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Wolffia Arrhiza and Lemna Minor Mixed Duckweed Starter Culture
~30 grams or ~1 ounce bag starter culture containing both awesome aquatic species!
That’s right, this is a mixture of two different aquatic species. That could be an issue with some international customs and quarantine services so if considering buying for delivery for outside Australia please check with your countries quarantine service before purchase.
If you want a more detailed look at what exactly Wolffia arrhiza is, and why it is great this highlighted text has all the info. You can also buy it individually here.
If you want to know more about Lemna minor~Common Duckweed, then this highlighted text is where I keep all the info about it. You can also buy it individually here.
This product is a mixtured packet of both Wolffia arrhiza AND Lemna minor so please checkout the above two links by clicking the highlighted text if you need more information.
I have personally had a higher success rate growing both together, in nature they are also often found growing happily in the same ecosystems, and folks hit me up for a mix all the time so here it is folks!
Both are relatively easy plants to grow but you must do as I suggest, if you want to have success.
Below is a step by step so you can’t really go wrong.
1. Right now, go acquire a clean container as large as is practical (using a couple polystyrene boxes from the supermarket is OK, but large 55lt+ plastic “roller boxes” from the $2 shop are much much better).
Fill 3/4 to the top with tap or rain water and sit it in a cool semi-shaded spot like on the balcony or beside the house..
You MUST let it sit for a while, at least a week if you are using town tap water as the chemicals used in some district can really be aggressive on damaged plant tissue.
That is their design as they are added to kill algae, which is a form of plant too.
I don’t recommend river or pond or creek water, only rain, or at worst aged tap water.
This is because some natural systems have mini critters that damage the root and central veins and connective tissue of the plant.
To the naked eye it looks “clean”, but it is very hard to establish a culture in water that contains these fellas.
Once you have a strong culture it isn’t an issue as the plants are plentiful and hardy, but if they are sick after the long journey, the extra stress of getting munched may just be too much for them.
NO FISH AND NO TADPOLES, yet!!!(same reasons)
You will no doubt FAIL, if you try to start a culture with these water fellas eating them faster than it can replicate in the beginning under high stress conditions. Trust me.
2. Anyways, now you are ready to rock, water is set up and aging.
Come and buy the “Wolffia Arrhiza and Lemna Minor Mixed Duckweed Starter Culture” from you favorite seed supplier, I recommend me…
3. When it arrives add 1 cup of water from the container and some air then seal it again and give it a good shake, then float the baggie of smelly plant matter in the water for half an hour to help acclimatize and rinse it.
4. Carefully pour off that bit of water that you added to the bag onto the garden or a pot plant with out letting the plant wash away. Using a fine mesh strainer helps.
This helps remove some of the bacteria that has built up over the long travel time.
5. Then add the now rinsed plant matter to the container.
It still may/will stink, quite a lot, and the plants may look very damaged and mostly dead at this stage.
This is absolutely, totally, 100%, normal.
Remember that lettuce you forgot about at the back of the fridge for a couple months, same theory.
Damaged and decomposing cells stink, just how it is.
BUT, the larger % of cells that are still alive will survive and thrive, once the dead cells are washed away it it is given a nice home and time to recover.
Trust me!
6. This is the hardest bit, so pay attention folks.
Don’t look at it, don’t stress about it, and ignore the horrible dark green colour the water goes over the next month or so.
If the water level drops to half full, just top it up again to 3-4 full.
That’s it, and if you do that, I pretty much guarantee success.
In just 6-8weeks, the water pH and nitrate levels will have stabilized, and the plant growth will be increasing at a very rapid rate.
After a few months there should be a nice little spreading patch on the water’s surface.
7. Once the surface is covered, 99% of the algae in the water will die from lack of light and the nutrients will be absorbed by the Wolffia arrhiza and Lemna minor.
At this stage its growth is totally unstoppable and you can easily harvest a huge handful every week.
8. Ready to eat. Just use it like seaweed in riceballs, cooked in vegetable patties or handfuls in salads just like you use cress or lettuce. Great stuff and a great match with mashed potato or starchy root crops. Not sure why but tastes fantastic!
This is also the stage you can start to use it to stock another pond, dam or water feature.
This is when you add it to your fish or tadpoles.
Just chuck a handful in every time you think of it and as long as you add it faster than the fish, birds and critters can eat it, and a little always survives to replicate, the culture will become the dominant plant life in the end.
Grown by us organically, no nasties, no chems, no problems!!!
