I'm a native American and have also been taught this from a young age. And believe me it works great. I live on the coast of California. We use all kinds of different fish.
Don't use all kinds of fish. Fish with scales contain toxic levels of metals in their scales. Use catfish. No scales no toxic metals. Don't belive me? Look it up.
I built a huge food forest in south Florida over the past few years and lost it due to foreclosure on the property I am currently buying a new piece of land and I wanted to tell you how inspiring it is to watch your journey at the moments that I’m dying to get out in the garden. Thankyou for doin you! Can’t wait to start my second food forest this fall , you’ve given me tons of ideas and good advice !
Yes, burying fish does wonders for plants in general, not just tomatoes. It doesn't have to be fish either. One year, my friend brought me two Canadian geese that had gone bad from poor handling in the field. I used the guts, the meat, and some of the feathers all around my garden and had great results that I think are cumulative over the years. The feathers left these big, airy voids which weren't completely broken down the following spring and mixed into the soil to make it airy like vermiculite does. You don't have to put the fish under the plant either. If you already have plants in the ground, just estimate where you think the outside of the root system is, dig a small hole, and bury the fish. I like to chop them up a bit, at least exposing the intestines as I think that speeds up the process. There is always some fish, or part thereof available if you keep your eyes open. The local fishmonger would probably be super happy to hook you up (pun intended) with heads, guts etc. and I think the guts are really where most of the magic comes from :) I bury fish and guts from game etc around the drip line of my fruit trees occasionally (maybe every two or three years) and I believe it not only helps the trees be more healthy but give better yields and also way better taste and probably nutrition to the fruit. Another thing you will notice is that when you dig the next spring where you had buried something is that there can be an insane ball of worms feasting on the nutrients that you left for them. That's obviously a good thing. Leftover pelletized animal feed works really good too. I always try to find some that someone is going to throw out due to mold and mix a few cups in the soil per large plant. Soil needs regeneration and microbes. This is a fantastic way to get both nutrients and microbes in your soil in diversity, not just NPK which leaves you with nutrient deficient produce. One year, I buried 5lbs of pelletized horse feed with 3TBS Epson salt and at least 6 or 7lbs of fish ofal in a mound that had two tomatoes, 5 corn stalks and an Asian pumpkin all growing out of it. The tomatoes got to be higher than I could reach, maybe 7 or 8 feet tall, at least 6' diameter and produced an insane amount of fruit. We would pick just that one plant and end up with 3 or even 4 gallons regularly. The corn got smothered but helped hold up tomato branches and the pumpkin went Jurassic! The vines were over 15' long and it produced 7 or 8 very large pumpkins which were green-skinned and orange on the inside. You can't just take and take from the earth without giving back and expect good results. Be good to your soil and it will love you back.
@@seanleith5312 no not really. Especially if you go fishing and catch one of the many non game fish that people dont eat and/or are invasive, to then use.
"What happens when you bury a fish under a tomato plant" is not shown in this video. The proper title should be like "I bury a fish under a tomato plant".
As a coonass from south Louisiana what difference does it make what kind of fish he uses? If a "clickbait"is a fish or the type of planting it is called.Mr. Prigioni takes his time, effort and knowledge , to show folks a way to improve your veg. production, also how to fertilize plants etc..........for a healthier garden.Sorry if I offended anyone.
No proper explanation in this video about fish.useless.but if you burry a fish under the soil it releases excess amount of nitrogen and phosporous which is the basic essentials need for plant growth.if you use fish powder instead you will get best result hence it decomposes quickly in soil...
One of my daughters fish died the same day I was planting my basil seedlings in the garden so we buried him under the basil. That was about 3 weeks ago and the basil looks great!
You r using your hand to plant without glouse....that all about you love ,passion,dedication..you majically...touching the plants ...and they give the wonderful result. fabulous..... I love gardening
I love to watch your videos for the positive attitude you have for the garden and for life. I like watching tuck too but your positive attitude brings me back for more!! Thank you!!
I Buried So many of them underneath my Garden Bed.Thank U for sharing many of your knowledge, Love your Garden by the way. Struggling here AZ climate but not giving up. Originally from The Philippines and Love my Garden Back there.
Tusconan here! Thanks for your comment...I’ll try that too. So far my pots are doing well but I imagine planting tomatoes in above ground beds would work as well. That should solve our clay soil problem.
My cousins live in Arizona the secret is to did a whole the size of the garden you want to grow and fill it up with wood and leaves then add cow manure then top soil and then wood ash it will help with holding in the moisture. Good luck happy gardening.
Hollis and Nancy's Homestead channel features the fish method regularly. Hollis covers the fish with garden lime to prevent the smell from attracting critters that tear up the plant to get to the fish. Great video James!
Hollis & Nancy move to Florida. He is trying to improve the white sand by tilling in organic matter. I live in North Central Louisiana. I worked for years adding leaves Horse litter.. By the next spring . You could not tell I had put anything in the soil. Then I started putting wood chips on top. I tried to explain this under one of their videos. No response. I even suggested he get a heavy duty wood chipper. Instead of just burning the limbs. He will need to cover the soil like James. if he wants all his hard work to last.
@@charlescoker7752 I agree. I have several inches of wood chips and then added a thick layer of straw two years later. The matting of the straw is really speeding up the decomposition of the wood chips and creating awesome soil!
It sounds silly to bury protein to raise corn or some kind of vegetable however eating the good parts of the fish and putting the rest underneath makes a lot of sense
I filet the fish or cut off heads and gut it other times and use remaining parts for planting in garden. Do not directly under the plant but in general area to let nutrients permeate ground in whole garden.
So how does it turn out Pete? I've heard about this my entire life but never tried it. History sez the Indians did this too. Does it really work for you? Couldn't tell from your comment.
had to write this take-away down: "every mistake, every adversity, every failure carries with it the seed of an equivalent success." Word. Thank you, again, for your encouragement!
I have so many scrub fish, carp and gar. I have been burying them in my garden for lack of nothing better to do with them. Still 4 months away from planting, but I do not have a freezer to keep this much fish to wait till planting season. I hope that the nutrition will still be there through the summer. Thank you
I’ve always been fascinated with plants and growing them ever since I was a kid. In high school I took every course I could on horticulture and greenhouse management and got a vocational seal to go to college, which actually never happened. Landed an extremely good job right out of high school and been on my own since I was 18 and I’m now 34 and married with 5 children. So every since I was 18 I’ve had a yard to do my gardening. I absolutely love growing my own fruits and vegetables and so does my wife. I have been using fish when planting my garden ever since I got my first place and planted my very first fruit and vegetable garden. I learned the technique from my great grandfather on my moms side as I remember him doing the same when helping him in his garden as a child on up into my teens. It’s saves money on fertilizers for sure and never fails to give you good harvests. I live in Georgia so I plant my garden in March and it produces until mid to late September, sometimes into October. My better boy tomato plants all reached heights between 13’ 4” and 15’ 10” last year. It kills me seeing people at the store buying a bunch of fertilizers and soil amendments thinking they need it to have healthy plants and large harvests when all it takes is one fishing trip! I take my boat out to West Point Lake and tie off under the Hwy 109 bridge around 6 pm and stay over night until about 8 am the next day. I take my wife so that we can double our Crappie limit to 60 fish we can keep, plus a few hybrid and white bass that run through at night. We usually leave with 65-70 fish which believe it or not isn’t enough because we grow many fruits and vegetables, and multiples of each! So the cost of my fertilizer is the cost of minnows($20), gas($10-$20), snacks and drinks($20-$25). So roughly $60-$65 to nurture my garden for an entire growing season! TIP - applying a generous layer of garden lime on the fish and then covering the fish with 3-4 inches of soil before placing the plant in the hole will keep any animals from digging up the fish because the lime helps to mask the scent. Yes, I know lime lowers soil pH but it’s not enough to matter because it’s only a coating down where the fish is and in most cases actually makes the soil more favorable for plants that thrive in acidic soil like tomatoes and peppers..
@@Morthok It's real easy to overdo it with Epsom salts, so only use a very small amount per plant. If you want to unlock the nutrients in the soil and make them more bio available to the roots, mix some gypsum into your soil. It has an added advantage of helping to bring your soil to a neutral ph as well.
Bryon Brammer IDT Tomatos really meed a lower PH ... they love acidic soil ... the very best Tomatoes ive ever eaten were in extremely high acidic soil. We are going high acid this year simply because of that very memory of where i ate those wonderfully tomatoes that i grew one year ling ago. Accidentally...
James I am A/B testing at work and I hope you’ll consider planting the same species a couple of feet apart with like 5 of each variety and then 5 with fish and 5 without. It would be so cool to see a little more of those experiments between 5-10-15 against each other. Busting myths in gardening must be a whole lot of fun.
I'm stoked for spring. Thank God it's warm out. I bought a house w 1.5 acres in NJ 2 years ago and I have been doing some much. I've literally had to cut down 35 or so trees. I've planted so much in place of these. I think 38.. plants so far. Of the 38, 7 are trees that fruit and flowering, 10 red burning bushes, hydrangeas, crepe myrtles. I removed oak and pine. Firewood for heating my house. Anyway lots to do.
Excellent James, Funny enough I use fish a fair bit with my toms and I'm in the middle of editing my tomato video ready for next Friday's release. They will do fantastic and the leafmould will really help with the fungal side of things, good to see you removed the leaves as some folks don't bother and when they rot this can introduce bacteria to the plant. You will have fantastic results with these toms. Great stuff mate
Natives not only used fish for fertilizer... they used a wonderfully brilliant system of planting. They would plant corn, beans, and squash together. The corn stalk provided something for the bean to grow on and the squash provided ground cover to prevent weeds. The beans were also a natural producer of nitrogen, providing further growing power for the others as well as leaving the ground in better condition than when they started.
Hey James Use a handful or more of garden lime after you cover the fish with dirt. This helps keep animals from digging your fish and plant up, and also helps keep blossom end rot and blights from starting. Try it.
I’ve had great luck simply using extra infertile eggs from my hens. Somehow I don’t feel right using a whole fish. Would think most would agree it’s a unnecessary waste of life unless using scraps. Counterproductive if you want to live with nature. I support your efforts and enjoy your channel. Just on the fence with this one.
Greetings from Nova Scotia, Canada! I was born and raised in Newfoundland and it is a centuries old general practice to bury fish (usually capelin) in the ground especially for growing potatoes!
I fish a lot. Now I save the guts and the heads that I don't need for stock to use this way. Tremendous boost to the garden, more so than anything else I've tried.
I think at first it wasn't really good because unlike what you did she didn't dig too deep. She mentioned that it worked once but we put cayenne pepper around our tomatoes so the local raccoons wouldn't get to them. I'm not sure if the peppers had any (useful) nutritional value but it made a difference. I might try it myself next year.
My Great Grandmother used to do this in Ireland and then in Bradley Beach New Jersey and she had the healthiest most productive tomato plants ive seen.
My great grandfather used to do this in his garden. He would go catch carp, chop them up and use them under his plants. I'll tell you what that man knew how to grow plants. His garden was like a forest, same with my grandfather's.
SHERIFF TUCK is on the job! So nice to see him protecting the Food Forest. Love the fish idea. We may have to try that next year. We put an egg in each tomato hole. We'll see what happens with that. Got some grow bags for carrots, sweet and regular potatoes, but it is so cold and rainy here right now, we can't plant yet. So fingers crossed, maybe next week! Blessings from NE Missouri!
I just love seeing you and Tuck together. I got a 6 week old little Beagle puppy a couple days ago and this morning as I sat in the garden with my coffee and watched her flop around, it felt like all was right, for the first time in a long time. It's just so lonesome without a little sidekick. What would we do without them? Her name is Rosie May Floppytop. Thanks for this experiment, James. I'm so curious how it's going to turn out. I'd really like to try it myself.
Hi James I’m excited to see how much more productive your tomato plants are. I know it works great for me. I’ve ended up with six foot tall tomato plants. I put fish parts under my trees too. Give Tuck a pet from me. Yorkies are the best pups!
A lot of people in Austria now use normal sheep wool as cheap and good nitrogen fertilizer, and also as mulch. Especially for tomatos and potatos. I also add some layers to my compost pile. And we got more vegetables from some pots on the roof than we are able to eat.
IN THE PAST i HAVE BURIED FISH AND THEIR GUTS AND HEADS WHENEVER i HAD THEM. ONE YEAR I FORGOT ABOUT WHERE I BURIED THEM AND PLANTED TOMATOES IN THAT AREA. I HAD THE BIGGEST PLANTS BUT LITTLE TOMATOES. SO A LITTLE GOES A LONG WAY. YOU BROUGHT BACK MEMORIES. AND A FEW LAUGHS. THEY ARE ALSO GOOD IN COMPOST AS LONG AS YOU PROPERLY BURY THEM.
I did this for the first time this year with my tomatoes! However, I threw a few handfuls of garden lime over the fish (about 10" down) to keep the smell down and keep the critters from digging my plants up. Plus, tomatoes like lime too!! I'm excited to see how it all pans out.
I did by accident kind of...ran out of fish and didn't want to go get more. Bad decision. All are doing great except for the one that was planted the exact same way...except for the fish. :/
As a kid I had to put the garden in each year, right when walleye opened, I had to bury the carcasses under the tomatoes and peppers, it definitely makes them grow better
...or, instead of wasting fish, you could just buy fish concentrate which is made from fish bones, skin and uneaten meat. One tablespoon of it mixed with a gallon of water will do multiple plants.
Should've planted one the same way, but without the fish, for comparison. How do we now know if it's the fish or just the compost working magic for this plant.
It absolutely works 100% I worked on a sport fishing vessel out of los Angeles. In the spring time I would dig holes in a row then put fish heads, guts & bones in the hole. Put a little soil on top the fish then plant tomorrow and green beans and never before or after have I seen vegetables grow so big and healthy. We never used fertilizer and it was just a small area in the backyard in the city. We didn't have mulch or anything. Just dig a hole chop up the dirt, put the fish & the plant and water every day. Everything was so big and juicy
Hi, after planting three tomatoes, with chopped fish under them, when the plants matured there was no sign of tomatoes, but on each fruiting stem there was what looked like a small HAND after another seven days, i could see what was growing, yes IT WAS FISH FINGERS...
OMG! My oldest sisters have been doing this for years and we are Vietnamese people. I am doing that too with my vegetables and all of my vegetables and trees are doing great!
This is actually an old fashion technique. You can do the same with fruit, vegetables and grain scraps instead of composing. If you bury deep enough and cover it well, as he did in the video, you won’t have the critters digging it up problem.
@@upat65 You have to bury raw protein very deep to keep scavengers from getting to it. That's why most places require graves be 6 ft. deep even if there is a casket involved.
i'm very interest in this experiment james. yes, we all learned in grade school that the indigenous peoples taught the invaders to use fish when they planted. well, let us see if it works. thanks for this video. hope you have a bumper crop of tomatoes. cp.
Great video, brother. We use to bury the fish remains after filleting fish that we caught fishing when we lived in NY but now in AZ we do monthly fish emulsion feedings on our vegetables and fruit trees with amazing results. Thank you for sharing another amazing video.
I have a 104lb German shepherd trained to stay off my plants and she does a great job keeping the critters away from my plants. It does take a bit of training but it's not impossible.
In Phoenix, no fresh fish available. The last 2 years I have buried fish a stinky tilapia under my tomatoes and amended the soil with a bunch of compost, crushed egg shells and bone meal. I couldn't be more pleased with the yield and flavor.
I think you will get great results, I too am trying something new to me this year. One raw egg broken into the hole then the tomato planted on top. Jess at Roots and Refuge has done this with her own prize winning tomatos. Thanks, peace.
I have buried fish in my tomato holes in the past and now. What Im finding if you bury the fish deep you see no results , just put the fish chopped around the sides where the rootball might be. By doing it the latter way Im seeing a difference. I just have fish in 4 holes and those are the ones with the biggest blooms.
etherium cryptorama Nope. There is a process where organic matter must return to its mineral and microbial state before a plant can take it in and build its own version of life based on its DNA. That’s why we take our table scraps to the compost pile. It sits for months breaking down to its simplest state. Now there are processes that can speed up the break down, but just burying a fish in the ground will take months and months to break down.
@@benb7727 Interesting that you think so. In my experience after a couple of months, I can't find any trace of the fish I've buried under my melons and tomatoes. I do however see results from the fertilizer value of the fish. The plant growth is amazing.
Did this 50 years ago with sun dried Lake Michigan alewives. Could go down to the beach and pick up bushel baskets full. The raccoons and other animals didn't bother digging them up because they didn't like them, so your garden was safe. Great tomatoes and no splitting.
I put some crappie scraps in the yard a few weeks before I planted a tomatoe plant and got 128 tomatoes off it,it grew like 15 feet long and had tomatoes from June to October some as big as the small burner on an electric stove
The old farmer I met would bury fish leftovers from de-scaling, de-boning, etc. He saved them and buried them in his garden under whatever he was planting. He swore it worked, and it was his only soil amendment. I was told it is common practice in Japan.
This works really well with corn, too. Dig a hole near the base of the stalk and drop in a fish. No need to cut it. Bury it and that stock will develop large ears of juicy corn.
James my father in law use to use the spring herring out of the delaware and a boy about 6 use to ask him why he was planting fish . He told the boy so he could have fish. I have ALWAYS USED FISH EMULSION on my starts and never hurt any plant i put it on so the fish is good to use.
I was just in an argument with coworkers about native Americans doing this or not, googled it and found this video. Thank you for helping me win an argument 😂
Around my area we get alot of tadpoles... sooo many that the water they are in will not support them and most die off anyway.... so net a bunch (leaving some for next growth cycle) and plant them directly into the soil!
I've heard about and seen this done on Hollis and Nancy's Homestead. I've learned you can add some lime o top of the fish to mask the smell so animals won't smell the fish and try to dig out your plants.
Ive watched your videos before but im definitely subbing now. Awesome life lessons on top of the gardening tips. Plus your Italian from NJ..me too..lake hopatcong, Jefferson..Thanks for the great content.
Guys use the fish remains along with molasses in equal ratio (1kg:1kg/1litre) and keep it closed in an airtight container(for anaerobic bacteria to carry out the decomposition process) for about 25-30days opening on the 10th and the 20th day to mix it up and then close it back again. There should be no traces of water but just the molasses and fish remains(head,tail,gut,etc). On the final day when you open it should smell like honey, filter it, store the filtered liquid in the jar and throw the remains on to the compost. The remains at the bottom is highly rich in beneficial microbes so don't throw it away. The liquid collected could be stored for about 6 months in an airtight container, it is to be diluted with water in the ratio of 25ml:1000ml. You shall see the effects of this biofertlizers in about a week or 10days max. The leaves would grow bigger and greener.
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I'm a native American and have also been taught this from a young age. And believe me it works great. I live on the coast of California. We use all kinds of different fish.
I wonder if different fish work better for different plants lol
Don't use all kinds of fish. Fish with scales contain toxic levels of metals in their scales. Use catfish. No scales no toxic metals. Don't belive me? Look it up.
Can I use a can of sardines?
@@cherylinchrist4826 I mean yea but I wouldn’t. I’d eat the sardines
@@kodyheermann7934 couldn’t I just cut off the scales and then use it?
I built a huge food forest in south Florida over the past few years and lost it due to foreclosure on the property
I am currently buying a new piece of land and I wanted to tell you how inspiring it is to watch your journey at the moments that I’m dying to get out in the garden.
Thankyou for doin you! Can’t wait to start my second food forest this fall , you’ve given me tons of ideas and good advice !
Yes, burying fish does wonders for plants in general, not just tomatoes. It doesn't have to be fish either. One year, my friend brought me two Canadian geese that had gone bad from poor handling in the field. I used the guts, the meat, and some of the feathers all around my garden and had great results that I think are cumulative over the years. The feathers left these big, airy voids which weren't completely broken down the following spring and mixed into the soil to make it airy like vermiculite does.
You don't have to put the fish under the plant either. If you already have plants in the ground, just estimate where you think the outside of the root system is, dig a small hole, and bury the fish. I like to chop them up a bit, at least exposing the intestines as I think that speeds up the process. There is always some fish, or part thereof available if you keep your eyes open. The local fishmonger would probably be super happy to hook you up (pun intended) with heads, guts etc. and I think the guts are really where most of the magic comes from :) I bury fish and guts from game etc around the drip line of my fruit trees occasionally (maybe every two or three years) and I believe it not only helps the trees be more healthy but give better yields and also way better taste and probably nutrition to the fruit.
Another thing you will notice is that when you dig the next spring where you had buried something is that there can be an insane ball of worms feasting on the nutrients that you left for them. That's obviously a good thing. Leftover pelletized animal feed works really good too. I always try to find some that someone is going to throw out due to mold and mix a few cups in the soil per large plant. Soil needs regeneration and microbes. This is a fantastic way to get both nutrients and microbes in your soil in diversity, not just NPK which leaves you with nutrient deficient produce.
One year, I buried 5lbs of pelletized horse feed with 3TBS Epson salt and at least 6 or 7lbs of fish ofal in a mound that had two tomatoes, 5 corn stalks and an Asian pumpkin all growing out of it. The tomatoes got to be higher than I could reach, maybe 7 or 8 feet tall, at least 6' diameter and produced an insane amount of fruit. We would pick just that one plant and end up with 3 or even 4 gallons regularly. The corn got smothered but helped hold up tomato branches and the pumpkin went Jurassic! The vines were over 15' long and it produced 7 or 8 very large pumpkins which were green-skinned and orange on the inside.
You can't just take and take from the earth without giving back and expect good results. Be good to your soil and it will love you back.
It works better than Alaska fish emulsion, I experienced growing with both.
Fish emulsion works good, actual fish works great
Mo
In the early 1960's, my grandfather used one fish head per plant. His garden was amazing!
Fish head is ok, but the entire fish? That's more money than whatever fruit you are going to get.
@@seanleith5312 no not really. Especially if you go fishing and catch one of the many non game fish that people dont eat and/or are invasive, to then use.
Catch invasive species fish .
Question is, did he plant some "control" plants using his usual techniques? That way we can compare at the end of the season.
"What happens when you bury a fish under a tomato plant" is not shown in this video. The proper title should be like "I bury a fish under a tomato plant".
its called clickbait still if you ask me.
Actually, all he needs to do is add "Part 1" to specify the beginning. Easy fix.
yep. put a thumbs down
As a coonass from south Louisiana what difference does it make what kind of fish he uses? If a "clickbait"is a fish or the type of planting it is called.Mr. Prigioni takes his time, effort and knowledge , to show folks a way to improve your veg. production, also how to fertilize plants etc..........for a healthier garden.Sorry if I offended anyone.
No proper explanation in this video about fish.useless.but if you burry a fish under the soil it releases excess amount of nitrogen and phosporous which is the basic essentials need for plant growth.if you use fish powder instead you will get best result hence it decomposes quickly in soil...
One of my daughters fish died the same day I was planting my basil seedlings in the garden so we buried him under the basil. That was about 3 weeks ago and the basil looks great!
I’m sorry but there’s absolutely no way the fish was broke down to to be available for your plants in three weeks. That’s just basil being basil
You r using your hand to plant without glouse....that all about you love ,passion,dedication..you majically...touching the plants ...and they give the wonderful result. fabulous..... I love gardening
I do aquaponics and add dead fish to my hugelculture beds... never been disappointed with plant performance yet.
Ohhh nice!! Aquaponics has always been something that has interested me. Glad to hear you have had good results with the fish 👌😁
I love to watch your videos for the positive attitude you have for the garden and for life. I like watching tuck too but your positive attitude brings me back for more!! Thank you!!
I Buried So many of them underneath my Garden Bed.Thank U for sharing many of your knowledge, Love your Garden by the way. Struggling here AZ climate but not giving up. Originally from The Philippines and Love my Garden Back there.
Tusconan here! Thanks for your comment...I’ll try that too. So far my pots are doing well but I imagine planting tomatoes in above ground beds would work as well. That should solve our clay soil problem.
My cousins live in Arizona the secret is to did a whole the size of the garden you want to grow and fill it up with wood and leaves then add cow manure then top soil and then wood ash it will help with holding in the moisture. Good luck happy gardening.
Starting our first garden in PV AZ✌🏻 Potatoes looking good, corn too. Bought shade cloth just in case for brassicas
Hollis and Nancy's Homestead channel features the fish method regularly. Hollis covers the fish with garden lime to prevent the smell from attracting critters that tear up the plant to get to the fish. Great video James!
I was about to mention the same thing.
I love their channel
Hollis & Nancy move to Florida. He is trying to improve the white sand by tilling in organic matter. I live in North Central Louisiana. I worked for years adding leaves Horse litter.. By the next spring . You could not tell I had put anything in the soil. Then I started putting wood chips on top. I tried to explain this under one of their videos. No response. I even suggested he get a heavy duty wood chipper. Instead of just burning the limbs. He will need to cover the soil like James. if he wants all his hard work to last.
@@charlescoker7752 I agree. I have several inches of wood chips and then added a thick layer of straw two years later. The matting of the straw is really speeding up the decomposition of the wood chips and creating awesome soil!
@@reedackerman9041 Other videos : one person added blood meal in with his chips to speed up the soil making process.
It sounds silly to bury protein to raise corn or some kind of vegetable however eating the good parts of the fish and putting the rest underneath makes a lot of sense
yea your just suppose to bury the head and eat the meat otherwise its just a waste
I filet the fish or cut off heads and gut it other times and use remaining parts for planting in garden. Do not directly under the plant but in general area to let nutrients permeate ground in whole garden.
You could owes use carp.
Since they are harmful to the environment and don't taste very good.
@@s1iznc1d34 um does it count if im asian and i eat carp?
@@s1iznc1d34 you said no one likes to eat carp but here in asia we eat alot of fish
I was just thinking about this today and remembered doing this with my grandfather when I was little.
Really!! What a coincidence 🙃
you buried your grandfather under tomato plants? How did the tomatoes come out?
I’ve done this my whole life. I go fishing for pumpkin seeds (small bluegills) the morning or day before I plant my tomatoes. Up here in RI
So how does it turn out Pete? I've heard about this my entire life but never tried it. History sez the Indians did this too. Does it really work for you? Couldn't tell from your comment.
Better tomatoes than anyone else around even In relatively poor soil. Works great and I’ve had tomatoes for 40 years and have done this every time
Pssst, pumpkinseeds are completely different than bluegills. Same family, but different species.
I'm in RI, too! How deep do you bury the heads? What's the distance between the seedling roots and the heads?
had to write this take-away down: "every mistake, every adversity, every failure carries with it the seed of an equivalent success." Word. Thank you, again, for your encouragement!
Fish and kelp are traditional compost in place fertilizer in Newfoundland.
It is used under any plant you have to dig to plant.
Ohh interesting! It isn't very common around here, maybe this video will change my mind about things and it will become a common practice for me
Living on the Gulf of Mexico, I gather sea grass (turtle grass) to fortify my garden soil.
I have so many scrub fish, carp and gar. I have been burying them in my garden for lack of nothing better to do with them. Still 4 months away from planting, but I do not have a freezer to keep this much fish to wait till planting season. I hope that the nutrition will still be there through the summer. Thank you
When I saw that cutie come into that garden I knew I was going to be a subscriber. He is adorable. And the dog is cute as well.
❤️🐕
tucker picks and eats carrots. its a trip.
I’ve always been fascinated with plants and growing them ever since I was a kid. In high school I took every course I could on horticulture and greenhouse management and got a vocational seal to go to college, which actually never happened. Landed an extremely good job right out of high school and been on my own since I was 18 and I’m now 34 and married with 5 children. So every since I was 18 I’ve had a yard to do my gardening. I absolutely love growing my own fruits and vegetables and so does my wife. I have been using fish when planting my garden ever since I got my first place and planted my very first fruit and vegetable garden. I learned the technique from my great grandfather on my moms side as I remember him doing the same when helping him in his garden as a child on up into my teens. It’s saves money on fertilizers for sure and never fails to give you good harvests. I live in Georgia so I plant my garden in March and it produces until mid to late September, sometimes into October. My better boy tomato plants all reached heights between 13’ 4” and 15’ 10” last year. It kills me seeing people at the store buying a bunch of fertilizers and soil amendments thinking they need it to have healthy plants and large harvests when all it takes is one fishing trip! I take my boat out to West Point Lake and tie off under the Hwy 109 bridge around 6 pm and stay over night until about 8 am the next day. I take my wife so that we can double our Crappie limit to 60 fish we can keep, plus a few hybrid and white bass that run through at night. We usually leave with 65-70 fish which believe it or not isn’t enough because we grow many fruits and vegetables, and multiples of each! So the cost of my fertilizer is the cost of minnows($20), gas($10-$20), snacks and drinks($20-$25). So roughly $60-$65 to nurture my garden for an entire growing season! TIP - applying a generous layer of garden lime on the fish and then covering the fish with 3-4 inches of soil before placing the plant in the hole will keep any animals from digging up the fish because the lime helps to mask the scent. Yes, I know lime lowers soil pH but it’s not enough to matter because it’s only a coating down where the fish is and in most cases actually makes the soil more favorable for plants that thrive in acidic soil like tomatoes and peppers..
I did this once, and the plant went bonkers! It was the best producer in the whole row!
Tempted to do this with my weed plants now they do have the same qualities as tomato
Sprinkle with ash before you bury the fish. Cheaper then lime, and will boost roots and foliage. Kills smell also, to help keep creaters away.
Adding Epsom salt can help with the nutrient intake also. I like the idea of dampening the smell with ash. Thanks for the suggestion.
@@Morthok It's real easy to overdo it with Epsom salts, so only use a very small amount per plant. If you want to unlock the nutrients in the soil and make them more bio available to the roots, mix some gypsum into your soil. It has an added advantage of helping to bring your soil to a neutral ph as well.
Bryon Brammer
IDT Tomatos really meed a lower PH ... they love acidic soil ... the very best Tomatoes ive ever eaten were in extremely high acidic soil. We are going high acid this year simply because of that very memory of where i ate those wonderfully tomatoes that i grew one year ling ago. Accidentally...
@@immalivingagain3672 Coffee grounds are great for lowering soil ph. Their naturally acidic.
@@natureboy6410 it's my understanding that it's the fresh out of the can coffee grounds that does that, not the used ones.
James I am A/B testing at work and I hope you’ll consider planting the same species a couple of feet apart with like 5 of each variety and then 5 with fish and 5 without. It would be so cool to see a little more of those experiments between 5-10-15 against each other. Busting myths in gardening must be a whole lot of fun.
How did it turn out
Nothing special in my case
I'm stoked for spring. Thank God it's warm out. I bought a house w 1.5 acres in NJ 2 years ago and I have been doing some much. I've literally had to cut down 35 or so trees. I've planted so much in place of these. I think 38.. plants so far. Of the 38, 7 are trees that fruit and flowering, 10 red burning bushes, hydrangeas, crepe myrtles. I removed oak and pine. Firewood for heating my house. Anyway lots to do.
Excellent James, Funny enough I use fish a fair bit with my toms and I'm in the middle of editing my tomato video ready for next Friday's release. They will do fantastic and the leafmould will really help with the fungal side of things, good to see you removed the leaves as some folks don't bother and when they rot this can introduce bacteria to the plant. You will have fantastic results with these toms. Great stuff mate
Thanks brother.
Oh cool, I will have to keep my eye out for your video.
I appreciate the info my friend 😁👍🏻
Natives not only used fish for fertilizer... they used a wonderfully brilliant system of planting. They would plant corn, beans, and squash together. The corn stalk provided something for the bean to grow on and the squash provided ground cover to prevent weeds. The beans were also a natural producer of nitrogen, providing further growing power for the others as well as leaving the ground in better condition than when they started.
came for the fish, stayed for the Tuckzilla
Hahah!! What a great comment ❤️❤️❤️
Yum Passport no you didn’t lol 😂
Hey James Use a handful or more of garden lime after you cover the fish with dirt. This helps keep animals from digging your fish and plant up, and also helps keep blossom end rot and blights from starting. Try it.
I’ve had great luck simply using extra infertile eggs from my hens.
Somehow I don’t feel right using a whole fish. Would think most would agree it’s a unnecessary waste of life unless using scraps.
Counterproductive if you want to live with nature. I support your efforts and enjoy your channel. Just on the fence with this one.
totally agree it is a huge waste and really foolish to not eat the meat of the fish and use what's left
The Datsun 240z project * not only that but I’ve eaten tomatoes that were fishy. So yeah, eggs make more sense to me.
Greetings from Nova Scotia, Canada!
I was born and raised in Newfoundland and it is a centuries old general practice to bury fish (usually capelin) in the ground especially for growing potatoes!
I fish a lot. Now I save the guts and the heads that I don't need for stock to use this way. Tremendous boost to the garden, more so than anything else I've tried.
Did this with my grandfather, never knew why,,but his garden every year was the bomb
Both my grandmothers did this in their gardens and the plants produced very well every year.
My mom used to do that. In fact, a number of people in Ontario do it, too.
Really!? How does it work out for them?
I think at first it wasn't really good because unlike what you did she didn't dig too deep. She mentioned that it worked once but we put cayenne pepper around our tomatoes so the local raccoons wouldn't get to them. I'm not sure if the peppers had any (useful) nutritional value but it made a difference. I might try it myself next year.
My Great Grandmother used to do this in Ireland and then in Bradley Beach New Jersey and she had the healthiest most productive tomato plants ive seen.
That's what we did with Jimmy Hoffa.
Best tomatoes ever!!
Ha ha ha.
*eva
Since James lives so close to the ocean, I've been wondering if he enjoyed fishing? Fishing has always been one of my favorite hobbies.
I think that is a speckled trout.
My great grandfather used to do this in his garden. He would go catch carp, chop them up and use them under his plants. I'll tell you what that man knew how to grow plants. His garden was like a forest, same with my grandfather's.
SHERIFF TUCK is on the job! So nice to see him protecting the Food Forest. Love the fish idea. We may have to try that next year. We put an egg in each tomato hole. We'll see what happens with that. Got some grow bags for carrots, sweet and regular potatoes, but it is so cold and rainy here right now, we can't plant yet. So fingers crossed, maybe next week! Blessings from NE Missouri!
I just love seeing you and Tuck together. I got a 6 week old little Beagle puppy a couple days ago and this morning as I sat in the garden with my coffee and watched her flop around, it felt like all was right, for the first time in a long time. It's just so lonesome without a little sidekick. What would we do without them? Her name is Rosie May Floppytop.
Thanks for this experiment, James. I'm so curious how it's going to turn out. I'd really like to try it myself.
Hi James I’m excited to see how much more productive your tomato plants are. I know it works great for me. I’ve ended up with six foot tall tomato plants. I put fish parts under my trees too. Give Tuck a pet from me. Yorkies are the best pups!
Yes I was told the same thing and years ago i use to do the same thing. I just put the whole fish in the ground. Lol
Haha! I was thinking about doing that Karen D, but then I thought it may breakdown quicker if I cut it in thirds 😁
Bet it would break down quicker. Love your videos☺
Do you get good results?
A lot of people in Austria now use normal sheep wool as cheap and good nitrogen fertilizer, and also as mulch. Especially for tomatos and potatos. I also add some layers to my compost pile. And we got more vegetables from some pots on the roof than we are able to eat.
Option for alternate video title: "How to spend 30 minutes planting a single tomato plant."
IN THE PAST i HAVE BURIED FISH AND THEIR GUTS AND HEADS WHENEVER i HAD THEM. ONE YEAR I FORGOT ABOUT WHERE I BURIED THEM AND PLANTED TOMATOES IN THAT AREA. I HAD THE BIGGEST PLANTS BUT LITTLE TOMATOES. SO A LITTLE GOES A LONG WAY. YOU BROUGHT BACK MEMORIES. AND A FEW LAUGHS. THEY ARE ALSO GOOD IN COMPOST AS LONG AS YOU PROPERLY BURY THEM.
My grandma usually put all waste product of the fish in the garden including the water use to was the fish before cooking.
I did this for the first time this year with my tomatoes! However, I threw a few handfuls of garden lime over the fish (about 10" down) to keep the smell down and keep the critters from digging my plants up. Plus, tomatoes like lime too!! I'm excited to see how it all pans out.
I would plant a couple of tomato plants without the fish as a test benchmark.
in fact, I think he pretty much has to do this.
I did by accident kind of...ran out of fish and didn't want to go get more. Bad decision. All are doing great except for the one that was planted the exact same way...except for the fish. :/
As a kid I had to put the garden in each year, right when walleye opened, I had to bury the carcasses under the tomatoes and peppers, it definitely makes them grow better
...or, instead of wasting fish, you could just buy fish concentrate which is made from fish bones, skin and uneaten meat. One tablespoon of it mixed with a gallon of water will do multiple plants.
How is this wasting fish?
@@dbow5077 Oh, I don't know...
We did this under each tomato plant this year & they never looked better, can't wait to see the end results.
I just stick a couple of sardines per tomato container. Super cheap
A few turds would work as well I bet
Tuk is just beautiful and I love the way you completely understand him. Thanks for informative videos.
Good episode James. Looking forward to seeing how the fish fed tomato plant works out. 😎😎😎
Thank you my friend! Me too, I think it will do well, but it will be interesting to see if it performs a lot better then my other ones
Should've planted one the same way, but without the fish, for comparison. How do we now know if it's the fish or just the compost working magic for this plant.
@@Gjorten LOL, wait & see🌱🌱🍃
It absolutely works 100%
I worked on a sport fishing vessel out of los Angeles.
In the spring time I would dig holes in a row then put fish heads, guts & bones in the hole.
Put a little soil on top the fish then plant tomorrow and green beans and never before or after have I seen vegetables grow so big and healthy.
We never used fertilizer and it was just a small area in the backyard in the city.
We didn't have mulch or anything.
Just dig a hole chop up the dirt, put the fish & the plant and water every day.
Everything was so big and juicy
Looking forward to seeing the difference between the fish as fertilizer and the Mykos.
Great encouragement in not listening to the doubters and haters.
Excellent! Thank you! All of those red cups laying around, I kept looking for kegs.
Hi, after planting three tomatoes, with chopped fish under them, when the plants matured there was no sign of tomatoes, but on each fruiting stem there was what looked like a small HAND after another seven days, i could see what was growing, yes IT WAS FISH FINGERS...
Fish bones might prevent blossom end rot by providing calcium
it will take a long time before the fish bones break down tho
OMG! My oldest sisters have been doing this for years and we are Vietnamese people. I am doing that too with my vegetables and all of my vegetables and trees are doing great!
Want to know what happens------Raccoon's dig up the fish killing the plant in the process.
Exactly! He was supposed to use white lime to cover the fish to deter the scent while its rotting down.
@@MsMunchy23 That only works sometimes.
This is actually an old fashion technique. You can do the same with fruit, vegetables and grain scraps instead of composing. If you bury deep enough and cover it well, as he did in the video, you won’t have the critters digging it up problem.
@@upat65 You have to bury raw protein very deep to keep scavengers from getting to it. That's why most places require graves be 6 ft. deep even if there is a casket involved.
Ray West Yup, very deep
Would it be worth asking grocery stores or fish sellers for their rotten fish that they throw away?
OMG I just planted fish parts in our garden!
Really!? What a coincidence 🙃
I'm thinking about doing that this year. My husband went fishing and brought home a few catfish, can that be used please and thank you!
I didn’t have fish but I buried a banana and an egg under mine this year, best show yet! One plant has 20 tomatoes on it.
i'm very interest in this experiment james. yes, we all learned in grade school that the indigenous peoples taught the invaders to use fish when they planted. well, let us see if it works. thanks for this video. hope you have a bumper crop of tomatoes. cp.
Great video, brother. We use to bury the fish remains after filleting fish that we caught fishing when we lived in NY but now in AZ we do monthly fish emulsion feedings on our vegetables and fruit trees with amazing results. Thank you for sharing another amazing video.
Excited to see the result!
I have a 104lb German shepherd trained to stay off my plants and she does a great job keeping the critters away from my plants. It does take a bit of training but it's not impossible.
You know what they say when life gives you fish grow tomato's
Hahah!! I love that! ❤️
In Phoenix, no fresh fish available. The last 2 years I have buried fish a stinky tilapia under my tomatoes and amended the soil with a bunch of compost, crushed egg shells and bone meal. I couldn't be more pleased with the yield and flavor.
You grow like a weed farmer using ayzos and mykos. Salute my guy. Nice garden. 👍
Gotta adopt successful methods 😁👍🏻
@@jamesprigioni yes sir! Lol
I think you will get great results, I too am trying something new to me this year. One raw egg broken into the hole then the tomato planted on top. Jess at Roots and Refuge has done this with her own prize winning tomatos. Thanks, peace.
Awesome Experiment. Test the history.
I hope you have the biggest tomatoes in Jersey :)
LOVE IT!!!
I have buried fish in my tomato holes in the past and now. What Im finding if you bury the fish deep you see no results , just put the fish chopped around the sides where the rootball might be. By doing it the latter way Im seeing a difference. I just have fish in 4 holes and those are the ones with the biggest blooms.
It takes a good year for a fish like that to break down enough for a plant to use it. It MIGHT help next years tomatoes.
So u think the roots can't grab anything straight out of the fish
etherium cryptorama Nope. There is a process where organic matter must return to its mineral and microbial state before a plant can take it in and build its own version of life based on its DNA. That’s why we take our table scraps to the compost pile. It sits for months breaking down to its simplest state. Now there are processes that can speed up the break down, but just burying a fish in the ground will take months and months to break down.
@@benb7727
Interesting that you think so. In my experience after a couple of months, I can't find any trace of the fish I've buried under my melons and tomatoes. I do however see results from the fertilizer value of the fish. The plant growth is amazing.
Did this 50 years ago with sun dried Lake Michigan alewives. Could go down to the beach and pick up bushel baskets full. The raccoons and other animals didn't bother digging them up because they didn't like them, so your garden was safe. Great tomatoes and no splitting.
My dad used to use fish in our garden. He was a natural!
Great to hear that NancyAnn. It seems like an older style technique, so I was just ducted to put it to the test 😁
@@jamesprigioni subscribed!!!
I put some crappie scraps in the yard a few weeks before I planted a tomatoe plant and got 128 tomatoes off it,it grew like 15 feet long and had tomatoes from June to October some as big as the small burner on an electric stove
in my land ..tomato is just rupees 10 per kilo..but..fish..cost 5oo to 1000..depending on the quality...ha ha
Give a man a fish he eats for a day, teach a man to fish he eats for a lifetime
The old farmer I met would bury fish leftovers from de-scaling, de-boning, etc. He saved them and buried them in his garden under whatever he was planting. He swore it worked, and it was his only soil amendment. I was told it is common practice in Japan.
I used Alaska fish fertilizer for years since I don't fish and my husband practices catch and release here in Missouri.
You can also throw a handful of garden lime on top of each bunker, to help neutralize the smell.
I wish your food forests and mine were neighbors
Me too Sam! Our trees would help pollinate each others, and we could share the harvests :)
This works really well with corn, too. Dig a hole near the base of the stalk and drop in a fish. No need to cut it. Bury it and that stock will develop large ears of juicy corn.
Racoons come and dig it up and my tomato dies. If not a racoon, a skunk or even a bear will dig it up. Not for my garden.
Same thing in my garden. I used the fish 5 1 1, and the garden was attacked. Something dug up half my plants.
@@kfs9300 I used to use bone meal especially when I planted bulbs but something always dug it up. I use composted cow manure from our local dairy.
James my father in law use to use the spring herring out of the delaware and a boy about 6 use to ask him why he was planting fish . He told the boy so he could have fish. I have ALWAYS USED FISH EMULSION on my starts and never hurt any plant i put it on so the fish is good to use.
The raccoons will dig up your tomato plant and get the fish; I tried this years ago.
😂😂😂
That depends. Not everyone has animal pests in their area.
If you cover the fish with agricultural lime when put in the ground, it covers the smell. And can be a helpful soil amendment.
1 kilo fish + 1 kilo sugar mix them and put in a hard plastic container fermint that in 1 month = FAA ferminted amino acid
Bury fish and every damn critter in you neighborhood will be digging up your garden....
HYSTERICAL RESPONSE, @Recovering Liberal
Gotta bury deep enough and through a handful or two of lime on top.
I was just in an argument with coworkers about native Americans doing this or not, googled it and found this video. Thank you for helping me win an argument 😂
Thanks for sharing. I will try this method.
Glad to hear that Katrina! I will keep you updated on the progress of how it grows. Make sure to keep me updated with your progress as well 😁
@@jamesprigioni thanks I will!!
Bro nothing but respect For u brotee. From México.
Has anyone ever tried using minnows? It works great for my garden.
yup all my leftover bait ends up in the garden or the compost pile :)
Sort of expensive when you can take a pole and a few worms from your garden and catch a bucket full of Perch or Brim.
Around my area we get alot of tadpoles... sooo many that the water they are in will not support them and most die off anyway.... so net a bunch (leaving some for next growth cycle) and plant them directly into the soil!
I've heard about and seen this done on Hollis and Nancy's Homestead. I've learned you can add some lime o top of the fish to mask the smell so animals won't smell the fish and try to dig out your plants.
Very 'positive' message. Thanks. I live on the Pacific Northwest Coast and this is an excellent message.
James I've actually done this with a hen that was killed by a varmint and the tomato grew and produced more than any of my other tomatoes.
Great video James P !!! Go go Tuckzilla !!!
Thanks Donald!! Tuck is the true MVP
I find that blending the raw fish into a chum works better for breaking it down, if you want speedier growth than a whole fish.
Ive watched your videos before but im definitely subbing now. Awesome life lessons on top of the gardening tips. Plus your Italian from NJ..me too..lake hopatcong, Jefferson..Thanks for the great content.
He's cool and yes, very good. My first vid. I subbed. Guys are funny - YEAH!!!! to the fish under tomato plant. :) I love men.
Guys use the fish remains along with molasses in equal ratio (1kg:1kg/1litre) and keep it closed in an airtight container(for anaerobic bacteria to carry out the decomposition process) for about 25-30days opening on the 10th and the 20th day to mix it up and then close it back again. There should be no traces of water but just the molasses and fish remains(head,tail,gut,etc). On the final day when you open it should smell like honey, filter it, store the filtered liquid in the jar and throw the remains on to the compost. The remains at the bottom is highly rich in beneficial microbes so don't throw it away. The liquid collected could be stored for about 6 months in an airtight container, it is to be diluted with water in the ratio of 25ml:1000ml. You shall see the effects of this biofertlizers in about a week or 10days max. The leaves would grow bigger and greener.