Neptune's Harvest Fish & Seaweed Experiment

[Charlie]

This Black Jack is my latest experiment. Figured if it croaked then it was no big loss since another much better looking Black Jack is in ground in the back yard. It's an air layer from last Fall, in a two gallon bucket with depleted mix I gathered from various other pots. On 5/9/16 made a small hole between the stem and side of bucket and poured in a full ounce of Neptune's Harvest Fish & Seaweed, undiluted and covered it up. That night it rained quite a bit. Photo's show progression of the last five days.

Have been following label directions so far this year with all my other figs and am pleased with the results. Everything looks very green, healthy and growing well. Anybody else using it? I'm considering when it's time to feed again, giving some a 1/2 ounce shot with a meat injector into the mix and see how it goes.

[Harborseal]

That looks good but has it also warmed up?

[Charlie]

Don't know Bob. I'll go stick a probe in it.

[Charlie]

Not hot. All the driveway figs are around 70 F in the soil this morning.

[drew51]

I have used many Neptune Harvest products and they work well in my option. My problem is I grow hundreds of plants and could not afford it all the time. I need cheap alternatives. So I look for bulk fertilizer products at feed stores and such. I like to use just the seaweed product on seedlings and use that every year. Any leftover after seedlings are bigger is used as a folier spray for in ground plants.

[Charlie]

Some years ago a friend and I made our own fish fertilizer. We would fill a five gallon pail about half full of fish parts, top it off with water, put the lid on with some small holes and set them way out back for a few weeks because of the smell. Then mix a cup of the stuff with a gallon of water. It grew stuff like crazy but man the smell was something awful. We called it doodie water.

[lilfiggy]

when I lived on a large lake in North Carolina, we would have a fish fry every saturday night. (that was when we would empty the fish basket tied under the dock. I would put the fish cleanings under my rose bushes. OMG did they love it. of course you had to put some heavy rocks around them because the racoons would dig. Dookey water is an understatement phewy

[jmaler]

The fish guts and fish emulsion will green up plants right now, but, the fire ants around here love the stuff.

[Charlie]

It's working very well at this point. New leaves pushing out above and below.

[Harborseal]

Congratulations!

[Sarahkt]

Congrats, looks like it's working! I just gave a liberal dose of this stuff to just about everything growing in my garden, and it's given the garden a big boost. Especially the strawberries, they were looking kind of sad before but now there is a lot more green growth and the berries are sweeter.

[Zuny]

It looks like that stuff worked great. I am going need to write it down incase I ever need something like that to help the plants along.

[Charlie]

Just starting out like yours are, they don't need much but will benefit greatly from half strength right now of some sort of fertilizer. If you can find some General Hydroponics Flora Mato, they really like that stuff. It's not made any more though. I grew some indoors this past winter under lights with it and a couple touched the ceiling in six months. That was watering with it every day at 2 tsp per gallon. Tried my best to kill them but they wouldn't have it lol.

[hstark]

How do they look now? I'm thinking of getting some

[Charlie]

Ten days since the last photo was taken. Have given all plants a one-half ounce shot of it some days ago with a meat flavor injector into the media in pots and those in-ground and all are responding well. I like it much better than mixing up the stuff and watering with it from a bucket because those in pots just don't get that much water and so they're not getting enough food either.

Now I just carry around a small jug of it and draw it up into the syringe and shoot it into the root zone, between the main stem and side of pot for the potted ones and just a few inches from the main stem for the in-ground plants.

[hstark]

Wow... It sure looks like it worked GREAT for you!

[Zuny]

I got some Neptune's fish and seaweed fertilizer and will be doing some experimenting myself with just one plant to start. 😃

[lilfiggy]

okay that is proof enough for me thanks for sharing

[COGardener]

Has everyone moved past General Hydroponics Floralicious Plus? It was the go to product along with American Hydroponics Dark Energy and SuperNova for the last couple years.

[Charlie]

Last Winter indoors fig room I used General Hydroponics FloraMato on my figs as fertigation DAILY. I thought it would kill them but a couple touched the 8' ceiling in six months. I read they didn't make it any more.

[COGardener]

8' in six months!!!

OH DANG!!!!

[Snaglpus]

Hey Charlie, give Florolicious Plus a try. One teaspoon per 5 gallons of water. No joke.

[COGardener]

It is amazing!!!

[lilfiggy]

thanks guys will try that you can get Floramato from Canada but shipping is outrageious.

[Charlie]

Actually it was more like five months for Valley Black starting out as cuttings and a Hardy Chicago barely touch the ceiling before I moved them out of the house at about mid March or so, too early and they all got frozen and died back but all have come back. I've got the whole album on facebook from start to finish. It started as the wicking sand bucket experiment on f4f and transferred to gallon grow bags in the winter grow room project or experiment, I don't really remember the topic title and don't remember if it continued it there all the way through. I got rather tired of going there.

Might get some of that Floralicious at some point, thanks. I promised wife after last Winter there would not be any more fig growing in the house. Don't know what I'm gonna do this Winter.

[COGardener]

I do remember watching that thread, strong work as always.

Maybe just a few figs this winter, nothing crazy.

Plus I have an idea for an experiment!!!

[don_sanders]

I'm a fan of Floralicious Plus too. One little bottle seems to last a long time. I use it along with espoma plant tone and Hydro Organics Grow and Bloom.

[hstark]

Can you guys tell me what Floralicious smells like? Is there an ingredient list? I got the Neptune's Harvest from Amazon, this one: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I can't tell how it works... because I put it in a couple of figs by poking a deep hole (4" deep) in the side of the pot, squeezing in a big dropperful (3 ml droppers), burying it again, covered with 3" of hay mulch... and my PUPPY DUG THE PLANTS UP to get at it. I repotted the plants, but there have been setbacks.

No one could have known this might happen, and few have dogs with a nose better than a bloodhounds who love rotting fish and seaweed... but, that means I can't use it, except on plants on high shelves (he pulled down one of those too by ingeniously figuring out how to climb on a box to get to it). He is never unsupervised in the yard, he does this in a matter of seconds. I know... awful puppy, but we love him anyway.

Now I'm looking for something else that I can squeeze a dropper ful into the side of the pot... I REALLY loved Charlie's results!!! I just can't get anything that smells edible to a dog...

[drew51]

hstark, one of the best fertilizers is Dyna-Gro Foliage - Pro, it has a NPK ratio that is perfect for 90% of plants, no waste, and you will see results. It also has all the trace elements/micro nutrients one needs. It's not organic, so your dog should leave it alone.

[hstark]

I looked at Dyna-Gro on Amazon, wow... 5 stars! I have Miracle-Gro too, and looks like people think more highly of this. I read that Miracle Gro depleted the soil, which is why I went with the fish emulsion. I so badly want to use fish emulsion, but if I continue, I won't have any plants left. Does Dyna-Gro deplete the soil do you know? Thanks for the suggestion Andrew.

[drew51]

I would disagree that Miracle Grow depletes the soil. But that is for another thread. Dyna-Gro I think is the best non organic product you can buy. If you wish to keep the soil rich, mulch with organic material, and it will slowly break-down and feed the soil. I use whatever I can get. I shred leaves and use them as mulch. I have ever-green landscape bushes, and when I prune them I use the cuttings as mulch. Pine straw is one of the best. Straw works well too. I use all of these, or a mixture of these in all my pots, and around in ground plantings. No matter what plant. That will stop the soil from degrading at all, it will enrich it, even if you use MG or Dyna-gro. MG is a decent cheap product if you ask me.
Back to mulch. I like to put down some compost with a mulch, on top or on bottom. Like to keep shredded leaves in place I cover with compost. In the spring I like to add an inch of compost. It helps fight root rot, adds organic matter, and beneficial fungi and bacteria. So I have plenty of organic matter in the pots. I do like to use organics, but I feel a boost is needed a few times a year from soluble non organic products like Dyna-Gro.
Here are three of my 2nd leaf figs. Notice the one on the right has pine straw on one side, and regular straw on the other side! I ran out of pine straw so went to straw. I like pine straw as it is very long lasting. The kind I use is very soft, and of an orange color. It looks great, well if I had enough to finish!
http://i128.photobucket.com/albums/p...hoto/014_1.jpg

[drew51]

That photo is from the spring. I moved one of the plants to another location, here are what two of them look like on June 7th.


Wow, well that is even old, here is a photo I took 2 minutes ago.

[hstark]

Fantastic looking plants Andrew!! I have been using regular baled hay, since I don't have any pine straw. I'm not sure how well it works, since I know it robs nitrogen when it breaks down. Thus I really need the fertilizer too. I will use up my miraclegro, then buy the Dyna-Gro. I would love all my plants to look like yours so quickly!!

[drew51]

It doesn't rob nitrogen if it is on top, mixed in the soil, well yes, it could. That is the current line of thinking anyway. I add leaves to my garden too, and other organic material and compost. I only have been growing figs 2 years, but I have been growing sub tropical trees for 40 years.
Here are the figs I rooted this last winter. So first leaf.Well a few others in there, an orange tree from seed, a sherbet berry tropical tree and a couple peppers, that pepper on the far left is the world's hottest pepper, Carolina Reaper. Top right are strawberries, seen in almost every photo.
http://i128.photobucket.com/albums/p...oto/002_10.jpg

[hstark]

All your plants look terrific! I'm growing the figs in pots too right now. I planted most of them in 15 gallon pots, and are hoping to try some figs and see which I like best, which I will then put in the ground. Mine are growing pretty well overall now, but even on the tall ones, stems are all still very green and soft. I was thinking they need more fertilizer to help harden them. Are those all 2 year figs in the pots?

[hstark]

This is my Celeste, which is a bit above average growth for the newly rooted plants I bought last month. The sort of burnt leaves are the original leaves it came with, I guess because my soil conditions are different than they grew in originally, and I am currently having a rust problem on the figs from all the humidity and rain. The plants are all sort of stringy and tall, not bushy or with strong stems like yours. This plant in particular has a small fig forming at the top branch, which is why I took a pix of it.

You think more fertilizer would help, or prune it after the fig ripens? Well, by then, the tree will be a lot bigger too. I'm so new to figs, not sure what would be best for them.