Skimmate for organic garden fertilizer?

[moon jelly]

Larry-forget the refractometer. Do it the real old fashion way......taste it :eek1: . Kinda like when people would taste urine to see if it was sweet to diagnose diabetes (I didn't make that up)

I'm not putting that on my refractometer.

 

[Amaya Reef]

Salts always build up but when it rains that's basically your flushing. Same thing with my vegetables even though from start to finish my garden is 100% organic I still flush them with plain water every so often to flush any salt build up.

 

[skunkmere]

I had a buddy who would mix his skimmate cup in 5g bucket of water to reduce the salinity content and pour it over his tomato garden. It worked extremely well. Sadly i have no pics but from what he said he was very pleased and happy with the results.

I think this is the proof, im going to try it this year.

 

[xtlosx]

I think this is the proof, im going to try it this year.

I'm doing it this year too and will keep this thread going...

Outside of our vegetable garden, I have kiwi & grape vines, oranges, lemons, apples, peaches, cherries and pear trees I am curious to try this out on.... Now I have a use for both my spent GFO & skimmate!

Great thread everyone.

 

[DgenR8]

Larry-forget the refractometer. Do it the real old fashion way......taste it :eek1: . Kinda like when people would taste urine to see if it was sweet to diagnose diabetes (I didn't make that up)

Not that I'm old enough to remember, but I was already aware that tasting was the way to diagnose diabetes. No wonder Doctors make so much $$$.

 

[Reefer54]

I used mine for my indoor plants. it needs to be diluted, but with a good amount of drainage, i have not seen any negative affects to the plants, but instead, great growth and some salt dried up in the plastic trays under my plants.....i dilute with my fresh water fishtank water.

 

[skunkmere]

Im really surprised it too this long for this topic to be discussed on here.

 

[xtlosx]

Im really surprised it too this long for this topic to be discussed on here.

Agreed... Can't wait to see how this helps my fruit trees this year.

 

[vega77]

You feed your fish with food thats labeled with not for human consumption. You might use some kind of medication. Maybe you use chemiclean or similiar to combat cyano.
The corals you have can use chemicals to fight for space.
I not sure i will use it for foodplants....

 

[xtlosx]

You feed your fish with food thats labeled with not for human consumption. You might use some kind of medication. Maybe you use chemiclean or similiar to combat cyano.
The corals you have can use chemicals to fight for space.
I not sure i will use it for foodplants....

While I agree with this to an extent, you don't think the stuff people make fertilizers with are going to be spick and span? Fish emulsion and other "organic" fertilizers have just as much crap in them. Just my .02.

 

[Amaya Reef]

People put road kill in huge composters along with tons of other stuff it's the best way to feed your garden. Cheap and all organic.

 

[DgenR8]

Im really surprised it too this long for this topic to be discussed on here.

The idea has been kicked around a few times here. Do a search on skimmate, fertilizer You'll get over 50 threads. They're not all specific to gardening, at least not by title, but it looks like there are a few good ones.
I "skimmed" a few of them, there's a lot of agreement on one side.

 

[taylor t]

It all depends on the guy using it, if it's wet or dry skimmate, what they're using it on, and how it's done... Are they adding it sparingly, or dumping it on? It would probably be great for saltwater algae growth... really... maricle grow is cheap, compared to this hobby...

 

[sabo]

Interesting. I was thinking of feeding my worm farm with my skimate but was worried it was too salty.

 

[Amethyst]

I have used old tank water from freshwater tanks on my vegetables, herbs, and flowers for several years. Cuts way down on water costs, since our summers are really dry. I also add the occasional dead fish to my compost, or directly to a garden bed as long as it's out of site of clients walking up the walk - don't want to gross anybody out with dead fish!

I've not used water from my brackish tank because I was concerned the salt wouldn't be good for the plants, and I'm just setting up my first saltwater tank at full ocean SG, so I can't comment on that. However, I am really curious to see how it goes.

 

[xtlosx]

So I have been saving all of my skimmate since this thread started in a large BRS container, and today was the day. I diluted it a bunch and poured half and half on two of our Pear Trees. They just flowered heavily this week so I'll get a good idea of how it goes....

I go through skimmate like crazy, so why not feed my fruit trees a more natural fertilizer that I throw away weekly anyways right?

 

[skunkmere]

thats great, i hope it works out. This and running your waste water to your plants would make the most out of the waste from this hobby. So should the goal to dilute the skimate be to dilute until it reads 1.000 on the refractomer/hydrometer?

 

[xtlosx]

thats great, i hope it works out. This and running your waste water to your plants would make the most out of the waste from this hobby. So should the goal to dilute the skimate be to dilute until it reads 1.000 on the refractomer/hydrometer?

meh, i'm less scientific... I just took about equal parts to what I had and added water. I figure with my normal watering of the grass\trees and the rain, it will dilute enough eventually.

So far, it's been over a day and the pears look awesome... still happy and blossoming so no short term quick effects.

 

[skunkmere]

some observations from my test.

I cleaned my skimmate from both my tanks. both reef octopus hobs one on my 90G = about 2 cups of nasty dark skimate and my 24 BC about 2 cups of green water. i dumped both in a bucket and also tossed in the rinse water from cleaning the cups. i had about 1-1.5 gallons of water. i swirled it around and tested it with my Refractometer and it came out to 1.002 SG. So just a bit more and it would have been completely diluted.

 

[xtlosx]

some observations from my test.

I cleaned my skimmate from both my tanks. both reef octopus hobs one on my 90G = about 2 cups of nasty dark skimate and my 24 BC about 2 cups of green water. i dumped both in a bucket and also tossed in the rinse water from cleaning the cups. i had about 1-1.5 gallons of water. i swirled it around and tested it with my Refractometer and it came out to 1.002 SG. So just a bit more and it would have been completely diluted.

Interesting.. mine was a whole lot less scientific as I just dumped a bunch of water in there to fill the BRS jug to the top...

So far so good! Who knows how much of an actual result I will notice, but at least I'm not wasting my skimmer into the sink.