Fish Amino Acid for Organic Fertilizer: How To Make It and Use It
Fish Amino Acid (FAA) is a Korean Natural Farming supplement that is abundant in amino acids and nutrients and therefore has some great benefits for your plants if you are an organic gardener.
It’s worth noting that (FAA) Fish Amino Acid and Fish Emulsion are not the same.
You can find commercial fish emulsion for purchase on garden store shelves which is made with fishing industry byproducts as well as the byproducts of the fish oil industry. On top of being pricey it also is processed to avoid putrefaction on the shelves, and is thereby lacking in the bacterial microorganisms that are important for plant and soil health. This may be the reason that there are so many conflicting reports out there on whether emulsion is effective or no.
Making Your Own Fertilizer Improves Efficacy
When it comes to my own farm and garden spaces, I stick to making as much as possible on my own. I like to know exactly what is going into everything that is being used in my soil and on my plants, I like to know that it’s going to be effective, and I like to keep the ingredients as simple and as straight forward as possible – my plants seem to be quite pleased about it, and I think you will be be too if you give it a go in your own gardens.
Tips to Get Started Making (FAA) Fish Amino Acid
- Gather your materials. Finding the scraps to use can be as simple as going out for a fishing trip if you enjoy time out on the water and are close enough to a body of water to do so. If you don’t have the availability to go out fishing you can also buy whole fish at the grocery. You will want to be sure that it is indeed whole – bones, guts, head in tact, and you will want to be sure that you are choosing a blue-black fish.
- What’s a blue-black fish? Blue-black fish is the common name for blue-colored fish such as bluefin tuna, yellowtail, mackerel, sardine, anchovy, and salmon. These types of fish are rich in protein, vitamins, amino acids, and essential fatty acids such as docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA).
- Next, you need to make sure you have brown sugar on hand and, optionally, IMO ( indigenous microorganisms to inoculate the fish with beneficial microbes.) You’ll notice if you choose to incorporate the IMO, your FAA will have a strangely pleasant smell. Wild, considering the fish parts it’s made from – just goes to show the power of those incredible microorganisms!
Steps To Make (FAA) Fish Amino Acid:
- Choose your fermentation vessel. You can go with a clay jar or BPA free plastic jug. I like to use a cooler because being able to pop the spout open at the bottom makes the harvesting process incredibly simple.
- Line your fermentation vessel of choice with about 4 inches of various sized rocks to facilitate drainage.
- Layer fish parts and brown sugar into the vessel in a 1:1 ratio. Alternate fish parts and brown sugar, forming a layered mass. Fill the jar up to ⅔ of its volume.
- Cover the final layer with packed brown sugar.
- Add a small amount of IMO to the final layer of brown sugar to aid in the decomposition of the fish.
- Cover the vessel.
In a few days, the fish parts will begin to ferment. The fish parts will become liquid through the osmotic pressure generated by the brown sugar. It will take about 6 months for the fish parts to become fully liquidized. As I briefly mentioned earlier, mature FAA will smell sweet, not foul, almost like soy sauce. It will be viscous and dark in color.
If you use a vessel like a water cooler, which has a spigot that allows you to collect FAA from the bottom of the vessel, then you may choose to continuously ferment more FAA. Simply add more fish parts and brown sugar in layers as more room becomes available in the vessel.
Every few months, remove bones from the vessel. Compost the bones or use them to make Korean Natural Farming Brown Rice Vinegar (BRV), a water-soluble calcium phosphate.
How To Use Fish Amino Acid In The Garden
After patiently waiting for your ferment it’s an exciting day when your (FAA) Fish Amino Acid is finally ready to use in your garden!
It can be used as a soil prep to help your plants roots establish and really develop well, as a foliar spray, and/or as a liquid fertilizer throughout the growing season.
Be sure to dilute your Fish Amino acid with water before using it. I use FAA in a dose of 1:1000 parts water.
FAA is rich with nitrogen and encourages plant growth during their vegetative state and can be applied to both soil and foliage. Using it as a foliar spray will help to repel insects such as worm moths and mites. Apply your diluted FAA with a spray bottle to both sides of the plant leaf and let it work its magic.
If the FAA at any point starts to smell foul, just add more sugar to the fermentation vessel and you’ll be golden!
If you’ve ever tried FAA in your garden I’d love to hear your experience! Which plants do you feel benefit the most from it in your area? Let us know in the comments!
Happy growing!
