Vintage Fertilizer Round Up

‘nuf said. Nothing say’s spring, like spreading Whale Fertilizer.


Before the Japanese and Whale Wars,  the idea of whale fertilizer was not unthinkable. In face, I remember bottles in the 1960’s in my dad’s chicken coop along with cardboard cartons or arsenic powder and DDT. Ahem. Still, Whale fertilizer when viewed through out filters today, seems an uncomfortable as Women not having the right to vote’, segregation on buses  and ‘don’t tell don’t ask ‘…..no, wait.

Blue Whale Brand Fertilizer was extremely popular with Rhododendron and Primrose growers in the Pacific North West during the first half of the 20th Century. See the bags in the top photo? Blue Whale came both in a liquid form, as an extract created from rendered Whale meat and organs left over from  oil and margarine manufacturing, and, it came in a very popular impregnated sphagnum peat blend which was sold until the late 1960’s.

If not Blue Whale, why not Blue Ox Steer Manure, cause, everyone knows Steers produce better manure than cows.
Mermaid emulsion?
Hmmm,

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Comments

  1. The thought of using whales as fertilizer is beyond appalling, and any gardener who would should be swatted on the butt with rose canes.

  2. My grandmother used Blue Whale fertilizer on her African Ciolets. Nobody thought about how appalling the practice was. In today's world….it is unthinkable.

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