Thank you Ikaye....I will give these a try! How to fertilize after you have done the hard work of cleaning and mulching is always a conundrum for me. I am getting at least 2 batches of compost, then how to add it to the soil???? I just layered over the mulch and then scattered some mulch over that. I figured its going to go in there, with the help of earthworms eventually. Kelp looses the soil? had not heard of that, great.

I use Vital Fish Hydrolysate, which is incredible stuff. It's not cheap but I have a tiny garden and the results are amazing; my plants need all the help they can get. It's organic and cold-pressed and I've been given convincing arguments which I cannot really remember now or retell as to why the organic hydrolysate is supposed to be much better than regular fish emulsions for your plants, soil, and also for the environment. I buy it at Annie's Annuals in the Bay Area but I think it's available online as well. My roses practically sit up and holler thank you after they get this stuff.

There are a couple of roses in my garden that would not grow no matter what I did. Extra water, MiracleGro fertilizer (makes my amaryllis go crazy), alfalfa, composted horse manure, steer manure, high nitrogen lawn fertilizer, hydroponic solution, soil pH adjustment...nothing would get Earth Angel to grow, three years after planting. Other roses planted next to it were growing fine. This year I tried fish emulsion (whatever Lowe's had) and Earth Angel finally began growing and blooming within a week of applying it, putting out 3 new basals. Too bad the flowers still couldn't handle the heat and suffered from thrips. Given fish emulsion, my Bishop's Castle put out six foot basals. Yes, roses seem to love the stuff. I'm curious though, how fish emulsion is produced and is it sustainable and okay for our oceans.

I started using Alaska fish fertilizer on our new Campfire rose... The Rose seems to love the stuff! Adding Kelp into the mix would probably be even better!

shebabee, noseometer and JIm: thats quite strong endorsement. Now I AM going to try it, fish hydrolysate. So the three of you watered it to the roots or sprayed or both? And you did try mixing it with kelp? I dont know how much I can do this year as the season is drawing to a close but certainly from next spring.

noseometer: my understanding is that the fishing industry creates a HUGE amount fish waste (carcasses, entrails) after filleting, canning etc, these fish remains are processed in a number of ways to make fish fertilizers. One fish fertilizer is the liquid type we are talking about here. The hydrolysate is biologically (enzymatically) broken down or decomposed fish material. The emulsion is heat or chemically processed, but I am not too sure about that. So yes, making fish fertilizer is a good thing, making maximum use of a resource. I dont think (!!!) anyone is catching or growing live fish to make fertilizer. (Now that I said that I should check that up).

Thanks! good luck with your gardening!

I only drenched the roots...

Fish emulsion and seaweed are the only things I use (apart from compost/potting medium and volcanic rock dust at potting/planting) but I have a growing number of rugosa and rugosa hybrids that dont like chemical/synthetic fertilzers.

I have only used it (Vital Fish Hydrolysate) by adding to water and watering it in.

Protavis, thank you for reminding me that rugosas dont like chemicals. I had heard that somewhere but it slipped from my mind. I am thinking of growing one or more rugosas again...if there is something important i need to know ...please do share.

late Tues evening sept 3rd i made a mixture of fish hydrolysate and liquid kelp and sprayed all my roses and some of my other shrubs. Didnt really expect anything just wanted to know what it is like to spray roses with nutrients and certainly how fish hydrolysate the kelp would effect them.

Of course there was the stench. But by wed morning the smell was gone.

There was a subtle but distinct difference on the plants. If you are the kind that looks at your roses (plants) everyday you would know it. It was in the leaves, they looked happier, perkier. Kind of where you smile and say these guys, my garden, looks good. Overall the plants just looked better, ie healthier.

Is it the flush of hormones from the kelp? the quick nutrients from the fish? who knows.

It is a lot of work to spray but I would love to see the cumulative effect of using kelp and fish next spring. I would try it in the soil too. But I dont think the effect would be that immediate when watered in?

I am linking an article below where an organic gardener teaching class says he sprays fish hydrolysate on his roses every 10 days as food but also as a disease preventive. he claims the fish oil coats the leaves and forms a barrier to fungal spores. (Like horticultural oil?)

I dont know if i buy his idea at this time. There is so little fish oil in this stuff and then we dilute it. I dont know if there is ever enough oil to form a physical barrier to fungus on a leaf's surface. The reason it smells so much is because fish oil is extraordinarily smelly even in the smallest amounts. But I will observe carefully what happens next spring. Something physico-chemical might be happening. Its always the empirical result that matters not what my reasoning decides is possible or not.

https://awaytogarden.com/organic-rose-care-scott-arboretums-adam-glas/

(towards the end of the article in the Q & A section)