We have been in a constant battle to defeat the efforts of several chemical companies who have been sending out their sales reps disguised as agricultural engineers to neighboring farms in northern Baja California and are giving out “recommended formulation” worksheets listing their pesticides and chemical fertilizers to the unsuspecting farmers.
Sometimes the best strategy is to set up an experiment and prove to the farmers how to get better yields using less or even no chemicals and only natural fish fertilizer. We chose 2 identical olive trees on a neighbor’s farm in January, growing side-by-side. For one tree we applied the Fish Fertilizer. On the other tree, we had the farmer apply the chemical-based fertilizer from the sales rep’s company. By the 19th of April, after almost 4 months we recorded the following results:
In the top photo, the olive tree has produced a lot of buds which will soon begin transforming into new olives. In the bottom photo (the tree with the chemical fertilizer application), it is difficult to find a single bud on that tree.
Chemical fertilizers just like pesticides tend to weaken the plants and trees making them even more susceptible to drought and insect plague. In this case, the healthy tree that was fertilized using natural fish was in much better condition and much further along to producing a healthy crop of olives.
Farmers are so worried about possible crop losses during the summer season due to insect or fungus infestation that they apply chemicals in anticipation of these problems. However, what they do not realize is that these chemicals will weaken the plants and make them more susceptible to attack which in turn causes the farmer to apply even more and more chemicals to try and eliminate the various plagues. Bad for the plants, bad for the farmers. Good for the chemical salesman. Plants that are fed natural fertilizers are much more resistant to attack by insects and fungus and will show much stronger growth and fruit or vegetable production.
We leave this one shadowy industry and submerge 80 feet inside the wreck of the former U.S. Naval Vessel Kittiwake. This vessel served as a support vessel for our submarine fleet for many years after it was launched in 1945. It had one major accident during its career when collided with a ballistic missile sub when her engine controls were mistakenly wired incorrectly during a shipyard repair — her forward control actually made the Kittiwake go into reverse. After the refit, when the crew put the controls into forward, the propeller actually turned backwards, pushing the ship back into a ballistic missile submarine. A prouder mission was its 1986 recovery of the black box from the Challenger disaster. This ship was purposely sunk along the coast of the Grand Cayman Island as a dive attraction in shallow water.
We have an olive tree. It needs help. It looks like something is on the branches such as mold. Any suggestions?
Sandra- Usually if its mold, its on the leaves not the branches. Most of the time this happens from over-watering the trees.
I would try less frequent watering, with no spraying of the water, so that the water does not hit the leaves and I would also give the tree an occasional deeper watering with the hose aimed directly at the base of the tree. If you are using any chemical fertilizers or pesticide or fungicide sprays, I would discontinue them. They weaken the tree and make it less resistant.
Olive trees are pretty hardy and are used to the more arid climates.
Of course we are just guessing in your case since we have no idea what you are doing nor where you are located, local rainfall etc..
Good luck with it
Seagate
Your fish fertilizer is made from anchovies and sardines, with each jar equal to 16 lbs. of fresh fish. It has been widely reported that those two species have been overfished to the point that the fisheries have crashed. How do you reconcile the two? That your natural fertilizer is directly contributing to the demise of two fish species?
Hi Amy,
First of all, it is good that you are concerned about the health of the world’s sardine and anchovy fisheries because most are in poor shape.
However. the sardine fishery off the coast of Baja California is actually recoverying after its disappearance in the early 60’s. It happens by coincidence that I did my Master’s thesis on the health of this fishery at the University of Rhode Island’s School of Fishery/Resource Economics. Part of the study found an unfinished Doctoral dissertation by Katsuo Nishikawa (U. of Oregon oceanography school at Corvalis) (he is now deceased and never finished his work) that analyzed bird excrement sediments dating back 1 million years on the rocks along our coast. The sediments identified the size and longevity of these fish populations based upon the measure of fish scales in the sediment of the guano. The study found that these two species have had a natural ebb and flow for 1 million years predating any pressure from fishing by Man. Fishing for sardines began along the West Coast just before World War II — have you read John Steinbeck’s Cannery Row? The sardines disappeared in the 60’s but not as a result of fishing. For 10 years nothing occupied this level of the food chain until the reappearance of the anchovies ~1972, which thrived along this coast until the early 1990’s. Now we have had 10 years that the sardines have returned and recovered … and the anchovies have disappeared (again). This work and the measure of the natural cyclical nature of the anchovy and sardine populations off the California and Baja California Coasts have been also verified by the NMFS (National Marine Fishery Service).
This is a lot more complicated that you may think. Fishing pressure is just once small and minor influence on fish populations, particularly these 2 off this coast. Much more important are water temperature, the appearance of upwellings and the survival of the recent hatch of fish eggs. Some years when the water temps are too warm and there is very little upwelling of nutrient-rich water, the egg survival rate is miniscule. Several years of this (El Nino condition) can decimate the population of the current species occupying this niche in the food chain.
Given your concern about the ocean, I have 2 suggestions —
1) You should better research an issue before you make this sort of accusation.
2) If you are really concerned about our oceans, there are some real man-related problems that are in the process of destroying many fisheries and reefs — acidification of the seawater due to co2 gases given off by fossil fuels especially coal-fired electric plants in India and China; dioxins, furans, heavy metals and PCB’s from a variety of chemical companies and the paper industry in Washington and Oregon; and the raw untreated sewage (aeration and stage 1 filtration is usually all that is being done); and of course, the radiation from Japan … just to name a few.
So every time you drive your car, turn on your lights, purchase paper or chemical products or flush your toilet … you become a factor contributing to the decline of our oceans. It is so easy with the internet to read a couple of blogs or summary articles and form an opinion and expertise and decide to do some arm-chair quarterbacking. But a little information making you feel like an expert in a field may open you up for someone with over 40 years studying this subject to tell you that you are wrong.
Thank you for taking the time to write your comment. Richard