If allergic to fish, will fish extract fert cause probs?

[*dim*]

One of my client's has a large vegetable garden (raised beds with a roof of bird netting) ...

I have been planting several types of vegetables/herbs over the past few weeks and have been growing organically ... (using organic fertilizers) ...

was working there today, and her mother told me that she is allergic to fish (very allergic and can die if eating any fish products) ....

One of the nutrients that I have been fertilizing with is biobizz fish mix and I have been using that as a foliar feed .... I have also been using a nutrient/fert made of seaweed/algae, and another that also has traces of hydolized fish ...

types of veg planted so far are peas, cucumber, marrow, squash, carrots, celery, tomatoes, parsley, onions, spring onions, sweet potato, sweet peppers, spinach, wild rocket, baby lettuce, chilli, beetroot, oregano, swiss chard

so, most probably a dumb question, but would the fish fertilizer cause her any problems? (the veg won't taste of fish, but not sure if it's a good idea for her to consume any of the veg?)

There is a large raised bed with strawberries that were planted last year, and I have also been foliar feeding them with some fishmix (they look very healthy .... dark green leaves with lots of flowers

[RamonaGS]

As someone with a severe allergy to beef, I avoid risks of cross contamination. I would say avoid the root vegetables to be safe for sure, but I may avoid the rest to be safe. If it is awhile yet before you are ready to harvest, and the veg are not flowering yet, I think it might be safe if you switch fertilizers before they start flowering and fruiting. Maybe there is a big expert that knows for sure somewhere here

[applestar]

Wow that's a tough one. I have food allergies and sensitivities myself, though none of mine are directly/immediately lethal.

My first thought was, is it fish or shellfish? You don't often hear of fish allergy that is to anaphylactic degree, though very often of shellfish.

Next question I had was is biobizz a fish hydrolysate -- I.e. enzyme digested fish fertilizer? (vs. heat processed but undigested) That may alter the protein sufficiently to not trigger the "allergic" reaction.

Also, is it allergy or sensitivity?

Since you are foliar feeding, I would guess that salads, greens, and fruits are very questionable. But I suppose it depends too on when you stop using it. I wouldn't be foliar feeding with fish fertilizer just prior to harvest anyway.

Seaweed -- wow would it have any trace of fish? ...I guess it's possible.

Does this person avoid going to the coast altogether?

Does your client regularly eat PURCHASED organically grown vegetables? Fish fertilizer of any kind is pretty common use for nitrogen source.

(strawberries -- I hear that you want to back off on the nitrogen and switch to bloom/fruit promoting fertilizer once they start producing buds -- lush green leaves aren't everything )

FWIW -- I don't normally fertilize that much at all and still get a good harvest. I've tried completely non-animal/fish sourced nutrients too -- like all plant material compost, seed meals, alfalfa pellets/meals, used coffee grounds, AACT.... My garden is full of earthworms so that may make a difference. (Hmm.... Just remembered I never tried using soybean meal for nitrogen source because I'm allergic to soy) I admit this year, I'm using commercial organic fertilizers for comparison.

Ultimately, I think this is a question for your client's allergy doctor but I hope I raised enough points of inquiry. Good luck.

[cynthia_h]

I agree with the previous poster that a medical specialist should be consulted.

I myself have one "anaphylactic" allergy that may be relevant: bee stings. Doctors have told me that the next bee sting will be my last. (Yes, I had the "first sting" from bumblebees, honeybees, wasps, and hornets, so the next sting from any of these insects....bleah.)

Even so, I can eat raw honey without any ill effects.

This may be the inverse (or reverse) of your client's mother's situation, but I thought I would drop this datum into the hopper.

The plants uptake elements: nitrogen, sulfur, manganese, etc. They don't uptake "fish." But there could be subtle processes of which I'm unaware--not being either a soils scientist or a botanist--beyond the breakdown of the fertilizer/foliar spray into elements and the uptake of those elements into the growing plant.

*That* is why a doctor or other medical specialist should be consulted. A potentially life-threatening reaction--and I've experienced one due to another sensitivity--is nothing to mess with. Emergency rooms are not light entertainment.

Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9

[gixxerific]

Talk to your doctor.

I could say "Just don't eat it" but once you smell it eating it will be far from your mind.

[sepeters]

I wouldn't chance it, especially since it is for a client's garden.

Recently I used a milk spray on some of my peppers despite having a casein allergy, thinking I'd be ok as long as I washed the fruit before eating. I must have touched the plants and then eaten or otherwise had contact with my face because I got very, very sick. From past experience, I can say with certainty it was a reaction to the milk.

Maybe try a kelp fertilizer. Is that an option?

[cynthia_h]

Recently I used a milk spray on some of my peppers despite having a casein allergy, thinking I'd be ok as long as I washed the fruit before eating. I must have touched the plants and then eaten or otherwise had contact with my face because I got very, very sick. From past experience, I can say with certainty it was a reaction to the milk.

So sorry that this may have been part of the reason you haven't posted for a while, sepeters.

You may be very self-disciplined about not touching your face when working in the garden, but as a survivor of systemic poison oak (it wasn't diagnosed until quite late in the game) who later experienced the same symptoms after working in my own completely poison-oak-free garden, I have become 100% self-disciplined about absolutely not touching my face with my hands/gloves/tools, even to brush away my hair from my eyes, once I go out among the plants.

From that moment until I'm back in the house and have washed hands and forearms with 1) soap and 2) Tecnu (just in case...), I may have hair in my eyes, but I've had no more outbreaks of juniper-related dermatitis (I had no idea until the critical moment that it was a trigger...). If the hair is actually on my eyeball ( ), I find a redwood twig--there's no juniper anywhere near the redwood tree--and use the twig to remove the hair. Otherwise, I just have to wait. It was amazing to learn how many times in 15 to 20 minutes I was unconsciously touching my face....

Horribly, might you have breathed in some of the spray? The primary modes of exposure are ingestion, inhalation, and skin exposure (if I'm remembering correctly; I'm not at 100% this afternoon myself).

Cynthia H.

[rainbowgardener]

Re the original fish question. I'm no expert, but what seems logical to me is if you were spraying your fish emulsion on the foliage of plants like lettuce, where the foliage is eaten, then some of it could be directly ingested. That would be very bad. My mother was allergic to eggs and could not have certain vaccines because they were cultured on eggs, so obviously it does not take a big amount. On the other hand, she could eat cake, because the eggs were baked/ denatured. Clearly you would wash your lettuce, but nothing is ever perfect.

Using the fish products in the soil, seems like a whole different issue. At that point what is in the plant is just what the plant takes up, which as noted, is just the nutrients it needs. And then it converts those nutrients into plant tissue. So as long as nothing is splashed on the plant, I can't imagine fish products in the soil causing any problem. But of course checking with a medical specialist is always good.