If I had set out to completely cover my pond with duckweed I could
have scarcely have done any better, and I thought sticking an aerator
it there would eventually clear it. Alas, that hasn't been the case
at all. The neighbor never showed up with the "river carp" to eat the
duckweed, the aerator has cleared a circle about 15' in diameter, but
that's about all it has done in a year, and the turtles (yes, they eat
duckweed, but not near enough) and ducks haven't been able to control
it either. As I mentioned, the pond is spring fed and eventually
drains into the Suwannee River, so not only am I very reluctant to put
stuff in the water, it is also quite illegal to do so. On the bright
side, people keep telling me that the thriving duckweed is a sign of a
very healthy pond.

Here's a bit of a mystery. I have a pond (or what used to be a pond,
it has mostly dried up now) up closer to the house that several years
ago (when it had water) I tried to "inoculate" with duckweed by
bringing several bucketfuls (of duckweed and water) up from the back
pond. While all kinds of other plants grew, the duckweed never really
caught on, and that pond remained duckweed free for years before it
sort of dried up (there's still mud and about an inch of water in the
very bottom). Next to it was a rubber "horse trough" type of tank
that I hauled down to the back pond. It was quite dry when I hauled
it down, and over the past few months it has collected rain water to
where there is now about 5 inches in the bottom. Mosquitoes don't lay
their eggs in it (I'm guessing the water gets too hot this time of
year) but it does have -- you guessed it -- duckweed. I haven't a
clue how it got there, birds won't fly into the tank, it is high
enough that terrestrial critters can't get into it, and is one of the
last places I ever expected to see a thriving colony of duckweed.

I think if I could find a good commercial use for duckweed I could
probably become rich, I seem to have stumbled on ideal conditions for
it.

On Sun, 12 Sep 2010 07:18:20 EDT, Phyllis and Jim
wrote:

Hi Galen,

I was just noting that my duckweed in the home pond is weakening at
the end of summer. That brought me to think of your pond. How is it
doing? Still covered with duckweed?

Our country pond is still totally clear of plants, compliments of the
two 3 yr old grass carp.

Jim

There is a natural duckweed treatment by a company called AquaHydrotech.

No chemicals and it does seem to have good reviews.

Billy

A horde of goldfish or shubunkin will do a good job of nibbling duckweed and whittling it down to size, before it gets going in Summer.

When they have done their bit and their population explodes, expect nature to do the dastardly deed and send a plague of predators to thin them out...

Some sort of mesh should stop those fish from being flushed downriver when storms overflow.

Duckweed, and many other opportunist aquatic can literally hop from pond to pond, on the back of a frog, or a bird

Regards, andy
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