I think it is. It's like a tonic for the roses and it helps the soil organisms.

Yay

Thumbs up!

Ditto, ditto, and ditto... ;-))

It's a low dose of nitrogen, Phosphate and Potash (2,4,1). When roses are first waking up in the spring I use this as a more gentle alternative to chemical fertilizers, but this is probably just a "touchy/feely" thing for me. All research that I know about shows that plants can't tell the difference between chemical fertlizers and "organic"... Hydrolized fish fertilizer btw is more desireable then just plain fish oil emulsion. The term "Hydrolized" refers to the COLD pressed process used to extract the nutrients. The "Emulsion" process is a HEATED process which removes all the fats and oils for other industrial purposes, and does not leave as good a nutrient base for plants. While fish fertilizer may be somewhat beneficial, other ingredients such as sulfer (increases disease resistance)and iron found in many chemical fertilizers (such as Miracle Gro) should not be ignored (particularly for container grown roses). The best fertilizer of course is the soil itself. For in ground roses I consider Miracle Gro, Fish Fertilizer, Seaweed fertilizer etc. to be just a quick pick me up tonic, not a main source of nutrition.

Good stuff!

So during the heat is it best to do a soil drench with fish emulsion or is one way of applying it better than another?

Yay.

Nay if you have dogs (mine liked to dig it up) :-(

I use the Drammatic K Fish/Kelp liquid once a month, early in the morning, on both the foliage and the soil. My roses seem to love it. The only other fertilizer they get now is crab meal and alfalfa.
Judith

I only do soil drench with fish products (I use Neptune's Harvest).

Roses Unlimited recommended using liquid fertilizer the first year for roses. I had some deodorized fish emulsion in the shed that I bought several years ago from Meijer so I thought I would give it a try. Rather than mix it with water, I just poured some on the ground near the new rose bush and watered with the hose. The new roses seem to be doing OK. I just use 12-12-12 on my roses which is much easier and less expensive. It would be intersting to see a scientific experiment with roses given 12-12-12 vs. various expensive concoctions to see if there is any noticible difference.

I second Diane's statement, except I do a foliar feed usually a week or so after compost tea. Neptune's Harvest is good stuff. I use the fish oil and seaweed mixture.

bb

Well, I use it because I have it, but I gotta say the smell is pretty bad at first. The dogs won't stay out of the gardens, and last time I used it two cats I've never seen before (one one raccoon) showed up outta nowhere. Deoderized? Did someone say deoderized?

Deodorized???

Don't get excited, that's what I got and the dogs still went after it.

Dogs go after bone meal, too.

Yay, for sure.