I just recently went fishing and caught a lot of fish. As you may know, fish guts, heads, fins, etc. are very good sources of fertilizer for plants. Normally, I would just bury the guts in the ground by my plants, but we have a new composting pile, and I was wondering if I could put the fish parts in there. Would this disturb the composting process?

Thanks in advance.

I've never done it but everything rots so why not is my view.

I have used fish parts before but I never composted it.
I used Summer Flounder, Speckled Trout and Sea Robins. But I buried the parts under roses, tree peonies, azaleas and rhododendrons to name a few.
In my mind when I think of bones, fins, skin, heads and guts, I thought that decomposition would take longer then other things. I also wondered if all of that material would draw scavengers.

Ok, thanks. It's bluegill and crappie. I'll just bury the fish parts.

You could wait for more feed back.
Oh, but they will get a bit more fragrant!!!

That's another thing I was thinking about!

I've buried crab waste. It was surprisingly not that smelly once underground. And crab waste is really rank sitting in a dumpster.

A critter did dig into the crab waste.

It's actually my cat I'm more worried about. I idiotically put some fish guts in my radish soil one time, which of course led to her (my cat) digging up my radishes. I'll bury them underneath our apple tree. It needs fertilizer anyway.

I should think that as long as rodents don't get into it, it will be great for your compost pile.

I was told meats and animal derived fats were a no-no for compost but I'm glad I found your post so I can follow the replies.

I don't get that many fish bones, but I do chop up chicken bones and also put crab shells in my compost. Takes longer to compost, but I just throw it back in the bin when I scoop out the good compost. Seems like the organisms go after the marrow in the bones first. I do keep a cover on my bin when I do that and also bury it under other stuff when I add it.

We don't get a lot of good fish here in Arizona but I have buried them under tomato plants and added them to my compost. They always disappeared in just a few months. I've also made my own fish fertilizer using the 'Korean Natural Farming' method. Pulverize some in a blender. Mix that with equal parts of brown sugar. I place it in a container and leave the container in my garage for a few month and walah I have diy fish fertilizer. Mix 1 tablespoon with 1 gallon of water and feed it to your plants. They like the fish and the sugar high. Good stuff.

Disease is also a potential issue if you aren't actively managing the heap to make sure it hits high enough temps to kill them. That's less of an issue with plant matter. The disease they carry generally aren't going to infect you. For garden waste, you have signs of infection and shouldn't be adding them anyway. Some of the diseases you are adding to the pile with fish offal, like E. Coli, can make you very sick.

A pit/trench composting of the fish does an awful lot to mitigate the risks. Even if the diseases don't die because of temps during composting you aren't turning/handling the diseased bits regularly.

Patty Pan brings up a very good point that you should all remember. Everyone should practice good hygiene in the garden. I insist that everyone who enters my garden must wash their hands first, I always do. And I regularly/daily clean my shears and knives with alcohol and make sure that all containers and utensils are kept clean. Animals are not invited in. This is probably why not one person has ever gotten sick from eating anything I've grown in 13 years.

But, here is a good article from the CDC Canada which explains how e-coli can even be present in lettuce. This is good to know.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/health...

Can fish be contaminated with e-coli? As this Wikipedia article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... simply states....

"Escherichia coli (/ˌɛʃəˈrɪkiə ˈkoʊlaɪ/ ESH-ə-RIK-ee-ə KOH-ly)[1][2] is a gram-negative, facultative anaerobic, rod-shaped, coliform bacterium of the genus Escherichia that is commonly found in the lower intestine of warm-blooded organisms". And almost all fish are cold blooded.

And, as this article from the Utah Dept. of Environmental Quality.... https://deq.utah.gov/water-qua...
states...."Can fish from the lake be contaminated with e-coli? Probably not. Because fish are not warm-blooded, E. coli cannot live in the fillets. However, the water covering the fish could contain E. coli, as well as the guts of the fish. Uncooked fish may well have E. coli contamination. Wash and cook the fish, and wash your hands after handling fish and lake water to reduce your risk".

So, if you think your fish might have come from a contaminated lake or pond you should probably not use it.... or even eat it....... would be my advice.

Old timers, farmers and everyday homesteaders regularly compost fish and animal products when they know exactly where their food has come from and that it was perfectly healthy. Fish is cold blooded so very, very little chance of e-coli contamination and it composts pretty quickly. I've never had a problem composting, burying or fermenting it into fish hydroslate fertilizer. Does everybody feel enlightened now?

Happy gardening everyone.

electricmayh said: I was told meats and animal derived fats were a no-no for compost but I'm glad I found your post so I can follow the replies.

That advice is part of the standard 'how to compost' rules that 99 percent of garden writers are going to repeat forever.
I think it started with a concern that meats and fat may attract rats,.raccoons, whatever, more than than just fruit, veg and garden waste.

I have a great though unproven faith that most pathogens are not good survivors in the open garden environment. Obviously, I cannot prevent every bird flying overhead or vole tunneling. So my garden is already exposed. It's the huge factory scale farming and processing and associated contamination that apparently led to romaine recalls

Debbie, thanks for the CDC lettuce link, that was informative.

Hi Sally, happy to be of assistance. I became a little obsessed with cleanliness in my garden years ago when there was a big lettuce recall. And the news said it was from Salinas, California. I've been to Salinas many times. It is a wonderful little working class town right on the Monterrey bay with the perfect weather conditions for growing vegies. It was so beautiful driving past small 20-30 acre farms with fields covered in beautiful, healthy, green lettuces. How could their lettuce have e-coli? And if it could happen to them could it happen to me?

I paid attention to this story and months later the FDA had the answer. A small group of feral pigs had broken down the old 3' fence and gone into a corner of the field. The farmer fixed the fence and didn't think much of it since he only lost a very small amount of his crops. What he didn't realize was that they had walked right through the small irrigation ditch that he watered the field with. They had contaminated the ditch with e-coli and now we know the rest of the story.

We can't 'baby-proof' every inch of our gardens even though we would all like to. But we can be aware of issues and be alert to mitigating them.

And I think you're right about 'garden writers' simply passing down the same old suggestions. After all, it's not terrible advice. It does take longer for most animal products to decompose and unwanted animals could be attracted to the smells. That's good to know. However, I visit several homesteading chat rooms on a regular basis and they compost animal parts regularly with no problems. Like I said, they know where their food has come from. But everyone should be aware of the issues and draw their own conclusions.

As always, happy gardening.

Good info here. Very informative, thanks to everyone contributing.

Since I asked this question two years ago, I still haven't placed any meat in my compost, just simply because of how long it takes to break down. Also, the fact that most people both on here and other places online were of the opinion, "Well, it won't be terrible but it's not ideal either". We butcher deer occasionally and go fishing pretty often (especially during the summer months), so having that much meat matter in my compost would just be a lot to sort through when the time comes to use it. That being said, I've just been sticking to burying the fish parts. Plants really like it, and then I don't have to sort through the compost to find the "ready" parts when I need to use it.

Plus, I'd just rather not have to be battling the predatory critters around here; placing bones and meat in my compost would just be asking for a disaster with the coons, coyotes, lions, foxes, etc. Oh, and rumor has it that bears are making their way back into the Black Hills, so I definitely wouldn't want to have to deal with those, either.

Sounds smart, Johannion.
I think if I lived very rural, I'd just go winging the extra stuff off into the woods. But yeah, attracting bears etc would not be good.

My rule of thumb is to not use animal compost on my food crops, or to at least wait another 120 days after it is fully composted. Also, when I add animal products to my compost bin, I bury it under the compost and also put the lid on the bin for a while so as not to attract rodents.

I've put whole fish in a compost pile before. It was during the hot stage, and it broke down the fish very fast. I just made sure to bury it about 2 feet deep in the pile. I've buried various dead animals in the garden for 40 years with no ill effects, only thriving crops.