I use commercial fish emultion on mine. I am pretty sure a fresh fish carcass works as well or better.Just make sure the critters you mention do not include bears!

bamatufa no bears where I live. There are plenty of coons, possums, coyotes and stray cats. Luckily bears are no closer than 15-20 miles east of my house. I also use commerical fish emulsion. Right now I have Alaska brand but from everything I've read Neptune Harvest makes a hydrolized(?)version which is supposed to be better from a nutritional standpoint. I still have about half a gallon of the Alaska left so I can't justify spending the cash on the NH while I still have decent FE left.

Bears just 15-20 miles east? That's dang close! Hopefully just Black Bears,not Grizzlies. The Alaska and Neptune brands are sold down here also. Fish and kelp type fertilizer. Have used both but not sure which is better. Purchssed a gallon of the Neptune kelp end of last year. If I did not have backyard dogs I would try fish carcasses. No Salmon down here,just fresh water fish,bass,catfish,etc. and a lone alligator now and then.

I give my bananas ash from my chiminea (high in potassium) and fish emulsion and they grow and fruit really well.

I had a mango that I regularly fed fish carcasses and it grew faster and produced more fruit in less time than any fruit tree I grew before or since then.

Unfortunately since I moved away from the coast I do not fish any more but every time I buy whole fish they go in the ground near a fruit tree. We have no bears, or deer here in southeast Florida so I have no worries about animals digging them up :-)

BTW, WHY would your wife give you a hard time for burying fish carcasses?

Gary

@ bamatufa nope only a handful of grizzles around here and they are way up in the mountains. Lots of black bears.

@ gnappi you don't know my wife haha. She's quite anal and would be worried about the potential smell. I bury it relatively deep but she still thinks there would be this stench and the neighbors would be put off. What she doesn't know is when we build our tropical raised bed this coming spring I am gonna bury a bunch of fish parts when she ain't looking. Fish parts are the best ferilizer you can use.

Are bones and left over of cooked fish as beneficial as raw fish/ bones as fertilizer?

It is probably good but aways heard anything cooked has less nutrients than in its raw form.Otherwords, raw crunchy green beans has more nutrients than good tasting, cooked green beans ( with a little pork fat thrown in).