Alaska fish fertilizer & cakes?

[HamburgerTrain]

I'm in my first year of this silly business and am trying to get some fertilizer game going on. I think in April I started off putting some biogold in all my pots, then in June I added some Sumo 'Acid Lover's' cakes. I have mostly satsukis, junipers & Japanese maples.
I've heard good things about using fish and kelp liquid fert so thought I would work that into my regimen. I got a bottle of Alaska Fish Fertilizer 5-1-1. My question is what dilution rates do other ppl use?
I think I read to use a table spoon diluted in a gallon of water once a week for junipers.
Since I'm using all organic ferts does it really matter that much?
Am I ok using this for all my trees?
Did I get the wrong shit?

 

[SeanS]

What does the label say?

 

[Shibui]

The trees don't care what fertilizer you give them. None of mine can read. They are only interested in the nutrients and all fertilizers have nutrients.
Most fertilizers have a range of micro nutrients as well as the big 3 but I think it is good to use a variety so what one lacks will hopefully be supplied by one of the others.
This is another of the products with a bewildering array of different concentrations for different plants. The closest looks like indoor plants as they are also potted plants so 2 teaspoons per quart every 2 weeks should be a reasonable rate for your bonsai.
I suspect they, like most other companies, are conservative in their mixes to allow for unforseen possibilities. Also being organic based tends to be lower concentration so even using the 'tree' concentration - 4tbsp/gall - on bonsai would probably be OK but You do need to remember that any unused cakes would still be providing additional nutrients. It is possible to overdose so best to start conservatively and work up if you really want to feed for maximum growth.

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

I'm in my first year of this silly business and am trying to get some fertilizer game going on. I think in April I started off putting some biogold in all my pots, then in June I added some Sumo 'Acid Lover's' cakes. I have mostly satsukis, junipers & Japanese maples.
I've heard good things about using fish and kelp liquid fert so thought I would work that into my regimen. I got a bottle of Alaska Fish Fertilizer 5-1-1. My question is what dilution rates do other ppl use?
I think I read to use a table spoon diluted in a gallon of water once a week for junipers.
Since I'm using all organic ferts does it really matter that much?
Am I ok using this for all my trees?
Did I get the wrong shit?

View attachment 384831

That’s what I use, though I dose it quite a bit heavier, like 1/4c in a 1.5g watering can once or twice a week, along with Biogold and/or Plant Tone.

 

[sorce]

When I used that in about the same quantity as BVF, alone, every other day, I got the healthiest most compact growth I've ever seen. Perfect.

Very resistant to Pests. Super Foliage.

Sorce

 

[Cadillactaste]

That’s what I use, though I dose it quite a bit heavier, like 1/4c in a 1.5g watering can once or twice a week, along with Biogold and/or Plant Tone.

My husband can't stand the fish emulsion. I tried making it a double dose and he about died. Gosh... 1/4 cup...wow!

I tease him we live at a lake. No one will think twice of the fish smell.

To the poster. I use Alaskan once a month. But also use Peter's 20-20-20 every two weeks on top of BioGold.

 

[MaciekA]

Did I get the wrong shit?

View attachment 384831

You didn't get the wrong stuff, this works well (in Oregon at least).

I'm in your area and study at a professional bonsai nursery where they inject this same 5-1-1 Alaska-brand fish fertilizer into their hose water with a device called a Dosatron ("dose-a-tron"). The apprentice will walk the garden and water a couple hundred trees with this fertilizer mixed into it.

I use this fertilizer as well (somewhat more liberally) and also use Osmocote Plus 14-14-14 (somewhat more strategically).

 

[HamburgerTrain]

You didn't get the wrong stuff, this works well (in Oregon at least).

I'm in your area and study at a professional bonsai nursery where they inject this same 5-1-1 Alaska-brand fish fertilizer into their hose water with a device called a Dosatron ("dose-a-tron"). The apprentice will walk the garden and water a couple hundred trees with this fertilizer mixed into it.

I use this fertilizer as well (somewhat more liberally) and also use Osmocote Plus 14-14-14 (somewhat more strategically).

Thanks for the info, how do you mean Osmocote strategically?
Also thanks everyone for the confirmation on the fish sauce. I used the BVF portion size. I saw an immediate explosion of growth. Lots of flies that first day too. Last time at grocery they didn't have the fish one, I was disappointed it didn't stink and my trees didn't seem too impressed.

 

[Paradox]

My husband can't stand the fish emulsion. I tried making it a double dose and he about died. Gosh... 1/4 cup...wow!

I tease him we live at a lake. No one will think twice of the fish smell.

To the poster. I use Alaskan once a month. But also use Peter's 20-20-20 every two weeks on top of BioGold.

The smell goes away in an hour or so anyway

 

[Cajunrider]

The smell goes away in an hour or so anyway

Oh no it doesn't down here. Every time I use it, the smell lasts 24 hrs and the flies gather and buzz around.

 

[Paradox]

Oh no it doesn't down here. Every time I use it, the smell lasts 24 hrs and the flies gather and buzz around.

Really? Wow. It usually lasts a couple hours here at most. Never has issues with flies.

 

[Cajunrider]

Really? Wow. It usually lasts a couple hours here at most. Never has issues with flies.

It's because we are usually 90-95 deg F and high humidity, the fish has the temperature to release the smell yet the high humidity keep it from drying out so it lingers. When you have fish smell, the flies will come.

 

[MaciekA]

Thanks for the info, how do you mean Osmocote strategically?

By this I meant that eventually you become familiar enough with either a particular species or project (or technique within a given species) that you know when to apply osmocote, how much, and what the response will be.

An example might be something like: Lay down new doses every 4 weeks 3 months in a row, then halt for a month and allow dosage to taper off, then do some specific wounding operation on the tree, then resume some time later, then ramp up again, etc. Things of that nature.

 

[Cadillactaste]

The smell goes away in an hour or so anyway

Unless you accidentally made a double strength batch.

 

[PaulH]

Every time I feed with liquid fish the buzzards circle overhead.

 

[Cajunrider]

When I was at the lake house with a lot of land and a lot of fish, throwing the cast net a few times to get 3 or 4 five gallon buckets of fish to mix in with the garden soil yielded good results. I do the same with the scraps from fish cleaning. Too bad it wasn't easy burying a fish under a bonsai tree.

 

[Ohmy222]

When using fish do you spray the leaves? This year I tried using this in a fertilizer injector with my sprinkler system. My trees didn't like it. The leaves of several were yellowing in the veins. I did at a very lose dose. When I quit then all my plants bounced back pretty quick. I figure it was the constant fertilizer on the leaves or the injector was not consistent in what it released.

 

[bwaynef]

When using fish do you spray the leaves?

I've found fish emulsion to be pretty acidic. I wonder if that led to the problems you saw.

 

[bwaynef]

http://lillymiller.cvt.int.central.com/labels/Alaska/Alaska_Fish_5-1-1_Qt.pdf <--- the label calls for 4tbsp to a gallon of water for trees. That's 2 oz, which is the 2nd line on a plastic cup. That's what I've been using, but after reading that some of you guys have been using 2x as much, I'm going to have to up my dose next year. (Looks like "Large Indoor plants" is 2Tbsp / quart which is 4oz/gal, so that makes sense.)

 

[Ohmy222]

I've found fish emulsion to be pretty acidic. I wonder if that led to the problems you saw.

Maybe. I had a similar issue trying kelp a couple of years ago (not in an injector). I did the injector for convenience but also because I read somewhere Ebihara use to give fish emulsion daily to his deciduous trees. He likely didn't use an injector but thought it to be interesting. this year i am going with gro-power tablets like bjorn uses and shooting to fertilize far less. trying to find the sweet spot.