From the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations - Poultry Development Review:

"Some fishmeals may be objectionable because
of putrefaction, impurities or excessive salt content. Samples containing as much as 15 percent salt are not uncommon."

From a paper on Horticultural use of sewage sludge:

High soluble salt levels are likely to be the
major problem associated with excess use of compost
made with sewage sludge (Gouin, 1977;
Gouin and Walker, 1977).

Below is a link to the salt content of various chemical fertilizers. It is recomended that potassium phosphate be used rather than potassium chloride (high salt index of 116.2, versus an index of 10 for triple superphosphate, which is used in large-scale agriculture, but not sold over the counter.).

Ladyrose65 - I feel for your loss, and best regards to your garden. My 3-year old once "shake-and-bake" my tomato garden with 10-10-10 pellets fertilizer. I scooped the top 1" off my soil and it was OK again. Rose Unlimited has a sale either the second or third week of June where everything is $10 per gallon - I got big roses from them during that June sale. BurlingtonRoses@aol.com has a large selection of thornless and OGRs' for $10.95 a band, and $7.50 for mini-roses. They send you their list if requested, and the shipping cost for band-size is low.

I hope my Knock-outs die, so I can replace them with thornless roses. The hardest part of gardening is shovel prune the ones I don't like, I have a hard time killing plants on purpose. Accepting the losses of plants is easy for me (I lost tons through a harsh winter, or a wet spring).

Sincerely,
Rose

Hi Kitty: I checked on liquid fish emulsion, it's less salty than fish meal, it's preserved in phosphoric acid which gives a pH of 4 to 5. I found a link that showed excellent result with Neptune soluble fish emulsion, pH of 5.0, calcium of 3.64, and Iron of 101. Neptune has good amounts of calcium and iron, which are often deficient in alkaline clay soil.

The alfalfa pellets did poorly in this university experiment, showing chlorosis in marigolds. Alfalfa pellets has pH of 5.9, calcium of 2.24, and less Iron at 65. However, when neptune soluble fertilizer is used in conjunction with alfalfa pellets, marigolds achieved biggest bloom.

Both Chamblee and Heirloom nurseries recommend a slow-release nitrogen fertilizer, then a soluble fertilizer applied at 2 weeks interval. The Chicago Botanical Garden stated their soil pH at 7.4, with composted leaves and they use a soluble fertilizer 20-20-20 for their roses. However, there's salt-build up with chemical like MiracleGro, esp. with potassium chloride with a salt index of 118.2, and ammonium sulfate with a salt index of 88.3.

Anything good in excess can be harmful. Someone reported using a $10 bottle of fish emulsion for the entire year, in a very diluted dosage with good result. Others report bad burns with fish emulsion called "Alaska MorBloom", NPK of 0-0-10-10. High phosphorus content like bone meal and MorBloom is notorious for burning plants' roots, and best used more diluted than instructed.

Below is the link to a University study on Neptune Fish fertilizer, they use discarded RAW fish, which preserves the enzymes and bacteria beneficial that feed both the soil and the plants. Other fish products use COOKED fish, which destroys the enzymes.