Growing Duckweed

HTH

Howard
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We have another post about duckweed control. Rather then hijack the OPs thread lets talk about growing duckweed here.

I am growing duckweed in one of the containers in my 1000+ gallon setup made of IBC containers aka lifts. Currently the duckweed is getting about 25% of the water that come out of the barrel filter. Started with about 4 square inches of duckweed. Keeping fish in the container would be a bad idea because the duckweed takes up most of the surface. They say it grows by 75% or so a week.

My tap water has 30+PPM nitrates and between the duckweed and bare root lilies the nitrates in this system is in the 20PPM range last time I tested it. Not bad as it is not lightly loaded.

I was worried about the string algae but for anything but fry I feed it along with the duckweed. I have since removed the quilt batting tray to ensure the duckweed gets enough sunlight.

qb1.jpg
 
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Duckweed can double once every 24-36 hours. I grow it commercially for boutique animal feeds. If you'd like tips on how to grow it for koi, you can visit my blog: www.DuckweedGardening.com and do a search for specific key words you are interested in. I've been a huge fan of duckweed for several years by growing it in any container I could find, including kiddie pools. This year, I am excited to move to large ponds and be able to produce tons of fresh duckweed weekly. Yes, humans can eat it but certain species taste better than others. Also, you'd need to grow it in a fairly germ-free environment. The folks in Asia who eat it fresh in salads have developed a strong immunity to local bacteria. We in the US who use anti-bacterial soap all the time... not so much. ::)
 

HTH

Howard
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Welcome to the forum.

Read your forum back to April 10th. You mentioned 20-20-20 fretilizer but did not say what nitrogen or nitrite level to aim for.
 

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