What kind of soaps can be used in the Vinegar Herbicide?

[crsublette]

What kind of liquid soap or clean surfactant can be used in creating the Vinegar Herbicide? Mentioned in Garrett's latest book.

[Dchall_San_Antonio]

Certainly any organic surfactant will work. Yucca is a popular one.

I use a very small amount of liquid dish soap.

[CaptainCompostAL]

Fish oils is both a great sticker-spreader for any organic fertilizing or pesticidal spray, plus its a great beneficial fungal food for aerobic composting teas.

[Mr. Clean]

crsublette.

I will admit to grabbing for the bottle of liquid dish soap. BUT, if you like you solution to smell better...try picking up some Dr. Bronner's PEPPERMINT Pure-Castile Soap . Plus it will add some ZING to your morning showers :) It is concentrated and a little goes a long way.

Cap'n where does one go about buying fish oils commercially? How potent is the aroma? :wink:

[CaptainCompostAL]

I don't really know, Mr. Clean. Even though it can be expensive, some folks stock up bottles of the stuff from health food stores. Creative organic teas are definitely the most economical way to spread something expensive into your gardening system via foliar spraying or misting, for maximum microbial activity and crop foliage uptake.

I am blessed enough to make my own. I collect over 20-30 lbs per week of boxes of salmon and grouper fish scraps from a local seafood market, for my composting business. Since all meat products are high protein "greens" for composting, it is best to mix with a high carbon "brown" like untreated sawdust, shredded paper products, or ground up pine needles, in order to mask the smell, and to form humus faster in the decomposition. Molasses and other sugar products are also great as extra high carboneous microbial foods, to speed up the decomposition and mask the funky smells.

[Mr. Clean]

Thanks Cap'n. I remembered from past posts that you composted significant amounts of fish. I can only imagine what a rich compost that must yield. :) I have very little fish to add to my pile, usually just the occasional (rare) unfortunate resident from my fish tank. Most fish we buy are filets, so no skin or bone. But I digress...Do you relegate some fish for composting and others for extracting the oils? How does that work? Do you "cook" the fish and drain off the liquids?

I hope this conversation is viewed as supplemental to the original poster's and not off-topic. :)

[CaptainCompostAL]

I read once that fish oils are best extracted either by cooking it out, or by soaking in it a water based solution for several weeks, (in a slightly closed container of course).