Production Process

In order to achieve the highest bio-activity and maintain the integrity of nutrients, Pacific Gro digests the protein, bone and shell in a vigorous vortex at room temperature. All ingredients are compliant with requirements of the USDA’s National Organic Program (NOP) and the products are listed by OMRI and CDFA for Organic Food Production.

Unlike lower cost fish emulsion fertilizers, no fish oil is removed.  Pacific Gro has 10 to 15% fish oil and fatty acids - from Pacific Ocean salmon. Others use heat to speed up the enzymatic digestion process and to evaporate the product to achieve higher N-P-K content. Heat improves the chemical analysis but degrades the biological activity. Because Pacific Gro is cold processed hydrolysate, it has more diverse and plentiful microbes and enzymes and stimulates higher biological activity.

Some process steps are proprietary, but the the process is essentially as follows:

• Fresh fish and crab processing residuals are received from seafood processors (30% - 60% of the catch is sold for human consumption, some of the fish scrap becomes pet food, and we convert the rest to fertilizer)
   
• The material is ground to a slurry, then processed in our ‘breaking tanks’, which promote digestion by the enzymes native to each species, in a high-energy vortex grinding action. No fish oil is removed, and no enzymes are added.
   
• Acid is added to stabilize the product at pH 3.5
   
• The product is screened 3 or 4 times, passing a 165 mesh screen at the end (90 micron).