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Hello All.  I have a large pond covered in duckweed.  I have a 3" trash pump that I am going to use to pump out the duckweed onto the bank of the pond.  I am going to have a mountain of this stuff.  I am going to use a portion of it in compost to amend some raised beds with but I would like to do something with the remaining duckweed other than letting it compost on the side of the pond.

Anyone have any experience making storable feed out of duckweed?  I literally will have tons of it.

TIA for any suggestions.

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If you know or can find someone with a feed pellet machine (wood pellet machine) you could put though that and have feed pellets for later use.?? There are many different kinds just find one that can make the size pellets you want, you may even be able to find some where that rent them?

Dry it and bag it.  It loses a little nutritional value when dried but is still worthwhile to do.  Fish love the stuff.

If dried you get a high nutritional value feed supplement that will likely store well for a time.

But as for ease of use, you will probably get the most benefit by composting it.  If you have a worm farm near by they might like it as feed stock for their worms.

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll dry what I can and compost the rest.  Just got started with a couple of pounds of red worms and with cleaning up around the place they are getting well feed.  If anyone around Cincinnati needs duckweed I have 13 surface acres of it.

Dang, so now you need an acre to compost it on and a huge mound of leaves to mix it with and you could probably have some nice compost to sell.

That sounds like a good plan too!


   My vote is to feed it to the fish and give the leftovers to your worms.  We run a redworm farm, and we feed our leftover duckweed to our redworms.  Even in redworms, feedstock inputs do make a difference in the health and activity of the worms and in the quality of the worm castings produced.  Duckweed is high in protien, which is a plus for the redworms.  It would be better used as feed for your redworms, rather than just letting it sit and decompose on its own.  Even if you have too much to feed your redworms now, if you dry it you can use it as feed for fish, and worms later.

    By the way, we also feed duckweed to our chickens,pig, peafowl and quail.

  Hope this gives you some more ideas.

 

- Converse


Jon K said:

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll dry what I can and compost the rest.  Just got started with a couple of pounds of red worms and with cleaning up around the place they are getting well feed.  If anyone around Cincinnati needs duckweed I have 13 surface acres of it.

if you have some means of drying the duckweed, you could probably sell it as animal feed.

Perhaps stretching a shade cloth screen such that it will keep the duckweed up off the ground as you pump it out onto the screen to dry.  You would need to spread it pretty thin to let it dry quickly and then collect it somehow.

A large steady supply of duckweed can be pretty handy to have if you have a market for it.

Post on craigs list, you might be able to get people to come take it from you fresh for a small fee.

Doggone, you could make good money selling it here in AZ! We work hard to grow it for our chickens & tilapia (yes, it's great for chickens, too!) I read a study that up to 50% of a tilapia's diet can be dried duckweed without slowing growth.

Some people freeze it in ice cube trays and toss it into their fishtanks, too. You'd have an awful lot of of ice cubes, though. If you can dry it, that would be awesome!

New to this discussion group, and wanted to start by saying thanks to Carey, for starting this group.

 

Second, here is a good link on duckweed info: http://www.mobot.org/jwcross/duckweed/duckweed.htm

 

Finally, as I didn't run across anyone mentioning purslane as a good fish food source, thought I'd add it here. A common weed, quite tasty fresh or stir-fried, and high in Omega 3, my chooks & bunnies like it, as well as do the bluegill.

 

Lastly, Carey, do I understand you live in Beijing? lived there for a time, and would love to come see your set-up next time I'm across the Pacific!

Cheers. Tim

Hi Jon,

 Having ideas on what to do with all your duckweed is one thing, but actually putting them into practice is another. If you want to learn details on any particular use, please email me at tamraf9@gmail.com. I'd like to have you offer your situation for conversation at our Friday "Meet and Greet" group of duckweed researchers and growers of the International Lemna Association.  Also, am curious if you have this much coverage of duckweed every year,

TC, that's good information about perslane.I knew we could eat it, but I didn't think about it for the fish. We grow that wild, and very easily. I'll try some with our tilapia to see how they take to it.

Tamra, who would have guessed there to be an international group about duckweed! Thanks for letting us know about it.

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