A Community and Forum For Aquaponic Gardeners

The Duckweed blues

Last Monday I bought some duckweed from the Garden Pool Guy in Mesa, Az. He said it would be enough to get me going. I immediately added some to a 11x22 seed tray along with a bubbler and a little hydroponic solution and full sun. I heard this stuff grows very fast, I got to be doing something wrong cuz its much less now than I started with.

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Permalink Reply by TCLynx on November 4, 2011 at 6:37pm

it likes fairly calm water, dappled shade and ammonia instead of nitrates.

Permalink Reply by David Schwinghamer on November 4, 2011 at 7:35pm

Please explain the last part of your reply

Permalink Reply by Eric Warwick on November 4, 2011 at 7:45pm

Rather than using, nitrate, NO3- as its source of nutrients it uses, ammonia, NH4+. Your hydroponic nutrients probably had ammonia, NH4+, in Ammonium Nitrate form, NH4NO3 (note the numbers shoud be subscripts). This means that the ammonia is locked up with the nitrate instead of being with on its own with another element, this would make it attianable. If you want the duckweed to grow you could put some urea or pure ammonia in it, small quantities.
David Schwinghamer said:

Please explain the last part of your reply

Permalink Reply by David Schwinghamer on November 4, 2011 at 8:04pm

Thanks bunches, what is dappled shade?

Permalink Reply by David Schwinghamer on November 4, 2011 at 8:20pm

Spotted shade like under a tree, got it.

Permalink Reply by TCLynx on November 5, 2011 at 7:42pm

Thanks Eric for responding for me since you probably answered more clearly than I could have. (I probably would have said pee in it.)

And yes dappled shade, like under a tree or light shade. I've used 70% shade cloth over a tank to grow duck weed very well even in the heat of summer in Florida.

Permalink Reply by Eric Warwick on November 5, 2011 at 10:29pm

What do you think I meant by urea?

TCLynx said:

Thanks Eric for responding for me since you probably answered more clearly than I could have. (I probably would have said pee in it.)

And yes dappled shade, like under a tree or light shade. I've used 70% shade cloth over a tank to grow duck weed very well even in the heat of summer in Florida.

Permalink Reply by David Schwinghamer on November 8, 2011 at 7:43am

I finally found some pure ammonia, all I found was lemon. I found a janorial supply store that had the pure stuff. I dont know it will help though, I noticed my duckweed is more yellow than green, thanks guys for steering me straight with my duckweed blues.