In my new video demonstration, I share how I make homemade fish fertilizer:

Fish emulsion, or “fish fertilizer,” is an organic plant fertilizer made from fish. It’s rich in minerals and makes plant leaves green and glossy, while also providing good nutrition for root and fruit growth. It is sold at Home Depot, Lowes and, of course, on Amazon.

If you’d rather save some cash, however, you can make a good fish fertilizer at home with the method I share in my video.

Though it smells terrible at first, the smell settles down over time and it becomes a marvelous homemade fertilizer that costs very little. Just grab some fish or fish guts, and/or crabs, clams, or other dead sea animals, throw them in a trash can of water, add some molasses, then stir and cover for a few months. Solid gold! Since I had a bunch of nasty crabs, I threw them in – but you can do this with just fish and it works great.

Heck, you could probably make chicken emulsion and your plants would love it, but one has to draw the line somewhere.

I’m not convinced the molasses is really necessary, but it does feed the bacteria which I’m sure is a good thing.

After a few months of letting your fish fertilizer rot down, you can thin it out with water and use it on your landscaping, orchards and gardens. I usually stir the mix when I remember, but that likely isn’t necessary either. When you get to the bottom of the barrel, you can throw whatever is left on your compost pile.

Actually, I’ll bet soaking your compost with some of this stuff would really kick it up.

So here it is in three steps:

Homemade Fish Emulsion Step 1: Add Crabs/Fish/Dead Sea Animals

Fill a barrel half-full of water, then add your sea animals.

I tossed these crabs into my fish fertilizer:

And these nasty fish guts:

Homemade Fish Emulsion Step 2: Add Molasses

I just buy a cheap bottle and pour it in.

They sell “livestock molasses” in the states at feed stores – I used to use that for all my fermentation.

Homemade Fish Emulsion Step 3: Stir it up and wait!

Look at them swimming around!

After a few months, most everything breaks down and your fertilizer is ready. You can tell, because it doesn’t smell nearly as bad. I suppose you could speed things up by hitting it with a submersible blender. That said, my wife would not appreciate me borrowing kitchen appliances for something so nasty. Your mileage may vary.

Once your homemade fish emulsion rots down, thin out 5 or 6 parts water to one part emulsion – unless you had a lot of water in the barrel to begin with – then water your plants with it. They love it!

Give it a try and let me know how it works for you.

Note: keep the barrel well-covered at the beginning. Vultures love the smell of this stuff.

(Finally, don’t forget to pre-order my new book and start making CASH from your love of plants!)