Video on Duckweed<\/a><\/p>\nCommon duckweed, or lemna minor<\/em>, grows in thick blanket-like mats on fresh or brackish still waters such as ponds, lagoons, swamps and slow-moving streams, especially those containing high amounts of nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorous. That\u2019s why it\u2019s often found in wastewater coming from residential areas, crop farms, hog and poultry operations, cattle feedlots, slaughterhouses and food processing plants, where effluent, excess fertilizers and slurry abound.<\/p>\nAccording to a study by the UN\u2019s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), duckweed acts as a nutrient sink \u2014 absorbing primarily nitrogen, phosphorus, calcium, sodium, potassium, magnesium, carbon and chloride from waste matter. Depending on the water source, duckweed may be used as an animal feed or fertilizer. It may have to be decontaminated, though, prior to feeding to animals if there is a presence of heavy metals, as these are also consumed by the duckweed.<\/p>\n
ANIMAL FEED<\/strong><\/p>\nDuckweed can provide all the protein needs of tilapia and carp \u2014 which is why it works great for aquaponics. It can either be fed fresh as the solitary feed, but a combination of 50 percent dried duckweed and commercial pellets or other feed components produces much better results. Duckweed can be grown separately and then given to the fish, or grown in the same pond or container. Other aquatic animals that benefit from fresh duckweed are catfish, snakehead, silver barb, milkfish, jade perch and crayfish.<\/p>\n
For livestock, duckweed is best given dry. It is highly recommended for small-scale integrated farming operations that include fish, pigs, chickens, quails, rabbits and ducks. For poultry, dehydrated duckweed can replace up to 40 percent of conventional feeds of laying hens and older broilers. Feeding trials in Peru have demonstrated that duckweed can substitute for the soybean meal for layers and broilers.\u00a0Duckweed-fed layers produced more eggs of the same or higher quality as control birds fed the formulated diets.<\/p>\n
Duckweed is particularly noted for its high concentrations of K and P pigments, particularly carotene and xanthophylls \u2014 valued in poultry operations as these impart color to chicken skin and egg yolks.<\/p>\n
For pigs, very little research has been done but a 30 percent dried duckweed diet was given to hogs in Vietnam and it resulted in high-nutrient digestibility.<\/p>\n
HUMAN CONSUMPTION<\/strong><\/p>\nBut the best thing about duckweed is that it is also edible for humans. Duckweed resembles in taste to watercress or spinach. The wolffia<\/em> genus has traditionally played a role in Asian cuisine, where it is used as a nutritious vegetable by the Thai, Burmese and Laotians. Duckweed can be mixed into soups and salad, or used in sandwiches as a substitute for alfalfa, lettuce, watercress or spinach.<\/p>\nDuckweed is found all around the world. It survives in extreme temperatures except deserts and perennially frozen regions. It thrives best in tropical and subtropical zones, but can grow anywhere with temperatures between 63 degrees and 86 degrees F (or water temperatures between 42 and 91 degrees F). Some species tolerate winters by sinking and laying dormant at the bottom of the water, only to resurface during warmer weather when normal growth can resume. Depending on species, duckweed thrives in ph levels 5 to 9, but likes the 6.5 to 7.5 range best.<\/p>\n
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How to grow Duckweed in the same pond as your fish<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Permaculture Thailand – Feed Your Livestock, Fish and your Family With Prolific, Fast-Growing Duckweed. Duckweed has been gaining a lot of attention in the farming community, owing to its ease of cultivation and the growing proof of its usefulness as a high-protein feed supplement. Duckweed packs crude protein of 35 to 43 percent, fiber of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P5hbwr-nx","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.permacultureinstitutethailand.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1459"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.permacultureinstitutethailand.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.permacultureinstitutethailand.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.permacultureinstitutethailand.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.permacultureinstitutethailand.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1459"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.permacultureinstitutethailand.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1459\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2103,"href":"https:\/\/www.permacultureinstitutethailand.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1459\/revisions\/2103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.permacultureinstitutethailand.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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