# Lacto bacillus serum - fish hydroslate



## Alasgun (Jun 14, 2021)

Over the 4th; i’ll be on the fish wheel for 3 days and expect to re-fill my fish hydroslate barrel with carcasses. They’ll need broken down before they’re useable and it will be next year before i need any of the stuff as i used up most of what was all ready in the barrel recently.

not unlike any other batch; i made the rice water, cept this time there’s almost a gallon. When it was ready i added 1/4 cup of a good probiotic and 3 gallons of milk. This will produce roughly 3 1/2 gallons of useable product once it’s done.

the ratio is suppose to be 10 to 1 fro rice wash to milk but over the years i’ve learned more is better as it speeds up the separation phase greatly. The added probiotic has proven valuable as well.

Anyway, inside of a week it’ll be ready to go!


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## Baymule (Jun 15, 2021)

What do you do with the fish carcasses, add the rice/milk to break down the fish?


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## Mini Horses (Jun 15, 2021)

What do you do with  any and all of it??

We process animal manure, not fish.


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## Alasgun (Jun 15, 2021)

There’s 2 popular methods to make fish emulsion, the hydroslate method doe’s not use heat And is the way we roll because it’s simple, cheap and in the end we get a whole fish product; including the oils.

The Lacto bacillus is great for breaking down organic matter and easy enough to make. I will also buy 4 boxes of kiwi’s and blend them before adding them to the drum as well. The enzimes in the kiwi are the same as papaya which is used in “meat tenderizer”. Between the two of them they will break down the carcasses and be ready to use by next spring.

After the  first year had about 3 inches of left overs we look at kind of like a sour dough starter so now I just make a fresh batch of the LABS, add the kiwi mash and im good to go. Been using this process for several years now and love the results. For application i’ll lay the drum on its side, unscrew the 6 inch bulkhead fitting and slowly roll the drum over till emulsion pours into a five gallon bucket. I’ll draw off 1/2 a bucket then fill the rest of the bucket with water. Stir it up a bit and apply it to the plants. I discovered early on i needed to unscrew the rosette from the watering can or else it plugged pretty quickly 😳

This year im using twice as much of the LABS / kiwi mix; hoping to get a more thorough breakdown. The large spine’s (these are 10 - 60 lb. fish) take the longest to dissolve so i usually help them along with a long paint stirrer in a cordless drill by whipping everything to a froth after 6 month’s or so.

Any fish will work the oiler the better! Everything loves it and you’ll see noticeable results within a week. Once a year is all we do, usually about now; once everything’s in and adjusted from being transplanted etc. From an organic gardener’s perspective we consider the fish emulsion a valuable tool!

We also use the LABS on the compost pile etc, as mentioned previously. Having a constant source of Rabbit manure has been nice this year and i’m getting enough that i compost 2/3 of it now. Between the LABS and the manure; our compost will be better going forward.


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## Grizzlyhackle (Jun 16, 2021)

Alasgun said:


> Any fish will work the oiler the better!


That would explain why store bought fish emulsion is made with menhaden, super oily and inedible, at least to people. 
You are definitely Bill Nye the science guy.


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## Alasgun (Jul 11, 2021)

My fish wheel trip took place a couple days ago and ive added some pictures to show you how that all works.
During the 48 hour period we caught 57 fish, 7 of which were King salmon and had to be released☹️.Over all it was a lot of work and i can see some possibilities if you lived closer to your own wheel. This would be a good reliable way to take fish each year. everyone up and down the river by us was averaging a fish an hour which is quite slow fishing.
I went, I saw and I enjoyed the experience but will now cross that off the bucket list and take the boat to Seward in a couple weeks for our fish.
At the top of the hill behind us is the Chitina airport, so several times a day a group of the tour operators were busy ferrying folks out to various locations.


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## Grizzlyhackle (Jul 11, 2021)

@Alasgun second picture what type fish are the filets and what's in the net?


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## Alasgun (Jul 11, 2021)

The small (filleted) fish are Sockeye or Red Salmon And the two bigger ones in the net are King or Chinook’s, which sadly had to be released this year. 
Copper River reds can reach 9 lbs and the Kings can push 50! Usual and customary is 6 lb. Reds and 25lb Kings. Like the ones shown.


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## Alasgun (Aug 4, 2021)

I spent a few hours at our local dip net fishery last week and netted 19 red salmon for the effort. This area is only open one week during the summer; if the escapement goal has been met. 
essentially you float around in a canoe with a dipnet over the side and fish swim into it. Bonk and repeat!
Not being a people person; i’ve not participated in this one for years due to the size of the crowd but when some Church friend‘s invited me to go with them i relented; and really enjoyed myself!

the left overs are gleefully swimming in the hydroslate barrel right now.


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