Environmentally sensitive disposal of excessive pond duckweed.?

Question

I've been skimming huge quantities of duckweed from my pond and have added it to my compost heap. It stinks, even though I covered it with lawn clippings. Has anyone got a method of disposing of the weed that is less smelly?

My garden is very heavy clay - not suited to digging green manures into, unfortunately. I've tried laying the stuff out to dry in the sun but it never seems to - seems like the rotting process starts straight away.

Answer 1

You could try digging the duckweed into your garden as it is without composting it first: it will give excellent nutrition to the soil. It can also be used as a good mulch during the summer: simply spread it around the base of plants which are sensitive to drought.

If you compost it you need to ensure that it does not dominate the compost mix: no one ingredient should ever predominate in a good compost mix and i would suggest adding other things to the mix. grass (and duckweed) will both add a LOT of moisture to the compost and if it's too wet it may smell more. try adding some shredded paper (newspaper too) and shredded/broken up paper or card boxes to dry it out a bit. also mix in any other garden clippings, prunings etc. and even old bread!

Answer 2

The smell in your compost pile is coming from an excess of nitrogen. duck weed and grass clippings are both a nitrogen. (green material) you need to add a carbon source(brown material), like wood shavings/chips, dried leaves..etc.... So you compost pile will "work" and compost. right now it is just "rotting" not "composting".....

Answer 3

If you have clear water in the pond you could put in koi they love to eat it.........Anytime I bring some home attached to other water plants my koi gobble it up.
Below is a link for duckweed management .
I'm afraid you have few option available.
One is the addition of grass carp which in many states is prohibited. the other is a chemical that can kill the fish. Which is going to happen to because the weed is taking over .
http://www.fishdoc.net/faqs/duckweedovergrowth.html
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Take time to open the below link scroll down to read what they had to do.
It's like running bamboo.....it's hard to get rid of.
http://www.public.asu.edu/~starlite/duckweed.html

P.S. spread lime over it...............removes smell or buy some septic tank cleaner like Rid X

Answer 4

I just put mine directly onto the garden. I have never noticed any odor. Grass clippings, to me, smell.