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Container Gardening

Earthbox: Fish Emulsion in Reservoir?

15 years ago

I'm planning to grow sweet corn in my homemade Earthbox. I want the best possible environment for my corn. Because corn is so nitrogen hungry, would it be a good idea to mix fish emulsion into the water when refilling the reservoir?

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Comments (4)

tapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a)
15 years ago
Stinky stinky stinky - and it will settle to the bottom of the reservoir where it will have to breakdown (read rot) before it could be utilized by the pants. If you use it, use it from above.

Why do you think that FE will help provide the best possible environment?

Al
justaguy2
15 years ago
Fish are naturally 2-3% N. If the emulsion has higher N than that suspect something...fishy ;)

There are accusations of urea being added to some fish emulsions to up the N content, but I can't verify that.

You don't want to add non soluble ferts to the reservoir or they separate from the water and remain in the reservoir as Al (Tapla) indicated.

Even so I have never been satisfied with the fish ferts in containers. Neptune Harvest Fish fert is very highly regarded by ground growers of huge pumpkins in my area, but it's performance in containers left a lot to be desired. To their credit, they don't market it for container use.
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darthtrader
Original Author
15 years ago
LOL! The stinky stinky stinky part alluded my better judgement. I was focusing on FE as an organic source of nitrogen for the corn because I know that corn requires lots of it. Any other suggestions anyone?
justaguy2
15 years ago
If you will be adding fertilizer to the reservoir you have to use a water soluble one or it won't get into the mix.

This rules out virtually all organics as they simply aren't water soluble. The ones that are don't deliver much in the way of NPK.

I guess the question is, how important is using organic fertilizer in containers to you?

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