haha - either you use a lot of laundry soap - have been saving scoops for many many years or you don't plant many seeds?? You just lost credibility when it comes to refrigeration - just kidding!

That's a good idea actually - you could probably label on the handle too?

You know your cheap when... I making my own fish emulsion in 5 gallon pails from the left over fish carcasses after fishing trips. It stinks to high heaven. The pails ferment in areas where I want to keep the deer away. A great deer repellent. Killing 2 birds with one stone.

IMPORTANT..... I don't do this anywhere near the house!

I have always wanted to ferment fish fertilizer. Please post more on the process of how to do it. I wanna do it.

do you grind it up first. do you add salt. how do you keep the fly away if you do that. do you add any water sugar etc to the brew.

this is the one thing I always thought i could not get the answer from google. haha. love it.

I have been making my organic ferts from plant material. and i really want to use fish. the fish fertilizer emulsion is so expensive now.

thanks for your help. I will check back here

I reuse old egg cartons for seed starting. And if we use disposable cups (plastic or styrofoam) they get washed and used for transplanting. And I prefer the term "Frugal" thank you very much :^)
Edie

I reuse all kinds of things also!

This reminds me of something that I did about 5 years ago.

I was driving home in my work truck, I was on call and it was getting dark.

I spotted a seed starting tray on the side of the road. I turned around and got it. Being "Frugal"...... But I could have lost my job or went to jail!

I noticed it had some plants in it but it was too dark to see them and I just put it in the back of the truck.

I figured they were just weeds and had fell off of someones truck since it was near a trash substation.

The next morning I forgot about it and drove to work.

One of my co-workers called me to the side and said to me, " Are you crazy? You left your Pot plants in the back of your truck! I covered them up so the boss wouldn't see them!"

Low and behold I had a tray of Pot plants! I got away from work as soon as possible and disposed of them!

LOL, Hudson ! Actually I plant only Red Robins so I know who they are without labeling. Wert, that's hysterical. Edie, how about yogurt cups too, since you're FRUGAL? : )

What about cutting paper towel tube in sections or toilet paper cardboard tube in two, to start seeds?

Yogurt... eww, yuck. 'nuff said? LOL!!!

You know you are cheap (aka practical) when you don't invest in blacklights (as recommended in another post running right now) just to find hornworms on plants.

Dave

What about cutting paper towel tube in sections or toilet paper cardboard tube in two, to start seeds?

I knew some day I would come up with a use for all these toilet paper tubes I have saved up. and just in time. I was running out of room in the house.

No I am not frugal. I am cheap.

Chewy,

This is really simple and you will be surprised how fast the fish decomposes.

In a 5 gallon bucket (I prefer black but any color is OK):

I start with about 2" of aged sawdust in the bottom of the bucket. The sawdust is from a very large pile that was left on my property when they logged it off. The I fill it to 1/2 to 2/3 full with the fileted carcasses of sunfish and crappie. Any smaller fish (under 1# fish) carcasses will work for this. With big fish, it takes too long for the heads to break down.

Then add water to within 4" of the top and then 2" more of sawdust on the top. Web sites recommend adding molasses but I have never found this necessary. Those same sites recommend putting screen on top and then a lid. I just stretch a plastic grocery bag over the top. This keeps the flies out of the bucket. The bag fits very snug over the bucket rim.

After about 10 days, I take off the bag and give it a stir with a stick that is used only for this purpose. Then a fresh bag goes back on, stretched over the top of the bucket. After another 10 days, repeat stirring. At 30 days it can be used.

It can be filtered through a screen or used chunky. Depending on how and where you use it, will determine how much you need to dilute it. I usually dilute about 10 or 20 to 1 to use on garden plants.

I should mention that it is done in 30days during the summer, when it is warm out. If you do this in cooler weather, it could take 60 to 90 days to finish. You will be able to smell when it is done. It changes from smelling like rotted meat to more of a really stinky manure smell.

I don't know if the smell of the buckets actually "repel" the deer. It's possible that the smell is just strong enough to mask the smell of what you don't want them to eat. Anyway, it works.

I've got my 3rd bucket of this brew going right now. I've used it earlier in the season on my tomato, pepper, and cucumber plants. It works GREAT!

The current batch will be used on my compost pile. Right now the pile has too much brown matter and isn't "cooking"
A bucket of fish emulsion poured on top of the pile will supply the nitrogen and moisture necessary to get the pile "cooking" again.

I just had to pipe in to say....

I'm sure glad I'm not your next door neighbor! ;0)

Yeah, I hear Ya! We don't live at the location that I do this. It is just 5 acre piece of land that I have a pole barn storage building on, and where I do my gardening.

The closest home is 1/4 mile away. I do think that adding molasses might help control some of the smell, as does the bag over the top. Uncovered, it does get your attention right away.

OK, Edie, pudding cups? Sawed off water bottles? : )

Today I bought a platter-sized cake that was 40% off at Walmart. First time in my life I went to their bakery.

The cake looked like the right diameter I needed its dome to make a sturdy humidity dome for some struggling cuttings.

There was no ruler to be sure about the size, so I went to the office supplies department and "borrowed" one and made sure. 11" exactly! What luck, so I made the $7.79 investment. Non-taxable. Separately, containers are taxable; Unpackaged cakes are also taxable. Sold together, they are non-taxable. A Win-Win-Win frugal gardener situation ;-)

Cool idea !

Deeby - LOL!!!
Oh, along the lines of being frugal and not wasting things... my "foundling" has put out several tomatoes, and the first one should be ripe enough to cut into about Wednesday. Can't wait!
Edie

This post was edited by ediej1209 on Mon, Aug 18, 14 at 10:50

I was wondering how it's doing. It'll be fun to see what you get.

One thing is for sure - it can't taste any worse than Green Zebra!