How to apply liquid seaweed & fish emulsion in Earthbox

16 years ago

I plan on building some self-watering containers for my tomatoes this year and very much want to use fish emulsion and liquid seaweed for micronutrients. These are both liquids that are to be mixed with water and watered in.

How do I utilize these in self-watering containers? Can I just pour it down the watering pipe into the reservoir? When filling the containers for the first time with the potting mix, you are supposed to wet the mix and was thinking I could wet with the liquid seaweed and fish emulsion. That would work for the first feeding but the direction say to feed every 2-3 weeks. How do I go about the subsequent feedings?

Comments (10)

grb1
16 years ago
Hi kristy,

Here is a link that might be useful: Home made earthbox
grb1
16 years ago
kristy,

On my first follow up, it didn't print the whole message. Go to that link and then scroll down to the end. I think you'll find your answer.

grb1 :)
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Jon, By N stuff, I meant the Neptune's, -fishy stuff, Some fish ferts. are famous for smellyness. Why would straight nitrogen smell or deter deer? ... :) He, he, consider the source. The micronutrients would be nice though. It was Rangier that was refering to the 'great low N, high P-'. Not that I'm agin' a natural source, as I could sure use a bag of horse or cow flops, now for tea [hmm, most N sources sure would smell, but not as badly as fish]. Some wood chips, that are still too near the edge of the veggie patch, are corraling, too much nitrogen, and a little supplementation would help. Molasses [and banana peel] is a surprisingly good source of potassium. "Only two things that money can't buy - True Love and Home Grown Tomatoes ". Who does that song, It's a Hoot! Can't wait till August.
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justaguy2
16 years ago
You can use fish emulsion when top watering, but I wouldn't put any into the reservoir directly. The reason is that the fish emulsion separates from the water and will never mix back in. You will just accumulate 'sludge' in the reservoir.

You can see this for yourself by taking a gallon milk jug or similar and adding an ounce of fish emulsion (or whatever mixing rate your product recommends) and let it sit for 24 hours.
grb1
16 years ago
kristy,

Disregard my previous two posts. justaguy is probably right. Upon further reading about bottom feeding in Earthboxes there was a concern about salt build up using tea compost or in your case, fish emulsion sludge. It works in hydroponics because the water can be flushed out. The reservoirs in the EB wasn't meant to be flushed.

Sorry for the bad info :(

grb1
dancinglemons
16 years ago
I grow almost exclusively in EB. Right now I have 25 of them. Although I am only into my second year with EB I offer this bit of info. I plan to top water with LS/FE this 2008 season. I also plan to bottom feed with liquid seaweed during the hot summer months. I can do this during June/July/August because during that time my tomato and okra EBs require filling 2 or more times a day. As long as I flush the reservoir with high pressure hose end nozzle 2-3 times each month I will not have any sludge build-up. I know they are not meant to be flushed but then I like to experiment. I had to flush several of my boxes 2007 summer because they became a mosquito breeding pit (now I use dunks).

I say try it with one box and see how it goes. If you like the results use it for more boxes. IMHO

DL
its_kristy
Original Author
16 years ago
The liquid seaweed appear to be highly soluble and not prone to settling or falling out of suspension. Is this accurate?

DL - I too am worried about mosquitos. Not to sound stupid but what are dunks?
justaguy2
16 years ago
I have only used fish+seaweed and fish alone so can't say about the seaweed only, but I wouldn't count on it not falling out of suspension. If you intend to use it anyway, why not just mix up a gallon and let it sit and see what happens? Then you know.

Mosquito dunks are usually Bt, a bacteria that kills the larvae (or the eggs, I forget). They are considered harmless to other wildlife including birds, plants, bees etc. They just prey on the mosquitos before they can emerge.

You can buy the bacteria, but most just buy the 'dunks' or pellets' and toss them in any standing water and forget about it.
its_kristy
Original Author
16 years ago
I can report that the Maxicrop powdered seaweed concentrate does not fall out of suspension. I made some and absolutely no sign of any sort of sediment after 36 hours.
richdelmo
16 years ago
Kristy, I had two EB's last year and gave my plants a drink of Neptunes Harvest at the top of the soil where the stem comes out of the plastic covering. Since NH is also a foliar feeder I soaked all of the foliage on each plant during each feeding. Was I right or wrong doing this, I Dunno but I ate plenty of tomatoes. My only problem was I had lots of BER which usually goes away as the season progressed but mine didn't.
hitexplanter
16 years ago
Foliar feeding of the FE/SW would be one excellent way around the settling in the bottom issue. Weekly or at most bi-weekly should keep most of your plants thriving. From using seaweed over 20 years now (liquid form) I can see adding it to the resevoir sporadically should pose no problems. I agree the fish emulsion would settle and be a problem except maybe during the 2 a day fillings which should agitate and help keep more of it in solution form.
Just a few thoughts.
Don't forget to consider the calcium for BER problems and consider dolomite or gypsum mixed in the media before planting will help minimize some part of this problem.

How to deal with feeding after fruit or veg is getting ready to harvest is a more a challenge I suspect. I don't care for fishy maters and so foliar at that point becomes problematic. Maybe this is where adding to resevoir makes more sense because the plants uptake will mean more frequent filling and more of the FE and SW kept in solution.
Just some quick thoughts before I get ready for work:)
Happy Growing David

How to apply liquid seaweed & fish emulsion in Earthbox

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How to apply liquid seaweed & fish emulsion in Earthbox

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