A Minute Treatise On The Gloriousness Of Neptune's Harvest
Perhaps I should start by saying that Neptune's Harvest is my favorite fertilizer that I spend money on. Wait a minute, it is pretty much the only fertilizer that I spend money on. I am cheaper than a big box store flip flop when it comes to purchasing homesteading accoutrements. We won't delve into my frugal farming philosophy today, for instead I am going to wax poetic about a bottle of fish and seaweed guts.
Neptune's Harvest Fish and Seaweed Fertilizer. Really, just take in its name. It is that awesome. I spent years building up my North Idaho glacial silt with homemade compost, made of various manures. only to still feel that my plants were lacking a little bit in the vibrancy department. One of the first things that I did when I began homesteading was order a soil test, so I knew that my soil was pretty much lacking in all the minerals. Obviously my compost would be too, so I began searching the Internet for something to amend my little food production world with. I wanted plants so green that I would consider employing a psychologist.
A lot of the market gardeners that I followed on various forums talked about their love for fish and seaweed emulsion, and when I delved further into organic options I stumbled upon my ol' friend Neptune. The reviews were rapturous, and being somewhat of a skeptic I started wondering how many acolytes that the god of the sea had enlisted to overwhelm Amazon with such glowing accolades. "Eh," I remember thinking, "It's just $20, I'm gonna try it!"
Try it I did and wow! If you want your plants to be the most vibrant shade of green, full of lush foliage that would totally cover one's nakedness, and covered with fruit, flowers, and vegetables like a Pinterest wedding buffet post, then do yourself a favor and order a bottle.
My garden runs anywhere from 40X60 to 80X100 feet in area and I tend to go through one or two quart bottles of Neptune's Harvest in a growing season. I also use it on all of the shrubs and flowers around my humble abode. Application is easy, you mix in one to two tablespoons of fertilizer per gallon of water and foliar feed away. Sometimes I pour the emulsion and water mix right on the plant's foliage, other times I side dress. Either way I water rather well after application.
A Couple Of Tips:
This stuff is fragrant. Don't be like @generikat and apply Neptune's Harvest while wearing flip flops before a shift at the library. Not only will you smell like a seafood cannery, but you will be fending off any feline in vicinity who will be attacking your toes like they are salmon-flavored fish sticks.
Application: I usually hit my garden inhabitants with a dose of this marvelous fertilizer every two to three weeks. Anything in the Cucurbitaceae (cucumbers, squash, melons) will really respond well to an application. I usually splash it's oceany goodness right on the blooms during flowering.
Don't keep the fertilizer in your house unless you want your domicile to have an authentic seaside smell. I don't think Glade makes that particular scented candle yet, so I suppose the scent option is there for the nasally adventurous, but I don't recommend it.
Neptune's Harvest will always have a place among the compost, compost tea, worm casings, and Comfrey tea fertilizer menagerie on my homestead. If your plants are looking a little lackluster then I recommend an application of the essence of the seaside!
And as always, all of the images in this post were taken on the author's slightly sea-scented iPhone.
Want to read more @Generikat posts?
