grass clippings and dead leaves. You will be using a lot of sawdust and you know what sawdust does when it gets wet.
could put some airstones in there to give it more air. air pumps pretty cheap. then cover the pile w a tarp. ill have lots of fish in there too. maybe add some small branches and straw too.
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Air stones and aquarium pumps work great on 5 gallon buckets of compost tea. You're going to need a LOT more than that for a compost pile. More like an air compressor. I guess it would depend on the volume of material and the container.
i can get a commercial air pump for $30. gonna get some 16in. airstones and stick them in the pipes. that should work. and see how that goes.
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Have you thought about excess moisture from all the decaying fish? Just a thought but how about something similar to a clothes washer? Put it on spin and the excess moisture goes elsewhere and viola you have a type of fish emulsion to either add to the dry components or to do something else with.
im expecting the dry sawdust to absorb the moisture from the fish. I'm not going to water the pile much. just enough to keep it slightly moist. this sawdust is pretty coarse compared to chainsaw saw dust. the blade that does the cutting is huge so the product is almost like small chips . should be good for airiation.
It should work,I remember my Grandmother planting fish head in the gardens before she would plant her crops every spring.
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Like @Fernsdaddy said, I also grew up watching my parents buried fish bones and fish heads in the garden and the area had good soil. We lived in the city so there were no big animals to worry about.
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We use excess fish for fertilizer aside from the water that was used to rinse the fish from the market. Leftover fish particularly the steamed fish, we mix it in soil and applied as fertilizer. However, that fertilized soil should be covered with plain soil so the odor of the fish will not spread otherwise insects and pests will feast on it. Sometimes my husband would ask for the innards of the fish in the market that he would include in the compost bin.